MIT Technology Review Narrated

AI is used in farming in some ways you might not expect, like for tracking the health of crops—from space. We travel from test farms to labs in the second installment of our series on agriculture, AI, and satellites.  We Meet: Joseph Liefer, senior product manager of autonomy at John Deere Julian Sanchez, director of emerging technology at John Deere Shely Aranov, CEO of InnerPlant Rod Kumimoto, C...

AI is used in agriculture to precisely target weeds and optimize irrigation practices. It’s also being used in ways you might not expect, like for tracking the health of cow pastures—from space. We travel from test farms to orchards in the first of a two-part series on agriculture, AI, and satellites.  We Meet:  Greg Brickner, Veterinarian and grazing specialist at Organic Valley Geoff Klein, irri...

We’re in the middle of another major disruption in retail—one that’s been accelerated by the pandemic, and looks to take the convenience of e-commerce and apply it to physical environments. In this episode, we examine how AI is at the center of this transition. We meet: Prakhar Mehrotra, VP, Machine Learning, Walmart Global Tech Jordan Fisher, Chief Executive Officer, Standard AI Terrence Griffin,...

Face mapping and other tracking systems are changing the sports experience in the stands and on the court. In part-three of this latest series on facial recognition, Jennifer Strong and the team at MIT Technology Review jump on the court to unpack just how much things are changing. This episode was originally published December 8, 2020. We meet:  Donnie Scott, senior vice president of public secur...

Algorithms now determine how much things cost. It’s called dynamic pricing and it adjusts according to current market conditions in order to increase profits. The rise of ecommerce has propelled pricing algorithms into an everyday occurrence—whether you’re shopping on Amazon, booking a flight, hotel or ordering an Uber.  We Meet:  Lisa Wilkins, UX designer  Gabe Smith, chief evangelist, Pricefx Ay...

In the past, hiring decisions were made by people. Today, some key decisions that lead to whether someone gets a job or not are made by algorithms. The use of AI-based job interviews has increased since the pandemic. As demand increases, so too do questions about whether these algorithms make fair and unbiased hiring decisions, or find the most qualified applicant. In this second episode of a four...

Shortages of everything from seeds to fertilizer might accelerate the adoption of technologies that can help supplies go further in war-torn Ukraine. We meet:  Roman Tarasevich, Farmer, Ukraine Morten Schmidt, Chief Executive Officer, OneSoil Inbal Reshef, Program Director, NASA Harvest Olekssi Misiura, Head of Research and Development, IMC Credits: This episode was reported and produced by Jennif...

The International Space Station hosts scores of experiments that can’t be done on Earth. But it’s also showing its age—with repairs and safety concerns becoming increasingly common as it draws nearer to its end of life. In this episode, we bring you a conversation with Astronaut Michael López-Alegría about the path forward for research in low Earth orbit, from MIT Technology Review’s flagship conf...

A look at how AI and other tech is being used to help predict, detect, and pinpoint the location of wildfires in the second of a two-part series. We Meet: Tricia Small, Television Producer, Small Fox Films George Whitesides, Space Executive Brittany Zajic, Disaster Response, Planet Labs Dave Winnacker, Fire Chief, Moraga-Orinda Fire District Arvind Satyam, Chief Commercial Officer, Pano Credits: T...

A look at how AI and other tech is being used to help predict, detect, and pinpoint the location of wildfires in the first of a two-part series. We meet:  Dustin Tetrault, Deputy Fire Chief, Big Sky Fire Department Sankar Narayanan, Chief Practice Officer, Fractal Analytics Credits: This episode was reported and produced by Jennifer Strong, Anthony Green and Emma Cillekens. It was edited by Mat Ho...

I Was There When is an oral history project that’s part of the In Machines We Trust podcast. It features stories of how breakthroughs and watershed moments in artificial intelligence and computing happened, as told by the people who witnessed them. In this episode we meet Alex Serdiuk, founder and CEO of Respeecher.  CREDITS: This project was produced by Jennifer Strong, Anthony Green and Emma Cil...

Synthetic voice technologies are increasingly passing as human. But today’s voice assistants are still a far cry from the hyper-intelligent thinking machines we’ve been musing about for decades. In this episode, we explore how machines learn to communicate—and what it means for the humans on the other end of the conversation. In this encore edition we revisit an episode from last year. Links to ou...

