Mat Honan
New York
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Articles by Mat Honan
Mesas Redondas: Los fracasos mortales del muro fronterizo virtual
Buscar en MIT Technology Review Temas populares EventosContent Studio Lo más leído 1 Cómo la IA está transformando el diagnóstico médico en 2026 2 Cómo la IA está transformando el diagnóstico médico en 2026 3 Cómo la IA está transformando el diagnóstico médico en 2026 Ver una conversación exclusiva para suscriptores que analiza los fracasos de la tecnología de vigilancia fronteriza.
Mesas redondas: Los letales fracasos del muro fronterizo virtual
Buscar en MIT Technology Review Temas populares EventosContent Studio Lo más leído 1 Cómo la IA está transformando el diagnóstico médico en 2026 2 Cómo la IA está transformando el diagnóstico médico en 2026 3 Cómo la IA está transformando el diagnóstico médico en 2026 Vea una conversación exclusiva para suscriptores que examina los fracasos de la tecnología de vigilancia fronteriza.
This AI entrepreneur is developing agents that can plan ahead for the unexpected
Technology 2 hours ago 'There's no accountability;' AI startups keep claiming huge revenue. VCs say the math is getting 'murky.' Business Insider - Ben Bergman • 2h Few metrics thrill Silicon Valley investors more than surging annual recurring revenue (ARR). In the AI boom, however, VCs are increasingly skeptical of what that number actually represents.
This AI entrepreneur is developing agents that can plan ahead for the unexpected
Danijar Hafner’s office in San Francisco’s SoMa district sits mostly empty. His brand-new startup is still in stealth mode and doesn’t even have its name on the door. On the day I visited, earlier this year, there’s only one other person there, and little in the way of furniture. But what it lacks in decor, it makes up for in robots. Humanoids of various shapes and sizes hang like marionettes from racks that run down the center of the wide-open space.
Bill Gates diz que ultrapassamos os limites de perigo da IA. E agora?
É um dia glorioso em Kirkland, Washington, um subúrbio próspero de Seattle, na margem leste do lago Washington. A temperatura está na casa dos 30 graus Celsius, e o céu não poderia estar mais azul. A vista da sala de conferências da Gates Ventures dá para a marina de Carillon Point, onde uma flotilha de barcos caros balança na água, e atravessa o lago até as montanhas Olympic, que definem o horizonte. É deslumbrante. E vagamente aterrorizante. Isso porque, se a cena é tranquila, o mensageiro não é.
Raised on AI | Flipboard
2 hours ago Lifetime access to dozens of popular AI models for a one-time fee. TL;DR: 1min.AI gives you access to dozens of AI models like GPT, Claude, and Gemini, and lifetime access is just $80 through Aug. 30. AI subscriptions aren’t cheap, typically costing around $20 per month, and that’s just for one model …
Bill Gates says we’ve passed AI’s danger thresholds. Now what?
It’s a glorious day in Kirkland, Washington, an affluent Seattle suburb on the eastern shore of Lake Washington. The temperature is in the mid-80s, and the sky is incapable of being any more blue. The view from the Gates Ventures conference room overlooks the Carillon Point Marina, where a flotilla of expensive boats bob in the water, and across the lake to the Olympic Mountains that define the horizon. It’s gorgeous. And vaguely terrifying. Because if the scene is placid, the messenger is not.
Bill Gates says we’ve passed AI’s danger thresholds. Now what?
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All challenges big and small
When I was 18, I skipped my high school graduation and headed to Kuwait. It was 1991, the first Gulf War had just ended, and the country was in complete chaos. There was little to no electricity, aside from generator power. Rubble and unexploded ordnance were everywhere. Massive oil fires lit up the desert and dimmed the sky overhead. Everything had to be rebuilt, and fast. I was there to work on that reconstruction, part of an international effort to fix what war had broken.
