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MIT Technology Review

30 Jun, 15 tweets, 7 min read

📢 HOT OFF THE PRESS: The latest issue of our magazine is here. Though we’ve called it the “Change” issue, it’s really about two things: reflection and empowerment.
technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

@Reillymj

For far too many of us, the pandemic has been a study in feeling powerless, and we’ve had little time to reflect, @Reillymj writes. We’ve been forced to cope almost constantly with the twisting, morphing uncertainties that life has thrown at us. technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

And yet in this unprecedented environment incredible stories of hope and empowerment have emerged. We see people finding ways to respond to suffering and injustice with positive change.

@abbyohlheiser

Take the stories @abbyohlheiser collected, including those of Carlisa Johnson, who turned a Google Doc into a nexus of power for the Black Lives Matter movement. technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

@fi_lowenstein

Or @fi_lowenstein, who nurtured an online community into a place where those suffering from covid-19 can get vital information.
technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

@sarahljaffe

@sarahljaffe writes that a failed vote to unionize Amazon workers at a facility in Alabama may be discouraging, but around the US, workers in the increasingly expansive tech sector are waking up to their power to organize, and to demand dignity.

technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

@SJasanoff

In an essay on the arc of progress, @SJasanoff harks back to West Bengal in India, where she was born, and tells how under British rule the region’s thriving industry of woven textiles was crushed by the Industrial Revolution.

technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

The lesson isn’t that technological advancement is bad—it’s that we must take care not to assume that all such change is for the best, or that it comes without costs.

technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

As Jasanoff writes, the good news is that we are not bystanders in the process. We are the ones who create technology, after all; we have the power to choose what gets built and how it is used.
technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

This year’s list of 35 Innovators Under 35 is a group of people creating the future before our eyes, from swarms of French-toast size satellites to a pair of budding companies racing to bring optical computing to market.
technologyreview.com/innovators-und…

@ScienceHsu

@ScienceHsu wrote about how America is racing to catch up to manufacturers overseas when it comes to support for government funding of high-tech industries like chip fabrication. technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

@GernotWagner

The price of solar panels has tumbled over the last few decades. With a bit of a boost from further R&D funding and favorable policies, solar stands a real chance of helping decarbonize the planet, @GernotWagner writes. technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/102…

@_KarenHao

@_KarenHao covered a group of marginalized AI workers who suffered indignities for years in the white-male-dominated field before finding a community. They realized they had the power to challenge the biggest companies to be better and more inclusive. technologyreview.com/2021/06/14/102…

Take a look at the complete issue here. technologyreview.com/magazines/the-…

Not yet a subscriber? For $50 per year, you’ll get unlimited access to our journalism and our Webby-nominated newsletter on artificial intelligence, The Algorithm. Your support also helps sustain our mission-driven journalism.

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🧵 Covid at the #Olympics is inevitable. The games are happening anyway—and organizers hope to prevent a surge.
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🧵 A few lonely academics have been warning for years that solar power faces a fundamental challenge that could halt the industry’s breakneck growth. Simply put: the more solar you add to the grid, the less valuable it becomes.
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If you’ve applied for a job lately, it’s all but guaranteed that your application was reviewed by software, in most cases, before a human ever laid eyes on it. This is a thread about episode one of our four-part investigation into the world of automated hiring.

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In the first podcast episode of this series, we speak with the CEOs of @ZipRecruiter and @CareerBuilder, and one of the architects of @LinkedIn’s algorithmic job-matching system, to explore how AI is increasingly playing job matchmaker. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hir…

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Most of the Fortune 500 already use some kind of AI to screen job applications, says @HilkeSchellmann, who reported this episode and wrote the accompanying story below. That includes @Unilever, @McDonalds, and @IBM and many, many other large companies. technologyreview.com/2021/06/23/102…

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.@Ayjchan started asking questions in March 2020. She was chatting with friends on Facebook about the virus spreading out of China. She thought it was strange that people were saying it had come out of a food market. If that was so, why hadn’t anyone found any infected animals?

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Was the covid-19 pandemic caused by a laboratory accident? A year ago, this idea was denounced as a conspiracy theory. Now, a group of prominent biologists say there needs to be a “safe space” for asking this question. technologyreview.com/2021/05/13/102…

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The hype around “scariants” is overblown, but we also shouldn’t be too complacent. Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t panic about coronavirus variants.

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@drjenndowd

While scientists testing vaccine efficacy often focus on antibodies, they are only “a very narrow slice” of what the immune response might be, says @drjenndowd. T-cells also help keep infections in check—and there’s data that the vaccines elicit good T-cell responses.