I Was There When is an oral history project that’s part of the In Machines We Trust podcast. It features stories of how breakthroughs and watershed moments in artificial intelligence and computing happened, as told by the people who witnessed them. In this episode we meet one of the world's greatest chess players, Garry Kasparov. CREDITS: This project was produced by Jennifer Strong, Anthony Green...

Digital twins of humans capture the physical look and expressions of real humans. Increasingly these replicas are showing up in the entertainment industry and beyond and it gives rise to some interesting opportunities as well as thorny questions.  We speak to: Greg Cross, CEO and co-founder of Soul Machines Credits: This episode was produced by Anthony Green with help from Emma Cillekens. It was e...

Who wants to take a walk around a California vineyard to explore how it’s deploying sensors and other forms of AI? Join us for a field trip as we do something a little bit different this week. We meet:  Dirk Heuvel, vice president of vineyard operations, McManis Family Vineyards Credits: This episode was produced by Jennifer Strong with help from Anthony Green and Emma Cillekens. It was edited by...

Retailers face an evolving landscape of fraud tactics each day. It’s why companies are increasingly turning to AI to try and catch threat patterns never seen before, and block attacks before they happen. While this approach lends itself to efficiency, it’s also one that relies on increasingly complex data profiles of consumers. In this episode, we peer into the world of retail fraud detection.  We...

I Was There When is an oral history project that’s part of the In Machines We Trust podcast. It features stories of how breakthroughs and watershed moments in artificial intelligence and computing happened, as told by the people who witnessed them. In this episode we meet Dave Johnson, the chief data and artificial intelligence officer at Moderna. CREDITS: This project was produced by Jennifer Str...

A conversation about equity and what it takes to make effective AI policy taped before a live audience at MIT Technology Review’s annual AI conference, EmTech Digital. We Meet: Nicol Turner Lee, director of the Center for Technology at the Brookings Institution Anthony Green, producer of the In Machines We Trust podcast Credits: This episode was created by Jennifer Strong, Anthony Green, Erin Unde...

Amid a growing epidemic of gun violence, can AI be part of the solution? In this episode we look at some of the weapons detection technologies schools are using in an effort to try to keep students safe.  We Meet: Gary Hough, superintendent of Fayette County schools  Mark Keierleber, investigative reporter at The 74 Mike Ellenbogen, Founder, chief innovation officer at Evolv Technologies Donald Ma...

I Was There When is an oral history project that’s part of the In Machines We Trust podcast. It features stories of how breakthroughs and watershed moments in artificial intelligence and computing happened, as told by the people who witnessed them. In this episode we meet Gustav Söderström, who helped create algorithms aiming to understand our taste in music.  CREDITS: This project was produced by...

A boy wrote about his suicide attempt. He didn’t realize his school's software was watching. While schools commonly use AI to sift through students' digital lives and flag keywords that may be considered concerning, critics ask at what cost to privacy. We Meet: Jeff Patterson, CEO of Gaggle Mark Keierleber, investigative reporter at The 74 Teeth Logsdon-Wallace, student Elizabeth Laird, director o...

The team that brings you In Machines We Trust has much to be grateful for—a brand new season of this show, a big awards nomination for The Extortion Economy, a show about ransomware that we made with ProPublica, and our new investigative series, Curious Coincidence. We celebrate how far we've come with a look back at where it all started! -- What happens when an algorithm gets it wrong? In the fir...

This is a detective story that’s unsolved. Hosted by investigative reporter Antonio Regalado, Curious Coincidence dives into the mysterious origins of Covid-19 by examining the genome of the virus, the labs doing sensitive research on dangerous pathogens, and questions of whether a lab accident may have touched off a global pandemic. A five-part investigation from MIT Technology Review.

This week we're sharing another tech show we made that we think you're going to love. It's called The Extortion Economy and it's a five-part series about the ransomware epidemic produced with ProPublica. See you soon with a whole new season of In Machines We Trust!! -- A new-age iteration of the old-age extortion problem. A ransomware vigilante, a piracy (as in actual boats) expert, a school admin...

Computers are ranking the way people look—and the results are influencing the things we do, the posts we see, and the way we think. Ideas about what constitutes “beauty” are complex, subjective, and by no means limited to physical appearances. Elusive though it is, everyone wants more of it. That means big business and increasingly, people harnessing algorithms to create their ideal selves in the...