There is no nature anymore
When people talk about “nature,” they’re generally talking about things that aren’t made by human beings. Rocks. Reefs. Red wolves. But while there is plenty of God’s creation to go around, it is hard to think of anything on Earth that human hands haven’t affected. In the Brazilian rainforest, scientists have found microplastics in the bellies of animals ranging from red howler monkeys to manatees.
Now is a good time for doing crime
Eons ago, in 2012, I had a weird experience. My iPhone suddenly shut down. When I restarted it, I found it was totally reset—clean, like a new device. This was the early days of iOS, so I wasn’t too concerned until I went to connect it to my computer to restore it from a backup. But when I flipped open the lid of my laptop, it too was mid-restart. And then, suddenly, the screen went gray. It was being remotely wiped. I turned on my iPad. It, too, had been wiped. I was being hacked.
Direto de Davos: ar quente, ego grande e ostentações no frio
Era para estar gelado em Davos, na Suíça, nesta época do ano. Parte do charme é ver a elite mundial marchar pelas ruas com ternos respeitáveis e botas de neve. Mas no início deste ano estava ameno, com máximas na casa dos 30 e poucos graus, ou pouco acima de 1°C. As condições atuais, quando eu saí de Nova York, estavam mais frias, e definitivamente com mais neve. Disseram-me que isso se deve a algo chamado föhn, um vento quente e seco que vem soprando pelos Alpes.
Data centers são incríveis. Todos os odeiam
Contemplem o data center hiperescalar! Estruturas gigantescas, com milhares de chips de computador especializados operando em paralelo para realizar os cálculos complexos exigidos por modelos avançados de IA. Uma única instalação pode cobrir milhões de pés quadrados, construída com milhões de libras de aço, alumínio e concreto; contar com centenas de milhas de cabeamento, conectando algumas centenas de milhares de chips de GPU de ponta, e consumindo centenas de megawatts-hora de eletricidade.
Tudo o que falaram em Davos é sobre IA e Donald Trump
No Fórum Econômico Mundial em Davos, na Suíça, ao conversar com qualquer pessoa, pude perceber que as únicas coisas sobre as quais todo mundo queria falar eram Inteligência Artificial e Trump.
Crónica desde Davos: palabrería y egos desmesurados en la cumbre de la élite global
Se supone que hace un frío glacial en Davos (cantón de los Grisones, Suiza) en esta época del año. Parte del encanto consiste en ver a la élite mundial caminar por las calles con trajes impecables y botas de nieve. Pero este año hace un tiempo sorprendentemente templado, con máximas rondando los 30°F, un poco más de 1 °C. Las condiciones cuando salí de Nueva York (Nueva York, EE UU) eran más frías, y definitivamente más nevadas.
Dispatch from Davos: hot air, big egos and cold flexes
This story first appeared in The Debrief, our subscriber-only newsletter about the biggest news in tech by Mat Honan, Editor in Chief. Subscribe to read the next edition as soon as it lands. It’s supposed to be frigid in Davos this time of year. Part of the charm is seeing the world’s elite tromp through the streets in respectable suits and snow boots. But this year it’s positively balmy, with highs in the mid 30s, or a little over 1°C.
Centros de datos a hiperescala, la maravilla tecnológica que nadie quiere en su patio trasero
¡Contemplad el centro de datos a hiperescala! Estructuras masivas, con miles de chips informáticos especializados funcionando en paralelo para realizar los complejos cálculos que requieren los modelos avanzados de IA. Una sola instalación puede ocupar millones de pies cuadrados, construida con millones de kilos de acero, aluminio y hormigón; contar con cientos de kilómetros de cableado, conectando cientos de miles de chips GPU de alta gama, y consumir cientos de megavatios-hora de electricidad.
All anyone wants to talk about at Davos is AI and Donald Trump
This story first appeared in The Debrief, our subscriber-only newsletter about the biggest news in tech by Mat Honan, Editor in Chief. Subscribe to read the next edition as soon as it lands. Hello from the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. I’ve been here for two days now, attending meetings, speaking on panels, and basically trying to talk to anyone I can. And as far as I can tell, the only things anyone wants to talk about are AI and Trump.
