Research & Development news

• Roundtables: The Deadly Failures of The Virtual Border Wall

  22-09-2026 15:42 via technologyreview.com
  
  The US has spent billions building a “virtual wall” of surveillance towers along its southern border over the past 25 years, promising they will help detect and apprehend border crossers and save lives. But a groundbreaking investigation by MIT Technology Reviewhas documented hundreds of people who moved through areas watched by these towers without being reached or apprehended, and who ultimately died there. Some were even under the watch of newly installed AI-powered towers designe
  
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• The Download: why AI’s latest breakthroughs and fears may be more hype than reality

  22-09-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  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.Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype —Timnit Gebru, executive director of the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR), and Emily M. Bender, professor of linguistics at the University of WashingtonIt’s been a busy few months for AI hype, with companies making breathless claims about hacking, mathematical breakthroughs, an
  
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• Don’t be fooled by this summer of AI hype 

  22-09-2026 13:04 via technologyreview.com
  
  It’s been a busy few months for AI hype. At the end of April, Anthropic claimed that its model Claude Mythos is better at finding software vulnerabilities than most security experts. Then we had the OpenAI–Hugging Face hacking incident, after which Anthropic (proudly) and Meta (reluctantly) disclosed similar incidents involving their models. This was followed by Anthropic’s claim that one of its models had made a mathematical breakthrough; soon OpenAI claimed a mathematical bre
  
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