New updates for LinkedIn advertisers.
New data from TikTok on account removals, government requests, and more.
A recent Emerson College poll found around 19% of US voters had used crypto, and a majority had a favorable opinion of Donald Trump.
Parody X account Richard E. Ptardio was given memecoins using his likeness which he later donated to charity after his holdings reached a peak of $1 million.
Ohio has become the third US state behind Texas and Pennsylvania to see bills introduced to establish Bitcoin reserves as part of the state’s treasury.
On Dec. 16, US spot and derivative Bitcoin ETFs collectively broke $129 billion in net assets, surpassing gold ETFs for the first time.
Two Chinese citizens and a UAE trading company have been sanctioned by the United States for their alleged roles in money laundering for North Korea.
Recorded on December 17, 2024
The Worst Technology Failures of 2024
Speakers: Antonio Regalado, senior editor for biomedicine, and Niall Firth, executive editor.
MIT Technology Review publishes an annual list of the worst technologies of the year. This year, The Worst Technology Failures of 2024 list was unveiled live by our editors. Hear from MIT Technology Review executive editor Niall Firth and senior editor for biomedicine Antonio Regalado as they discuss each of the 8 items on this list.
Related Coverage
Towana Looney, a 53-year-old woman from Alabama, has become the third living person to receive a kidney transplant from a gene-edited pig.
Looney, who donated one of her kidneys to her mother back in 1999, developed kidney failure several years later following a pregnancy complication that caused high blood pressure. She started dialysis treatment in December of 2016 and was put on a waiting list for a kidney transplant soon after, in early 2017.
But it was difficult to find a match. So Looney’s doctors recommended the experimental pig organ as an alternative. After eight years on the waiting list, Looney was authorized to receive the kidney under the US Food and Drug Administration’s expanded access program, which allows people with serious or life-threatening conditions to try experimental treatments.
The pig in question was developed by Revivicor, a United Therapeutics company. The company’s technique involves making 10 gene edits to a pig cell. The edits are made to prevent too much organ growth, curb inflammation, and, importantly, stop the recipient’s immune system from rejecting the organ. The edited pig cell is then placed into a pig egg cell that has had its nucleus removed, and the egg is transferred to the uterus of a sow, which eventually gives birth to a gene-edited piglet.
JOE CARROTTA FOR NYU LANGONE HEALTH
In theory, once the piglet has grown, its organs can be used for human transplantation. Pig organs are similar in size to human ones, after all. A few years ago, David Bennett Sr. became the first person to receive a heart transplant from such a pig. He died two months after the operation, and the heart was later found to have been infected with a pig virus.
Richard Slayman was the first person to get a gene-edited pig kidney, which he received in early 2024. He died two months after his surgery, although the hospital treating him said in a statement that it had “no indication that it was the result of his recent transplant.” In April, Lisa Pisano was reported to be the second person to receive such an organ. Pisano also received a heart pump alongside her kidney transplant. Her kidney failed because of an inadequate blood supply and was removed the following month. She died in July.
Looney received her pig kidney during a seven-hour operation that took place at NYU Langone Health in New York City on November 25. The surgery was led by Jayme Locke of the US Health Resources & Services Administration and Robert Montgomery of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute.
Looney was discharged from the hospital 11 days after her surgery, to an apartment in New York City. She’ll stay in New York for another three months so she can check in with doctors at the hospital for evaluations.
“It’s a blessing,” Looney said in a statement. “I feel like I’ve been given another chance at life. I cannot wait to be able to travel again and spend more quality time with my family and grandchildren.”
Looney’s doctors are hopeful that her kidney will last longer than those of her predecessors. For a start, Looney was in better health to begin with—she had chronic kidney disease and required dialysis, but unlike previous recipients, she was not close to death, Montgomery said in a briefing. He and his colleagues plan to start clinical trials within the next year.
There is a huge unmet need for organs. In the US alone, there more than 100,000 people are waiting for one, and 17 people on the waiting list die every day. Researchers hope that gene-edited animals might provide a new source of organs for such individuals.
Revivicor isn’t the only company working on this. Rival company eGenesis, which has a different approach to gene editing, has used CRISPR to create pigs with around 70 gene edits.
“Transplant is one of the few therapies that can cure a complex disease overnight, yet there are too few organs to provide a cure for all in need,” Locke said in a statement. “The thought that we may now have a solution to the organ shortage crisis for others who have languished on our waiting lists invokes the most welcome of feelings: pure joy!”
Today, Looney is the only person living with a pig organ. “I am full of energy. I got an appetite I’ve never had in eight years,” she said at a briefing. “I can put my hand on this kidney and feel it buzzing.”