Data centers are amazing. Everyone hates them.
Behold, the hyperscale data center! Massive structures, with thousands of specialized computer chips running in parallel to perform the complex calculations required by advanced AI models. A single facility can cover millions of square feet, built with millions of pounds of steel, aluminum, and concrete; feature hundreds of miles of wiring, connecting some hundreds of thousands of high-end GPU chips, and chewing through hundreds of megawatt-hours of electricity.
Good technology should change the world
The billionaire investor Peter Thiel (or maybe his ghostwriter) once said, “We were promised flying cars, instead we got 140 characters.” That quip originally appeared in a manifesto for Thiel’s venture fund in 2011. All good investment firms have a manifesto, right? This one argued for making bold bets on risky, world-changing technologies rather than chasing the tepid mundanity of social software startups. What followed, however, was a decade that got even more mundane.
Atlas, o navegador da OpenAI: afinal, para que ele serve — e para quem? - MIT Technology Review
A OpenAI lançou, na semana passada, um novo navegador web chamado Atlas. Ele vem com o ChatGPT integrado, junto com um agente, para que você possa navegar, obter respostas diretas e ter tarefas automatizadas realizadas em seu nome, tudo isso ao mesmo tempo. Passei os últimos dias mexendo no Atlas.
I tried OpenAI’s new Atlas browser but I still don’t know what it’s for
OpenAI rolled out a new web browser last week called Atlas. It comes with ChatGPT built in, along with an agent, so that you can browse, get direct answers, and have automated tasks performed on your behalf all at the same time. I’ve spent the past several days tinkering with Atlas. I’ve used it to do all my normal web browsing, and also tried to take advantage of the ChatGPT functions—plus I threw some weird agentic tasks its way to see how it did with those.
I tried OpenAI’s new Atlas browser but I still don’t know what it’s for
Return-to-office mandates are about to backfire Why companies demanding office returns are setting themselves up for failure. In 2025, Amazon, Dell, Apple, Google, IBM, Meta, Salesforce, and dozens more have doubled down on demands for employees to return to the office (RTO) at least three days a week, if not all five. And they’re getting exactly …
IA impacta mercado, segurança e prosperidade
Quando busquei minha filha no acampamento de verão, nos acomodamos para uma viagem de oito horas pelas montanhas Apalaches, seguindo da Carolina do Norte para a casa dos avós dela, no Kentucky. Com pouco ou nenhum sinal de celular em boa parte do trajeto, aproveitamos a rara oportunidade de ter uma conversa longa e ponderada, sem a interferência de dispositivos. O assunto, naturalmente, foi a IA. “‘Ninguém da minha idade quer IA.
AI comes for the job market, security, and prosperity: The Debrief
When I picked up my daughter from summer camp, we settled in for an eight-hour drive through the Appalachian mountains, heading from North Carolina to her grandparents’ home in Kentucky. With little to no cell service for much of the drive, we enjoyed the rare opportunity to have a long, thoughtful conversation, uninterrupted by devices. The subject, naturally, turned to AI. “No one my age wants AI. No one is excited about it,” she told me of her high-school-age peers. Why not? I asked.
Sam Altman and the whale
My colleague Grace Huckins has a great story on OpenAI’s release of GPT-5, its long-awaited new flagship model. One of the takeaways, however, is that while GPT-5 may make for a better experience than the previous versions, it isn’t something revolutionary.
El control de la energía es poder
Puede parecer una obviedad, pero la energía es poder. Quienes pueden producirla, especialmente en grandes cantidades, pueden ejercer su autoridad de muchas formas. Genera ingresos y permite la fabricación, el procesamiento de datos, el transporte y el poderío militar. Podría decirse que los recursos energéticos son el activo más importante de una nación. Fíjese en Rusia, Arabia Saudí, China, Canadá, Qatar o, por lo demás, Estados Unidos.
