A Big Story investigation from MIT Technology Review, done with Type Investigations, examines how pastor Eli Regalado and his wife launched INDXcoin after claiming divine instruction, raising over $3 million from more than 500 people before the project collapsed within a year with investors losing everything. Separately, the nonprofit Reflective has published a detailed plan outlining the experiments and infrastructure needed to better understand solar geoengineering before any real-world deployment decisions are made.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-10
MIT Technology Review has released its annual list of 35 young innovators, chosen from 550 nominations with help from 44 expert judges. Honorees span biotechnology, AI, computing and robotics, and climate and energy, each showing measurable progress toward their goals. A separate feature in the same issue explores how spiderwebs, rich in trapped environmental DNA, are becoming a valuable tool for tracking biodiversity.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-08
A developer released VODForge, a free and open-source desktop application that lets users download YouTube videos and playlists as MP4 files or MP3 audio. The app runs locally, offering controls for quality, download queues, metadata, and cover art without requiring an online converter or command-line tools. It is MIT licensed, requires no account, and ships signed and notarized for macOS with Authenticode signing on Windows.
getvodforge.com
· 2026-09-06
A veteran software publisher with 28 years of experience has moved from permissive licenses like LGPLv2 and MIT to the EUPL-1.2, a strong copyleft license issued by the European Union. The change closes what the developer calls the 'SaaS loophole,' requiring companies to share modifications even when software is only used as a service rather than distributed.
bergie.iki.fi
· 2026-09-06
An MIT Technology Review Insights webcast produced with NiCE examines how companies are moving AI agents from small pilots to enterprise-wide use. Chandra argues that agents need consistent access to data, context and back-end systems, and warns that scaling without integration can create new silos across teams.
technologyreview.com
· 2026-09-03
Surveys show AI use among students is widespread: a 2026 UK poll found 94% of undergraduates use generative AI for coursework, with 12% directly pasting AI text into assignments, while a US study of over 95,000 students estimated 9% used AI despite knowing it violated rules. Professors report signs of misuse, including fabricated references and AI-typical writing patterns, prompting many institutions to redesign assessments rather than simply ban the tools.
nature.com
· 2026-09-01
Julia began in 2009 as an MIT research effort by frustrated researchers who wanted a scientific programming language that was both easy to use and fast, unlike existing tools that forced rewrites for performance. The project evolved from an MIT lab into the company JuliaHub, and Julia is now a free, open-source language used by more than a million people across companies and universities worldwide, applied to everything from modeling jet engines and drugs to imaging black holes.
news.mit.edu
· 2026-08-31
An MIT committee co-chaired by professors Eric Klopfer and Samuel Madden released a report finding that AI models can now produce credible answers to nearly any undergraduate assignment, including essays, math and science problems, proofs, and coding tasks. The report warns this capability is already reshaping campus life, citing drops in office-hour attendance, online discussion participation, and in-person study groups.
futurism.com
· 2026-08-30
An MIT student reportedly worked with dimethyl mercury despite the university's policy prohibiting its purchase or synthesis on campus. MIT confirmed the compound's use was unauthorized, though details on how the student obtained it and the extent of exposure remain unclear.
twitter.com
· 2026-08-29
A Thomson Reuters 2026 Future of Professionals Report, based on a global survey of 1,800 professionals, found that 91% believe their organizations aren't yet capturing the value AI promises. The study points to a growing gap between early enthusiasm for AI experimentation and current frustration over rising costs and unclear returns.
zdnet.com
· 2026-08-28
A developer released Talos, version 0.15.1-alpha, an MIT-licensed AI agent that pairs a sandboxed Claude-based worker with real shell access for building, testing, and browsing tasks. Every action the agent attempts is checked by a separate deterministic security kernel that authorizes each tool call individually, tying it to exact arguments and letting it run only once within a thirty-second window.
talos-agent.ch
· 2026-08-28
An MIT ad hoc committee studying AI's effect on teaching and research has released recommendations calling for coordinated institutional change rather than piecemeal fixes. The group found that generative AI tools can already produce credible answers to most undergraduate assignments, including essays, proofs, and coding problems, and that this has coincided with declining attendance at office hours and study groups. The committee is proposing a mix of immediate actions and longer-term planning efforts to address the shift.
aiandeducation.mit.edu
· 2026-08-27
GoKawiil