ideas

It has been known for decades that the vast majority of human biological differences aren’t between groups, they're from person to person. It’s weird that scientists and doctors still resort to sifting people into huge populations when trying to understand us: ethnicity, race, sex, and gender. 2024 will mark the …

The gulf between tech and government is legendary. In the 2010s, tech talent flocked to startups and big platforms where they could move fast, break things, and get people to click on ads. Venture capital flowed freely as firms jumped further and faster to stake a claim in businesses that …

If you’ve been creeping around underground tech forums lately, you might have seen advertisements for a new program called WormGPT. The program is an AI-powered tool for cybercriminals to automate the creation of personalized phishing emails; although it sounds a bit like ChatGPT, WormGPT is not your friendly neighborhood AI. …

For researchers, social media has always represented greater access to data, more democratic involvement in knowledge production, and great transparency about social behavior. Getting a sense of what was happening—especially during political crises, major media events, or natural disasters—was as easy as looking around a platform like Twitter or Facebook. …

In 2024, increased adoption of biometric surveillance systems, such as the use of AI-powered facial recognition in public places and access to government services, will spur biometric identity theft and anti-surveillance innovations. Individuals aiming to steal biometric identities to commit fraud or gain access to unauthorized data will be bolstered …

In April 2022, when Dall-E, a text-to-image visio-linguistic model, was released, it purportedly attracted over a million users within the first three months. This was followed by ChatGPT, in January 2023, which apparently reached 100 million monthly active users just two months after launch. Both mark notable moments in the …

Recently, I visited a life-sciences company known for its clinical and commercial successes. Impressed by the facilities and the lively energy around me, I asked my host about the company’s work location policies. Employees were asked to show up in the office three days a week—days selected by the team, …

If you ever had pastries at breakfast, drank soy milk, used soaps at home, or built yourself a nice flat-pack piece of furniture, you may have contributed to deforestation and climate change. Every item has a price—but the cost isn’t felt only in our pockets. Hidden in that price is …

In 2016, I wrote about an internet that affected the world in a direct, physical manner. It was connected to your smartphone. It had sensors like cameras and thermostats. It had actuators: thermostats, drones, autonomous cars. And it had smarts in the middle, using sensor data to figure out what …

When the pandemic hit, Gen Z-ers—born between 1997 and 2012—were just entering adulthood. After enduring a particularly difficult time during lockdowns, today they face an acute mental health crisis. As a result, in 2024, many will be asking more from their work life. When my research team at Harvard University …