The Debrief: Power and energy
It may sound bluntly obvious, but energy is power. Those who can produce it, especially lots of it, get to exert authority in all sorts of ways. It brings revenue and enables manufacturing, data processing, transportation, and military might. Energy resources are arguably a nation’s most important asset. Look at Russia, or Saudi Arabia, or China, or Canada, or Qatar, or—for that matter—the US. For all these nations, energy production plays key roles in their economies and their outsize global status.
MIT Technology Review en español
En abril, Paul Graham, fundador de la aceleradora de startups tecnológicas Y Combinator, envió un tuit en respuesta al antiguo presidente de Y Combinator y actual CEO de OpenAI, Sam Altman. Altman acababa de despedirse públicamente de GPT-4 en X, y Graham tenía una pregunta de seguimiento.
OpenAI: The power and the pride
In April, Paul Graham, the founder of the tech startup accelerator Y Combinator, sent a tweet in response to former YC president and current OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Altman had just bid a public goodbye to GPT-4 on X, and Graham had a follow-up question. “If you had [GPT-4’s model weights] etched on a piece of metal in the most compressed form,” Graham wrote, referring to the values that determine the model’s behavior, “how big would the piece of metal have to be? This is a mostly serious question.
La IA como colaborador, no como creador
La razón por la que hoy estás leyendo esta carta es porque hace 30 años me aburría. Estaba aburrido y sentía curiosidad por el mundo, así que pasaba mucho tiempo en el laboratorio de informática de la universidad, explorando Usenet y los inicios de la World Wide Web en busca de cosas interesantes para leer. Pronto me cansé de ser solo un lector: quería crear contenido.
Seeing AI as a collaborator, not a creator
The reason you are reading this letter from me today is that I was bored 30 years ago. I was bored and curious about the world and so I wound up spending a lot of time in the university computer lab, screwing around on Usenet and the early World Wide Web, looking for interesting things to read. Soon enough I wasn’t content to just read stuff on the internet—I wanted to make it. So I learned HTML and made a basic web page, and then a better web page, and then a whole website full of web things.
Seeing AI as a collaborator, not a creator
18 hours ago Two undergrads built an AI speech model to rival NotebookLM A pair of undergrads, neither with extensive AI expertise, say that they’ve created an openly available AI model that can generate podcast-style clips similar to Google’s NotebookLM. The market for synthetic speech tools is vast and growing. ElevenLabs is one of the largest players, but there’s no … 20 hours ago You Can Create a PowerPoint Presentation With AI.
quem lidera o futuro da pesquisa com IA? MIT Technology Review Portugal
Tenho refletido sobre algo que o Will Heaven, o nosso editor sénior de IA, destacou há pouco tempo: que todos os grandes nomes da IA parecem estar a mover-se nas mesmas direções e a convergir para as mesmas coisas. Agentes. Pesquisas profundas. Versões leves dos modelos. E por aí fora. Algumas dessas escolhas fazem sentido, já que estão a observar as mesmas coisas e a tentar resolver os mesmos problemas.
Google busca reinventar sus búsquedas ante el avance de OpenAI
Este artículo apareció en The Debrief with Mat Honan, un boletín semanal sobre las noticias más importantes del mundo de la tecnología. Suscríbete aquí para recibir el próximo en su bandeja de entrada. He estado reflexionando sobre algo que Will Heaven, nuestro redactor jefe de IA, mencionó recientemente: todos los grandes actores en el campo de la inteligencia artificial parecen seguir las mismas tendencias y avanzar hacia los mismos objetivos.
「大企業」グーグルのAI新機能に見る、イノベーションのジレンマ
この記事は米国版ニュースレターを一部再編集したものです。 本誌のAI担当上級編集者のウィル・ダグラス・ヘブンが少し前に指摘したことについて、私はずっと考えていた。AIの大手プレイヤーはみな同じ方向に進み、同じものに収束しているように見えるということだ。エージェント、ディープ・リサーチ、軽量版モデルなど。 これは、彼らが同じようなことを目にし、同じような問題の解決を試みているという点では、理にかなっている部分もある。しかし、ウィルに話を聞いたところ、「想像力の欠如のように感じられる」とのことだった。その通りだと思う。...
