MIT Technology Review is preparing a special report titled 10 Things That Matter in Artificial Intelligence Right Now, positioned as an authoritative snapshot of the technologies, trends, ideas, and movements reshaping the field over the coming year. The report will be published in April and launched at EmTech Artificial Intelligence, the outlet’s flagship artificial intelligence event. The editorial team aims to highlight which developments excite them most, what they are watching closely, and how artificial intelligence is transitioning from experimental pilots into core business infrastructure.
The EmTech Artificial Intelligence conference will bring together leaders from OpenAI, Walmart, General Motors, Poolside, MIT, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and SAG-AFTRA to discuss how organizations are preparing for artificial intelligence agents and how artificial intelligence will transform human expression. Attendees are promised exclusive insight into the 10 Things That Matter in Artificial Intelligence Right Now list, as well as networking with speakers and MIT Technology Review editors, and Download newsletter readers are offered 10% off tickets. The gathering reflects a moment when artificial intelligence is becoming embedded across industries, from retail and autos to research and entertainment unions.
Across the broader technology landscape, Anthropic says it plans to sue the Pentagon over what it argues is an unlawful Department of Defense ban on its software, even as its models remain available in Microsoft products and its CEO Dario Amodei apologizes for a leaked memo criticizing Donald Trump. Reporting indicates the Pentagon has been secretly testing OpenAI models for years, raising questions about the effectiveness of OpenAI’s military-use ban. A new lawsuit challenges Trump’s TikTok deal as having benefited firms that allegedly “personally enriched” him, while Iran’s strike on Amazon data centers has rattled the Gulf’s artificial intelligence ambitions and spotlighted artificial intelligence’s growing role in warfare. At the same time, technology giants including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI have pledged with Trump to protect consumers from artificial intelligence’s energy costs, Meta faces a lawsuit over surveillance concerns tied to its smart glasses, and researchers are building “artificial intelligence societies” of agents in virtual worlds to study behavior without human subjects. Lighter items include concerns over teenage boys using ChatGPT to flirt, the Nintendo PlayStation prototype moving to a museum, and a reminder that nature photography, resurrected marsupial species, and artful animations still offer moments of wonder.
