NASA wants to use the sun to power future deep space missions

While other spacecraft, like Lucy, have used solar energy to operate instruments, Psyche will be among the first of NASA’s deep-space missions to use solar energy for both onboard operations and propulsion.  Paulo Lozano, director of MIT’s space propulsion laboratory, says Psyche could lay the groundwork for more solar-powered space exploration. Eventually, the technology could help us investigate multiple celestial objects for longer periods […]

IDC: Big jump in software spending this year

Peter Griffin, Editor. 25 November 2021, 9:02 am The pivot to working from home and strong uptake of cloud computing and artificial intelligence platforms led to a 20.4% jump in software spending this year. IDC Research’s Semiannual Software Tracker estimates the Australian and New Zealand software market reached US$7.5 billion in value in the first […]

Machine learning improves Arabic speech transcription capabilities

Thanks to advancements in speech and natural language processing, there is hope that one day you may be able to ask your virtual assistant what the best salad ingredients are. Currently, it is possible to ask your home gadget to play music, or open on voice command, which is a feature already found in some […]

How a new global carbon market could exaggerate climate progress

Nations are poised to begin building an international carbon market, after finally adopting the relevant rules at the UN climate conference in Glasgow earlier this month. Under the COP26 agreement, countries should soon be able to buy and sell UN-certified carbon credits from one another, and use them as a way to achieve greenhouse gas […]

Podcast: What is AI? We made this to help.

Defining what is, or isn’t artificial intelligence can be tricky (or tough). So much so, even the experts get it wrong sometimes. That’s why MIT Technology Review’s Senior AI Editor Karen Hao created a flowchart to explain it all. In this bonus content our host and her team reimagined Hao’s original reporting, gamifying it into […]

NSO was about to sell hacking tools to France. Now it’s in crisis.

For the most part, NSO has defended itself by saying that it merely builds tools and does not control what foreign governments choose to do with Pegasus, and it has continued to operate its business as normal.  The sequence of revelations in 2021, however, has hit it differently.  The “NSO Affair,” as this year’s onslaught […]

Why has Meta delayed its end-to-end encryption plans?

Peter Griffin, Editor. 23 November 2021, 10:34 am It was touted by Mark Zuckerberg two years ago as a win for Instagram and Facebook Messenger users – encrypting the messaging apps so no third party could spy on their private conversations. It also served a practical purpose for Facebook as it tried to lessen its […]

Security is everyone’s job in the workplace

Hackers around the globe are smart: they know that it isn’t just good code that helps them break into systems; it’s also about understanding—and preying upon—human behavior. The threat to businesses in the form of cyberattacks is only growing—especially as companies make the shift to embrace hybrid work. But John Scimone, senior vice president and […]