Generative AI’s ability to write software code has quickly created one of the technology’s first real use cases for business. Professional software engineers and novices alike are using AI coding assistants to produce, test, edit, and debug code, reducing the amount of time it takes to complete the ...
How large is a large language model? Think about it this way. In the center of San Francisco there’s a hill called Twin Peaks from which you can view nearly the entire city. Picture all of it—every block and intersection, every neighborhood and park, as far as you can see—covered in sheets of paper....
Hyperscale AI data centers: 10 Breakthrough Technologies 2026
In sprawling stretches of farmland and industrial parks, supersized buildings packed with racks of computers are springing up to fuel the AI race. These engineering marvels are a new species of infrastructure: supercomputers designed to train and run large language models at mind-bending scale, com...
Hundreds of millions of people now use chatbots every day. And yet the large language models that drive them are so complicated that nobody really understands what they are, how they work, or exactly what they can and can’t do—not even the people who build them. Weird, right? It’s also a problem. Wi...
Chatbots are skilled at crafting sophisticated dialogue and mimicking empathetic behavior. They never get tired of chatting. It’s no wonder, then, that so many people now use them for companionship—forging friendships or even romantic relationships. According to a study from the nonprofit Common Se...
With the help of AI, MIT Research Scientist Judah Cohen is reshaping subseasonal forecasting, with the goal of extending the lead time for predicting impactful weather.
LLMs contain a LOT of parameters. But what’s a parameter?
MIT Technology Review Explains: Let our writers untangle the complex, messy world of technology to help you understand what’s coming next. You can read more from the series here. I am writing this because one of my editors woke up in the middle of the night and scribbled on a bedside notepad: “What ...
We’re in the midst of a global mental-health crisis. More than a billion people worldwide suffer from a mental-health condition, according to the World Health Organization. The prevalence of anxiety and depression is growing in many demographics, particularly young people, and suicide is claiming h...
How social media encourages the worst of AI boosterism
Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind, summed it up in three words: “This is embarrassing.” Hassabis was replying on X to an overexcited post by Sébastien Bubeck, a research scientist at the rival firm OpenAI, announcing that two mathematicians had used OpenAI’s latest large language model, GPT-5...
A new way to increase the capabilities of large language models
MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab researchers developed an expressive architecture that provides better state tracking and sequential reasoning in LLMs over long texts.
Rolling out enterprise-grade AI means climbing two steep cliffs at once. First, understanding and implementing the tech itself. And second, creating the cultural conditions where employees can maximize its value. While the technical hurdles are significant, the human element can be even more conseque...