Is Google playing catchup on search with OpenAI?
This story originally appeared in The Debrief with Mat Honan, a weekly newsletter about the biggest stories in tech from our editor in chief. Sign up here to get the next one in your inbox. I’ve been mulling over something that Will Heaven, our senior editor for AI, pointed out not too long ago: that all the big players in AI seem to be moving in the same directions and converging on the same things. Agents. Deep research. Lightweight versions of models. Etc.
Roundtables: Generative AI Search and the Changing Internet
Speakers: Mat Honan, editor in chief, and Niall Firth, executive editor. Generative AI search, one of MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2025, is ushering a new era of the internet. Despite fewer clicks, copyright fights, and sometimes iffy answers, AI could unlock new ways to summon all the world’s knowledge. Hear from MIT Technology Review editor in chief Mat Honan and executive editor Niall Firth as they explore how AI will alter search. Related Coverage
Technology shapes relationships. Relationships shape technology.
Greetings from a cold winter day. As I write this letter, we are in the early stages of President Donald Trump’s second term. The inauguration was exactly one week ago, and already an image from that day has become an indelible symbol of presidential power: a photo of the tech industry’s great data barons seated front and center at the swearing-in ceremony.
The downsides of social’s splintering 💔
By Mat Honan Editor in Chief Welcome to The Debrief with Mat Honan, your weekly take on the biggest tech news, links to stories we love, and the occasional recommendation. My name is Mat and I’m the editor in chief at MIT Technology Review. Please do feel free to forward to a friend 😀. This has been one of the news-heavier weeks I can ever recall. Even if you’re just talking about tech news, it’s been a lot.
Mark Zuckerberg y el poder de los medios de comunicación
Este artículo apareció por primera vez en The Debrief, el boletín semanal de MIT Technology Review, escrito por nuestro editor en jefe Mat Honan. Para recibirlo en tu bandeja de entrada todos los viernes (en inglés), regístrate aquí . Hace un par de semanas, el consejero delegado de Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, publicó una entrada en su blog y un vídeo titulados "Más discurso y menos errores".
「ファクトチェック廃止」ザッカーバーグ発言のファクトチェック
この記事は米国版ニュースレターを一部再編集したものです。 メタ（Meta）のCEOであるマーク・ザッカーバーグは1月7日、「More Speech and Fewer Mistakes（より多くの言論、より少ない誤りを）」と題したブログ記事と動画を公開した。ザッカーバーグCEOはこれまで、自身が認めた過ちとして、ケンブリッジ・アナリティカ（Cambridge Analytica）のデータスキャンダル、米ウィスコンシン州で民兵がフェイスブック上で武装集結を呼びかけ、それが2件の殺人事件へとつながったこと、ミャンマーでのジェノサイドを助長したことなどを挙げている。そんな彼が今回発表したのは、メタが米国でのファクトチェックを終了し、言論に対する「制限」を撤廃し、ユーザーのニュースフィードに、より個別にカスタマイズされた政治コンテンツを表示するという方針転換であった。 「私は、人々に発言力を与えるためにソーシャルメディアの構築を始めました」。そう語るザッカーバーグCEOの腕には、90万ドルの腕時計が輝いていた。...
