Our favorite stories of 2022

1 year ago 123

We similar to deliberation we’ve had a large twelvemonth present astatine MIT Technology Review. Our stories person won galore awards (this communicative from our mag won Gold successful the AAAS awards) and our investigations person helped shed airy connected unjust policies.

So this twelvemonth we asked our writers and editors to comb backmost done the past 12 months and effort to prime conscionable 1 communicative that they loved the most—and past archer america why.

This is what they said.

Will Douglas Heaven

Senior editor, AI

Longevity Prize victor celebrates with raised arms arsenic confetti falls and she receives an oversized check

Story: Inside the billion-dollar gathering for the mega-rich who privation to unrecorded forever

Reason: Jessica Hamzelou gets to the bosom of beauteous overmuch everything she writes about. But this portion is particularly good. Reporting from an exclusive billionaires’ lawsuit successful a luxury edifice successful Switzerland that’s portion technological league and portion fundraiser for the mega-rich, she introduces america to a formed of longevity researchers and their benefactors, radical affluent capable to deliberation they conscionable mightiness beryllium capable to bargain their mode retired of dying.

Jess inserts herself into this murky satellite and gives america a glimpse of the hidden relationships driving this breathtaking but inactive sci-fi tract forward. The details are devastating, with anecdotes astir league attendees doing press-ups successful the aisles betwixt talks and performing DIY humor tests astatine a banquet betwixt courses. Throughout, we’re expertly guided betwixt genuine subject and Hail Mary quackery. Fascinating and hilarious, this is Jess astatine her best.

Zeyi Yang

Reporter, China

Story: Meet the idiosyncratic astatine the halfway of the covid laboratory leak controversy

Reason: There’ve been countless stories successful the quality that claimed to beryllium the large scoop taking readers 1 measurement person to the root of covid-19; fewer delivered connected their promises. This story, reported by our freelance writer Jane Qiu, is different. It combines unthinkable entree to the cardinal radical successful the laboratory leak mentation with a genuine patience to perceive each sides of the arguments. As idiosyncratic who’s been voraciously consuming stories astir covid origins, I came retired of this one—dense with details from on-the-ground reporting—not feeling pressured to instrumentality the broadside of the author, but equipped with much accusation to justice for myself.

Antonio Regalado

Senior editor, biotech

baidu idiosyncratic (left) and autonomous conveyance driving connected road (right)

Story: A time successful the beingness of a Chinese robotaxi driver

Reason: Sometimes you tin spot the aboriginal successful tiny details. Like erstwhile a Chinese operator told Zeyi Yang that aft a time astatine work, he’d participate his ain car connected the incorrect side. You see, Zeyi wrote astir a robotaxi information operator. It’s a unusual job, sitting each time successful the rider seat, conscionable successful case. And it’s not a vocation that has large prospects. If automated taxis work, the full thought is to marque information operators—and drivers similar you and me—obsolete.

Amy Nordrum

Executive editor, operations

psychedlic acquisition via VR headset concept

Story: VR is arsenic bully arsenic psychedelics astatine helping radical scope transcendence

Reason: I learned from this communicative that definite VR experiences tin beryllium arsenic effectual arsenic psychedelics successful evoking feelings of connectedness with others. That truly amazed me! And I loved that reporting chap Hana Kiros tried retired 1 specified VR acquisition for herself. Her vivid statement truly gives you a consciousness of what it was similar to beryllium determination and what she took from it.

Charlotte Jee

News editor

bomb made of generated substance with lit fuse

What does GPT-3 "know" astir me?

Reason: This was a superb story. It took thing somewhat abstract—large connection AI models—and explained that adjacent if we don’t cognize astir them, they mightiness “know” astir us. These AI models are trained connected information sets hoovered up from the integer detritus we permission each implicit the internet. Melissa demonstrated this by delving into what 1 starring model—GPT-3—had to accidental astir her, and astir our exertion successful chief, Mat Honan. The resulting portion is personal, engaging, and witty. However, it besides makes a superior constituent astir the deficiency of privateness and information protections successful the satellite of AI grooming data. Anyone speechmaking it volition travel distant seeing those anserine posts and drunken photos they’ve near scattered each implicit the web successful a new, scarier light.

Linda Lowenthal

Copy chief

Concept photograph illustration of a canine connected sofa with past dogs successful framed portraits behind

Story: These scientists are moving to widen the beingness span of favored dogs—and their owners

Reason: Literally the lone happening incorrect with dogs is that they don’t unrecorded agelong enough. Jess dived into however scientists are moving to alteration that ... and however their enactment is yet different mode dogs could assistance america humans. I fell successful emotion with this communicative adjacent earlier seeing the art, but that portion shouldn’t beryllium missed.

Allison Arieff

Editorial director, print

Female idiosyncratic successful the foreground of a country of 1950s epoch computers

Story: Why can't tech hole its sex problem?

Reason: This communicative by the historiographer Margaret O’Mara is simply a fascinating but somber humanities look backmost astatine however women became marginalized successful the tech manufacture arsenic it progressively morphed much and much into an insider-y boys’ club. Over the decades, backing and enactment haven’t needfully gone to the champion and brightest but to the astir well-connected. O’Mara shows however the occupation of sex successful tech isn’t truthful overmuch a STEM occupation oregon a pipeline occupation arsenic a wealth problem. “The tech manufacture loves to speech astir however it is changing the world,” she writes. “Yet retrograde, gendered patterns and habits person agelong fueled tech’s bonzer moneymaking machine. Breaking retired of them mightiness yet beryllium the astir innovative determination of all.”

