The Download: introducing our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2024

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

Introducing: our 35 Innovators Under 35 list for 2024

Tomorrow’s technologies are being developed today. And every year, we recognize young people from around the world who are leading the way through their research and entrepreneurship.

This year’s 35 young innovators are driving progress toward better health, a more stable climate, and greater equality. Each was selected from hundreds of nominees by expert judges. Keep an eye out for these innovators in the years to come—they’re already making an impact.

Today, we’re excited to unveil our latest cohort of Innovators. Read the full list of this year’s honorees making a difference in robotics, computing, biotech, climate and energy, and AI.

This year’s list is available exclusively to MIT Technology Review subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber already, sign up here to save 25%.

Innovator of the Year: Shawn Shan builds tools to help artists fight back against exploitative AI

When image-generating models kick-started the generative AI boom in early 2022, artists started noticing odd similarities between AI-generated images and those they’d created themselves. Many found that their work had been scraped into massive data sets and used to train AI models, which then produced knockoffs in their creative style. 

Now artists are fighting back. And some of the most powerful tools they have were built by Shawn Shan, 26, a PhD student in computer science at the University of Chicago, and MIT Technology Review’s 2024 Innovator of the Year.

Shan created the algorithm behind Glaze, a tool that lets artists mask their personal style from AI mimicry, and another tool called Nightshade. Both algorithms work by adding invisible changes to the pixels of images that disrupt the way machine-learning models interpret them—allowing artists to be creative online again. Read the full story.

—Melissa Heikkilä

To be more useful, robots need to become lazier

Unlike humans, robots treat all the information they receive about their surroundings with equal importance. Driverless cars, for example, have to continuously analyze data about things around them whether or not they are relevant. This keeps drivers and pedestrians safe, but it draws on a lot of energy and computing power. What if there’s a way to cut that down by teaching robots what they should prioritize and what they can safely ignore?

That’s the principle underpinning “lazy robotics,” a field of study which proposes that teaching all kinds of robots to be “lazier” with their data could help pave the way for better, more efficient machines. And researchers have hit on a fun way to test this line of enquiry: teaching robots to play soccer. Read the full story.

—Rhiannon Williams

What impact will AI have on video game development?

Video game development has long been plagued by fear of the “crunch”—essentially, being forced to work overtime on a game to meet a deadline. 

In the early days of video games, the crunch was often viewed as a rite of passage. However, nowadays the crunch is less likely to be glamorized than to be seen as a form of exploitation. With games getting more expensive, companies are incentivized to make even more short-term profits by squeezing developers. 

But what if AI could help to alleviate game-development hell? If you look closely, it may in fact already be happening. Here’s how.

—Scott J Mulligan

This story is from The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things AI. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Monday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The first private human spacewalk mission is underway
The ambitious mission will see four astronauts spend five days in space. (BBC)
+ It’s also the riskiest private mission to date—they’ve got limited life support. (CNN)

2 The first artificially intelligent iPhone is here
But its Apple Intelligence software is far from infallible. (WP $)
+ Not all of the AI features will be available when the iPhone 16 goes on sale. (FT $)
+ Here’s a list of everything Apple announced during its annual keynote. (WSJ $)

3 How to weather this winter’s viral illnesses
Colds, flu, and covid will be doing the rounds. (Vox)
+ How scientists traced a mysterious covid case back to six toilets. (MIT Technology Review)

4 Apple and Google owe Europe billions of euros in fines
Both companies have lost appeals against European Union rulings. (CNN)
+ It’s a major victory for European regulators seeking to curb Big Tech. (WP $)

5 We’re developing a new weapon for the war against antibiotic resistance
In the form of trapping bacteria between hostile viruses and antibiotics. (Knowable Magazine)
+ How CRISPR could help to make UTIs a thing of the past. (Wired $)
+ How bacteria-fighting viruses could go mainstream. (MIT Technology Review)

6 Can you spot an AI-generated video?
It’s a lot harder than you may think. (NYT $)
+ AI slop and social media is a match made in heaven. (The Atlantic $)
+ Audible will invite US audiobook narrators to create AI models of their voices. (Bloomberg $)
+ What this futuristic Olympics video says about the state of generative AI. (MIT Technology Review)

7 We’re still waiting for useful robots
The former head of Google’s robotic moonshot project has some ideas about how we should build them.(Wired $)
+ Is robotics about to have its own ChatGPT moment? (MIT Technology Review)

8 How solar panels can help boost biodiversity efforts
The same patch of land can help to address two crises at once. (New Yorker $)

9 Elon Musk may be summoned before UK Parliament
But, like Mark Zuckerberg before him, he may simply choose not to appear. (FT $)

10 Doctors can’t get enough of this medical TikTok star
His insider jokes are resonating with fellow physicians. (NY Mag $)

Quote of the day

“One monopoly is bad enough. But a trifecta of monopolies is what we have here.”

—Julia Tarver Wood, a lawyer for the US Department of Justice, makes her opening statement during the first day of Google’s latest antitrust trial, Ars Technica reports.

The big story

How one mine could unlock billions in EV subsidies

January 2024

On a pine farm north of the tiny town of Tamarack, Minnesota, Talon Metals has uncovered one of America’s densest nickel deposits—and now it wants to begin extracting it.

If regulators approve the mine, it could mark the starting point in what the company claims would become the country’s first complete domestic nickel supply chain, running from the bedrock beneath the Minnesota earth to the batteries in electric vehicles across the nation.

MIT Technology Review wanted to provide a clearer sense of the law’s on-the-ground impact by zeroing in on a single project and examining how these rich subsidies could be unlocked at each point along the supply chain. Take a look at what we found out.

—James Temple

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet ’em at me.)

+ How to organize your kitchen like a professional chef.
+ This is one seriously impressive marble run.
+ Meet the retirees spending their golden years hopping from cruise ship to cruise ship.
+ Dinosaurs were no fools—it’s looking like they evolved to fly in multiple ways.