「ググる」時代の終わり-- 世界の知識を解き放つ生成AI検索がもたらすもの
私たちは皆、俗に言う「ググる」の意味を知っている。検索ボックスの中に関連する単語をいくつか入力すると、最も関連性の高い結果につながる青いリンクが一覧表示される。もしかすると、一番上に簡単な説明がいくつか表示されるかもしれない。地図や、スポーツの試合結果、動画が表示されることもあるだろう。それらは基本的に、インターネット上にすでに存在する情報を取得し、ある種の構造化された方法で示しているに過ぎない。 だが、そのすべてが変わる可能性がある。私たちは今、新たな変曲点に立っている。 1990年代以来、検索エンジンが私たちに情報を提供してきた方法に、今、最大の変化が起きている。キーワード検索はもう不要になる。どのリンクをクリックすればよいか、選別する必要もなくなる。その代わりに私たちは、会話型検索の時代に突入しようとしている。つまり、キーワードの代わりに、自然言語で表現された具体的な質問を用いるのだ。そしてリンクの代わりに、生成AIの書いた回答が表示されることが、ますます増えていく。回答はインターネット全体から得られる生きた情報に基づいて作成され、これまでと同じ方法で提供されることになる。...
「世界を変える10大技術」の舞台裏、2024年の誤算とは？
MITテクノロジーレビューの熱心な読者であれば、「ブレークスルー・テクノロジー10（世界を変える10大技術）」が、私のお気に入りの企画の1つであることはご存知かもしれない。このリストを完成させるために私たちは数カ月をかけ、どのテクノロジーがリストに値するかを徹底的に調査し、議論してきた。このリストでは、さまざまな分野で進行中のイノベーションを反映するような項目を、バランスよく掲載することを目指している。消費者向け技術、大規模な産業プロジェクト、生物医学の進展、コンピューティングの変化、気候問題への解決策、AIの最新動向などが含まれる。 本誌はブレークスルー・テクノロジー10を2001年から毎年発表しているが、テクノロジーの転換点を的確に指摘するという点においては、率直に言って良好な実績を残している。過去のリストを振り返れば、、ワイヤレス電力伝送（2008年、米国版）、再使用可能ロケット（2016年、米国版）といった項目が含まれており、時流を正確に捉えてきたことがわかる。一方で、Magic...
Mark Zuckerberg and the power of the media
This article first appeared in The Debrief, MIT Technology Review’s weekly newsletter from our editor in chief Mat Honan. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here.
AI means the end of internet search as we’ve known it
We all know what it means, colloquially, to google something. You pop a few relevant words in a search box and in return get a list of blue links to the most relevant results. Maybe some quick explanations up top. Maybe some maps or sports scores or a video. But fundamentally, it’s just fetching information that’s already out there on the internet and showing it to you, in some sort of structured way. But all that is up for grabs. We are at a new inflection point.
Driving into the future
Welcome to our annual breakthroughs issue. If you’re an MIT Technology Review superfan, you may already know that putting together our 10 Breakthrough Technologies (TR10) list is one of my favorite things we do as a publication. We spend months researching and discussing which technologies will make the list. We try to highlight a mix of items that reflect innovations happening in various fields.
Google's big week was a flex for the power of big tech
In the military, the stakes are higher. There’s no question that AI is increasingly being used to sort through and surface information to decision-makers. It’s finding patterns in data, translating information, and identifying possible threats. Proponents are outspoken that that will make warfare more precise and reduce casualties. What critics are concerned about is how far across that decision-making pipeline AI is going, and how much there is human oversight.
OpenAI’s “12 days of shipmas” tell us a lot about the AI arms race
This week, OpenAI announced what it calls the 12 days of OpenAI, or 12 days of shipmas. On December 4, CEO Sam Altman took to X to announce that the company would be “doing 12 days of openai. each weekday, we will have a livestream with a launch or demo, some big ones and some stocking stuffers.” The company will livestream about new products every morning for 12 business days in a row during December. It’s an impressive-sounding (and media-savvy) schedule, to be sure.
OpenAI’s “12 days of shipmas” tell us a lot about the AI arms race
2 hours ago Apple has introduced the next generation of its artificial intelligence capabilities, referred to as Apple Intelligence. Apple has introduced the next generation of its artificial intelligence capabilities, referred to as Apple Intelligence, with the release of the iOS 18.2 update. This update has …
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