Room-Size Particle Accelerators Go Commercial

Particle accelerators are usually huge structures—think of the 3.2-kilometer-long SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Stanford, Calif. But scientists have been hard at work trying to shrink these accelerators down by using lasers to perform the accelerating. These particle accelerators would be the size of single room, and cost much less as well. Now, a startup says its laser-powered accelerator, the first commercial version of such a device, has successfully accelerated a beam of electrons. These could first be used in radiation tests of electronics designed for satellites and spacecraft.The concept behind the new device was first detailed in 1979. An extremely powerful and ultrashort..

IEEE Spectrum > Computing

AI chatbots can sway voters better than political advertisements

In 2024, a Democratic congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, Shamaine Daniels, used an AI chatbot named Ashley to call voters and carry on conversations with them. “Hello. My name is Ashley, and I’m an artificial intelligence volunteer for Shamaine Daniels’s run for Congress,” the calls began. Daniels didn’t ultimately win. But maybe those calls helped her…

MIT Technology Review AI chatbots can sway voters better than political advertisements

Delivering securely on data and AI strategy

Most organizations feel the imperative to keep pace with continuing advances in AI capabilities, as highlighted in a recent MIT Technology Review Insights report. That clearly has security implications, particularly as organizations navigate a surge in the volume, velocity, and variety of security data. This explosion of data, coupled with fragmented toolchains, is making it…

MIT Technology Review Delivering securely on data and AI strategy