EmTech MIT 2019 Recommended Reads21 Stories

At EmTech MIT, you will learn about some of the biggest advances in AI, climate change, personalized medicine, data security, space technology, longevity, and the future of work from the innovators and researchers in these fields. Here’s your chance to read up beforehand.

This event will feature innovators from our 2019 list of 35 innovators under 35. Read about them here!

  1. New York City has big plans—and $20 billion—to save itself from climate change

    Well-hidden sea walls, white rooftops, and community programs to monitor for signs of heat illnesses are all part of the strategy for helping the Big Apple cope with global warming.
    September 19, 2019
    seawater floods the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel during Superstorm Sandy in New York

  2. The world’s top deepfake artist: ‘Wow, this is developing more rapidly than I thought.’

    Hao Li sees deepfake technology as moving quickly toward being indistinguishable from reality.
    September 18, 2019
    Screengrab from Putin deepfake

  3. CRISPR could help us cure sickle-cell disease. But patients are wary.

    How accessible would a cure be to the people who need it?
    September 18, 2019
    Micrograph of sickle cells

  4. A facial recognition ban is coming to the US, says an AI policy advisor

    Bans in cities could spread to states, then up to Washington.
    September 18, 2019
    Mutale Nkonde on stage

  5. Does the world need a 3D-printed rocket?

    Relativity Space, a well-funded startup, is going all-in on additive manufacturing. But is that too much of a good thing?
    June 26, 2019
    An image of a 3D printed rocket piece

  6. The world’s top deepfake artist is wrestling with the monster he created

    Hao Li has spent his career perfecting digital trickery. Now he’s working to confront the problem of increasingly seamless off-the-shelf deception.
    August 16, 2019

  7. One of the fathers of AI is worried about its future

    Yoshua Bengio wants to stop talk of an AI arms race and make the technology more accessible to the developing world.
    November 17, 2018
    Photo of Yoshua Bengio

  8. “Old age” is made up—and this concept is hurting everyone

    Products designed for older people reinforce a bogus image of them as passive and feeble.
    August 21, 2019
    Illustration of senior with products targeted to seniors

  9. The anti-aging drug that’s just around the corner

    We will soon learn if a much-hyped, rapamycin-like drug can boost the immune response by targeting how the body ages.
    August 21, 2019
    Joan B. Mannick

  10. Sickle-Cell Patients See Hope in CRISPR

    The disease may be among the first to be treated with the novel gene-editing tool.
    August 23, 2017

  11. One woman’s race to defuse the genetic time bomb in her genes

    How DNA sequencing and new genetic drugs raise the chance we can cure any inherited disease.
    July 23, 2018

  12. Why does Beijing suddenly care about AI ethics?

    New guidelines on freedom and privacy protection signal that the Chinese state is open to dialogue about how it uses technology.
    May 31, 2019
    Illustration of a Chinese and an American robot

  13. Congress wants to protect you from biased algorithms, deepfakes, and other bad AI

    Only a few legislators really know what they’re talking about, but it’s a start.
    April 15, 2019

  14. Deepfakes have got Congress panicking. This is what it needs to do.

    With the election approaching, lawmakers are facing up to the fact they need to do something about the explosion in manipulated media.
    June 12, 2019
    A photo illustration of President Trump, one half in black and white and the other half very saturated

  15. The Year Climate Change Began to Spin Out of Control

    Fires ravaged the West, hurricanes battered the East—and still emissions continued to rise.
    January 4, 2018

  16. Explainer: What is a quantum computer?

    How it works, why it’s so powerful, and where it’s likely to be most useful first
    January 29, 2019

  17. Facebook’s ex security boss: Asking Big Tech to police hate speech is “a dangerous path”

    Alex Stamos on the risks of giving his former employer and other giant platforms the power to determine what people can—and can’t—say online.
    October 23, 2018

  18. From rust belt to robot belt: Turning AI into jobs in the US heartland

    Artificial intelligence is offering an amazing opportunity to increase prosperity, but whether or not ­we will seize it is our choice.
    June 18, 2018

  19. What is AI? We drew you a flowchart to work it out

    The definition of artificial intelligence is constantly evolving, and the term often gets mangled, so we are here to help.
    November 10, 2018
    What is AI flowchart

  20. Why the future of satellite internet might be decided in rural Alaska

    Service in the rural areas of the state is abysmal, which makes it the perfect place to test next-generation satellite internet.
    February 14, 2019

  21. The number of satellites orbiting Earth could quintuple in the next decade

    The coming explosion of constellations
    June 26, 2019
    View of earth from SpaceX's Starlink