This story has been updated with additional information after a press briefing.
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.
The 8 worst technology failures of 2024
They say you learn more from failure than success. If so, this is the story for you: MIT Technology Review’s annual roll call of the biggest flops, flimflams, and fiascos in all domains of technology.
Some of the foul-ups were funny, like the “woke” AI which got Google in trouble after it drew Black Nazis. Some caused lawsuits, like a computer error by CrowdStrike that left thousands of Delta passengers stranded. And we also reaped failures among startups that raced to expand from 2020 to 2022, a period of ultra-low interest rates. Check out what made our list of this year’s biggest technology failures.
—Antonio Regalado
Antonio will be discussing this year’s worst failures with our executive editor Niall Firth in a subscriber-exclusive online Roundtable event today at 12.00 ET. Register here to make sure you don’t miss outf you haven’t already, subscribe!
AI’s search for more energy is growing more urgent
If you drove by one of the 2,990 data centers in the United States, you’d probably think little more than “Huh, that’s a boring-looking building.” You might not even notice it at all. However, these facilities underpin our entire digital world, and they are responsible for tons of greenhouse-gas emissions. New research shows just how much those emissions have skyrocketed during the AI boom.
That leaves a big problem for the world’s leading AI companies, which are caught between pressure to meet their own sustainability goals and the relentless competition in AI that’s leading them to build bigger models requiring tons of energy. And the trend toward ever more energy-intensive new AI models will only send those numbers higher. Read the full story.
—James O’Donnell
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on 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 TikTok has asked the US Supreme Court for a lifeline
It’s asked lawmakers to intervene before the proposed ban kicks in on January 19. (WP $)
+ TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew reportedly met with Donald Trump yesterday. (NBC News)
+ Trump will take office the following day, on January 20. (WSJ $)
+ Meanwhile, the EU is investigating TikTok’s role in Romania’s election. (Politico)
2 Waymo’s autonomous cars are heading to Tokyo
In the first overseas venture for the firm’s vehicles. (The Verge)
+ The cars will require human safety drivers initially. (CNBC)
+ What’s next for robotaxis in 2024. (MIT Technology Review)
3 China’s tech workers are still keen to work in the US
But securing the right to work there is much tougher than it used to be. (Rest of World)
4 Digital license plates are vulnerable to hacking
And they’re already legal to buy in multiple US states. (Wired $)
5 We’re all slaves to the algorithms
From the mundane (Spotify) to the essential (housing applications.) (The Atlantic $)
+ How a group of tenants took on screening systems—and won. (The Guardian)
+ The coming war on the hidden algorithms that trap people in poverty. (MIT Technology Review)
6 How to build an undetectable submarine
The race is on to stay hidden from the competition. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ How underwater drones could shape a potential Taiwan-China conflict. (MIT Technology Review)
7 How Empower became a viable rival to Uber
Its refusal to cooperate with authorities is straight out of Uber’s early playbook. (NYT $)
8 Even airlines are using AirTags to find lost luggage 
Which begs the question: how were they looking for missing bags before?(Bloomberg $)
+ Here’s how to keep tabs on your suitcase as you travel. (Forbes $)
9 You’re reading your blood pressure all wrong
Keep your feet flat on the floor and ditch your phone, for a start. (WSJ $)
10 The rise and rise of the group chat
Expressing yourself publicly on social media is so last year. (Insider $)
+ How to fix the internet. (MIT Technology Review)
Quote of the day
“Where are the adults in the room?”
—Francesca Marano, a long-time contributor to WordPress, lambasts the platform’s decision to require users to check a box reading “Pineapple is delicious on pizza” to log in, 404 Media reports.
The big story
Responsible AI has a burnout problem
October 2022
Margaret Mitchell had been working at Google for two years before she realized she needed a break. Only after she spoke with a therapist did she understand the problem: she was burnt out.
Mitchell, who now works as chief ethics scientist at the AI startup Hugging Face, is far from alone in her experience. Burnout is becoming increasingly common in responsible AI teams.
All the practitioners MIT Technology Review interviewed spoke enthusiastically about their work: it is fueled by passion, a sense of urgency, and the satisfaction of building solutions for real problems. But that sense of mission can be overwhelming without the right support. Read the full story.
—Melissa Heikkilä
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 skeet ’em at me.)
+ This timelapse of a pine tree growing from a tiny pinecone is pretty special 
+ Shaboozey’s A Bar Song (Tipsy) is one of 2024’s biggest hits. But why has it struck such a chord?
+ All hail London’s campest Christmas tree!
+ Stay vigilant, Oregon’s googly eye bandit has struck again 