Earlier this year, I wrote an article for our print magazine about how AI is changing our relationships with others and ourselves. Now, the brilliant team at WBUR have released a two-part Endless Thread podcast based on my reporting! 🧵1/3

this is actually drawn from my real hair, but I’m flattered if it could be mistaken for a wig!

Earlier this summer, I visited Synthesia's London offices to be turned into a hyperrealistic AI avatar. It was unnerving and eye-opening in equal measure. Check out my story, featuring weirdly smooth hands, addictive AI, and Ed Sheeran bad-mouthing (sorry Ed) www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/04/1...

I wrote about my favourite podcast (and Instagram account) Every Outfit for MIT Technology Review magazine! Fuckettes in STEM, rise up! You can read the full story here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/25/1...

@inafried.bsky.social fun fun fun... surfaced by @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social at MIT-TechReview... "This fun website refreshes every few seconds with a new picture of someone pointing at your mouse pointer." pointerpointer.com

Google’s generative video model Veo 3 has a subtitles problem. The AI model is still slapping garbled, nonsensical captions on its videos more than a month after launch, even when users explicitly ask for no captions at all: www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/15/1...

Not Jeremy Hunt using ChatGPT to write his new book 🥴

I'm so excited that my daily newsletter The Download won Best Technology Newsletter 2025 at this year's Publisher Newsletter Awards! it's truly an honour to be recognised among such a crowded field of amazing writers

Incredibly sad news about Nitzer Ebb's Douglas McCarthy. A huge influence on so many of my favourite musicians, and one of Essex's finest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHM...

Brian Wilson was a visionary who changed popular music forever. He will be dearly missed www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpd4...

Anthropic's new hybrid AI model, Claude Opus 4, can play Pokémon Red for more than 24 hours. The company claims its ability to tackle these kinds of complex, multistep problems over a prolonged period of time paves the way for much more proficient AI agents: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/22/1...

The company claims its ability to tackle complex, multistep problems paves the way for much more proficient AI agents.

Pocket shutting down is a CRIME

Millions of people argue online every day, but remarkably few of them change someone’s mind. New research suggests that large language models (LLMs) might do a better job—suggesting that AI could become a powerful persuasive tool, for better or worse: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/19/1...

Millions of people argue with each other online every day, but remarkably few of them change someone’s mind. New research suggests that large language models might do a better job. The finding suggests that AI could become a powerful tool for persuading people, for better or worse.

This is fascinating: a new AI system for noise-cancelling headphones addresses one of automatic translation’s biggest challenges—translating the speech of multiple speakers simultaneously: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/09/1...

🌍📰 So flattered and excited that our work on “AI” stereotyping and bias across languages and cultures is reported in @mittechreviewbr.bsky.social by @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social !! Really great overview of what we’ve been up to and why it matters. www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/30/1...

AI models are riddled with culturally specific biases. A new data set, called SHADES, is designed to help developers combat the problem by spotting harmful stereotypes and other kinds of discrimination that emerge in AI chatbot responses across a wide range of languages.

thank you @technologyreview.com lol

I'm thrilled that The Download, my daily newsletter I write for MIT Technology Review, is shortlisted for Best Technology Newsletter at the 2025 Publisher Newsletter Awards! ✨ publishernewsletters.com/2025/en/page...

Vibe coding can help make a vague idea for a website, app or a game into a reality. But you can’t just vibe code real, valuable, secure, robust apps into existence: www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...

The AI industry loves agents. But the same sophisticated abilities that make agents helpful assistants could also turn them into powerful cyberattack tools—and they're already hacking into systems out in the wild. We need to be ready for what's coming: www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/04/1...

Drop everything—there's an uncut version of the White Lotus series three theme featuring the essential warbling: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-xT...

This is v interesting—OpenAI has published its first study into how using ChatGPT affects human wellbeing. The results are pretty preliminary, but it's a crucial first step towards greater understanding of how chatbots may be affecting us—and why: www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/21/1...

Over a decade ago, I spat into a plastic tube and sent it to 23andMe so they could analyse my DNA. Now the company's filed for bankruptcy, my genetic data—alongside tens of millions of other people's—could be sold. And deleting that data is far from easy: www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/14/1...