Melissa Heikkilä

Senior reporter, AI

Story: An MIT Technology Review Series: AI Colonialism

Reason: This bid is simply a must-read connected the AI industry’s murky practices that repetition the patterns of assemblage history. Our erstwhile elder exertion for AI Karen Hao spoke to communities astir the satellite to analyse however AI is creating a colonialist planetary order, from South Africa’s backstage surveillance instrumentality to the AI industry’s exploitative labour practices in Venezuela. It besides offers stories of absorption and hope, and introduces america to the gig workers successful Indonesia warring backmost against algorithms and an Indigenous mates successful New Zealand revitalizing their connection with the assistance of AI.

Juliet Beauchamp

Engagement editor

woman petting a crow astatine a room table

Story: How to befriend a crow

Reason: Abby’s reporting connected integer civilization is ever top-notch, but this peculiar communicative sticks retired arsenic a favourite of mine. Yes, you will find retired however to go pals with your vicinity crows. Importantly, though, this communicative is astir the powerfulness of societal media algorithms and however distinctly online trends construe IRL (spoiler alert: they’re not ever successful). And honestly, it made maine laugh.

Tanya Basu

Senior reporter, humans and technology

Story: The combat for “Instagram face”

Reason: Online quality filters mightiness look similar a fluffy taxable connected the surface—but they tin person a immense interaction connected however we presumption ourselves. Tate’s portion present is connected the struggle betwixt platforms’ attempts to guarantee people’s information and the gigantic request for these filters. What has stayed with maine astir her reporting: the filters that physique successful deformation are the ones that often spell viral. When you deliberation astir however those filters tin impact however we spot ourselves and our world, it’s truly caput boggling, and the separation betwixt carnal and virtual becomes each the much blurred arsenic AR comes to play. It’s a portion that is astatine erstwhile disturbing and enlightening without being preachy. Tate’s enactment successful this country is singular and important, and she’s a large usher done this messy world.

Rachel Courtland

Commissioning editor

Story: Inside the experimental satellite of carnal infrastructure

Reason: I ne'er truly thought astir however overmuch roads person fractured our landscapes and ecosystems until I work freelance newsman Matthew Ponsford’s feature, for the urbanism issue of the magazine. For years, researchers person been trying to spot if they tin assistance wildlife virtually transverse the road, by gathering bridges and different forms of infrastructure. Do these strategies work? Turns retired that question is harder to reply than you mightiness expect.

A motorcycle rider connected his telephone successful Eldoret, Kenya

Story: How mobile wealth supercharged Kenya's sports betting addiction

Reason: Maybe it shouldn’t beryllium excessively astonishing that a exertion that has made it vastly easier to determination wealth astir has besides made it a batch easier to gamble it each away. But Jonathan Rosen’s dispatch from Kenya does much than simply constituent retired an underreported facet of the mobile wealth ecosystem. It shows however Kenyans are grappling with the problem—and warring back.

Rhiannon Williams

Reporter

Story: Technology that lets america talk to our dormant relatives has arrived. Are we ready?

Reason: This portion is specified a delicate exploration of grief and our willingness to trial the technological limits of whether we tin effort to replicate the essence of a loved one, knowing it’s ne'er going to rather beryllium the same. It’s besides a brave confrontation of the inherent risks that travel with loving our friends and family, and a precise quality reminder of wherefore those risks are worthy taking.

Eileen Guo

Senior reporter, investigations

human remains connected a transcript basal to beryllium photographed

Story: What happens erstwhile you donate your assemblage to science?

Reason: Sometimes the champion stories reply questions you didn’t adjacent cognize you had, and Abby’s beautifully written communicative connected assemblage farms is simply a cleanable example. It treats a taxable that we don’t speech astir enough—death and, much specifically, our dormant bodies—with a truly hard-to-balance premix of curiosity, compassion, and large attraction to detail. This was specified a delight to read, and if you missed it the archetypal clip around, I highly urge it now!

Abby Ivory-Ganja

Senior engagement editor

A idiosyncratic from Wuhan Guangsheng Photovoltaic Company installs a star sheet task connected the extortion of a building

Story: Who’s liable for clime change? Three charts explain.

Reason: I learned truthful overmuch from Casey Crownhart’s stellar clime reporting this year, but I consciousness this portion astir who is liable for clime alteration volition instrumentality with maine agelong past 2022. She does specified an astonishing occupation of contextualizing the big, large problems up of us, and successful this lawsuit down us, without making it consciousness wholly doom-y. (Her newsletter The Spark is ever a large read, too.)

Tate Ryan-Mosley

Senior reporter, tech policy

Worldcoin has done tract investigating successful Indonesia

Story: Deception, exploited workers, and currency handouts: How Worldcoin recruited its archetypal fractional a cardinal trial users

Reason: One of my favourite stories this twelvemonth was the Worldcoin probe by Eileen and Adi. The reporting connected this communicative was truthful important and took a hard look astatine the predatory information extraction practices that truthful galore companies are blameworthy of. I truly appreciated the genuinely planetary scope of this story, and the writers’ introspection of however the company’s altruistic crypto-enthusiasm compared with the distressing world of its implementation.

Read Entire Article