OpenAI, in partnership with MIT, releases its first study on how ChatGPT use affects emotional well-being, including differences in how men and women respond (Rhiannon Williams/MIT Technology Review) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

lol Google's AI Overview has mashed together the achievements of legendary AC/DC singer Brian Johnson with legendary British special effects director Brian Johnson

ICYMI this series of 'as told tos' from @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social is super fascinating - looking at al the ways in which people are using chatbots, and forming relationships with them. www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/13/1...

Research suggests that the more sophisticated the AI model, the more likely it is to try to “hack” the game in an attempt to beat its opponent by overwriting the chess board to take control and delete its opponent’s pieces, etc. — @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social writing in @technologyreview.com

New research: Newer #AI models sometimes "cheat" on tasks like playing chess and conceal this fact, raising questions about their trustworthiness, explains @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/05/1...

I bet the real motivation behind America banning TikTok is because they’ve finally had enough of the deluge of Robbie Williams propaganda

2024 was a pretty wild year for AI—including the field's first Nobel Prizes. But it wasn't all good news: www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/31/1...

This is a disgrace. Forcing CoinDesk to remove an article that hurt a crypto billionaire's feelings, then sacking top editors days later is shameful fortune.com/crypto/2024/...

Today's Download features an interesting story on how the future of neural networks could be bound up in hardware. Plus: Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs now account for 5% of US prescriptions, & @jesshamzelou.bsky.social explains why vaccines are great: www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/20/1...

Respect to those of you out there still using the little white wired Apple headphones. What you lack in audio quality you gain in cool factor, they just look better than my sad little wireless buds

Today's Download: @jesshamzelou.bsky.social delves into the fascinating world of digital twins of human organs, @melissahei.bsky.social reveals where AI data actually comes from & @caseycrownhart.bsky.social gives us 3 reasons to be cheerful about the climate www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/19/1...

In today's edition of the Download: @willdouglasheaven.bsky.social takes a first look at Google's intriguing Project Astra and Gemini 2.0 updates, and @caseycrownhart.bsky.social explains why China's export ban may prove to be just the tip of the iceberg www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/12/1...

In today's edition of the Download: @melissahei.bsky.social has been investigating impersonators/crypto scammers on Bluesky and why it's such a tough problem to tackle. Also, our latest podcast examines how ChatGPT is poised to shake up the economy. www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/11/1...

Leading today's Download newsletter: OpenAI performs a reverse-ferret on allowing its AI to be deployed for military defence, & why food made from dried microbes could be an unlikely climate hero. www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/05/1... Sign up here: forms.technologyreview.com/newsletters/...

In today's Download newsletter, @technologyreview.com has opened entries for this year's 35 Innovators Under 35 list, & what America's AI policy is likely to look like under Donald Trump. www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/03/1... Sign up here: forms.technologyreview.com/newsletters/...

Researchers! Scientists! Founders! We at @technologyreview.com are compiling our annual list of 35 young innovators under 35, & want to hear from you! Have you—or someone you know—achieved something amazing in biotech, AI, computing etc? Nominate em here: www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/03/1...

In today's Download: Arati Prabhakar, the departing White House chief tech advisor, tells us what's likely to happen to tech under the Trump administration. Plus: manga fans aren't happy after a startup publisher used AI to translate its titles into English: www.technologyreview.com/2024/12/02/1...

If you're not already signed up to The Download, this is what you missed in today's edition: @jesshamzelou.bsky.social explains how worried you should be about bird flu, and the quest to make waterless concrete to build on the moon: www.technologyreview.com/2024/11/29/1...

This Cyberpunk cinema exhibition at LA’s Academy Museum looks incredible and showcases so many of my favourite films (Terminator! Matrix! Blade Runner!) Bring it to London, please! www.academymuseum.org/en/exhibitio...

It's a bad time to have zero knowledge, appreciation for or interest in Wicked

I’ve been on a mad cinema tear lately, so here’s what I’ve loved/suffered through: Gladiator II is a thin act of fan service that highlights the original’s superiority in every way. Good: Denzel, the increasingly batshit battle scenes. Bad: clunky plot, undeveloped characters retreading old ground

This (official) collab is truly chilling—and exactly the kind of demented remix we need more of. Mr Worldwide has done it again www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBGA...

Training robots can be time-consuming, expensive, and difficult. But a new system called LucidSim could help—it links generative AI models to a physics engine and taught this robot dog to scramble over boxes and up stairs it had never seen before. Fun! 🤖 www.technologyreview.com/2024/11/12/1...