How technology has transformed private espionage

Combining AI and a deluge of open data has enabled some intelligence vendors to surpass the capabilities of government agencies. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 day ago

How local innovators are transforming the world 

These changemakers show that social innovation thrives when it draws on the knowledge and lived experience of the people impacted. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 days ago

Peter Leyden

The Great Progression: 2025-2050, Leyden’s new series of essays and interviews for Freethink Voices, roughs out a new grand narrative of our historic opportunity to harness AI and other transformative technologies to drive progress, reinvent America, and make a much better world. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 days ago

The Great Progression

The Great Progression: 2025-2050, Leyden’s new series of essays and interviews for Freethink Voices, roughs out a new grand narrative of our historic opportunity to harness AI and other transformative technologies to drive progress, reinvent America, and make a much better world. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 days ago

Will LLMs lead to an artificial general intelligence?

An exclusive excerpt from AI podcaster Dwarkesh Patel's first book, The Scaling Era: An Oral History of AI 2019-2025. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 days ago

A dozen reasons to read Peter Leyden at this critical juncture in history

To truly understand our historic moment, you need a comprehensive, big-picture, long-term perspective that deeply understands artificial intelligence and the next wave of transformative technologies. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 days ago

Why we need social innovation now more than ever

Social innovation is proving that when we work together across sectors, lasting change is possible. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 10 days ago

What is The Great Progression: 2025 to 2050?

We have a historic opportunity to harness AI and other transformative technologies in order to make a much better world in the next 25 years. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 11 days ago

Humanoid helpers are now entering our homes

Robotics startup 1X Technologies is now sending its humanoid robots into homes to help people with chores and provide companionship. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 14 days ago

Moon landings are back, baby! Feat. Firefly Aerospace

"These investments we make in exploring our universe have always paid dividends. That drive to explore these frontiers is what forces us to be creative and inventive." | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 15 days ago

Fire-resilient prefabs are helping LA build back better

Victims of LA's wildfires are opting for tech company Cover's prefab homes over traditional new builds. Here's why. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 21 days ago

Progress happens because solutions create new problems to solve

Solutionism means fully accepting what’s in front of us and enthusiastically stepping up to meet the challenge. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 23 days ago

Why are traditional climate solutions falling short in the American South?

Decades of disinvestment left Black communities in the South fighting for clean air and water. Now they're showing the nation what justice looks like. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 24 days ago

Arc Institute’s new AI can read and write the code of life

Training on the DNA of nearly 130,000 species taught Evo 2 how to generate DNA sequences the same way other AIs do text or images. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 28 days ago

Inside the insane lab making fuel from thin air

Come with us to visit Terraform Industries, the start-up harnessing artificial photosynthesis to make fossil-free fuel. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

When pollution poisons a community, what does justice look like?

Toxic waste sites surround Black communities in the South, poisoning their air, water, and health. This is how they're fighting back—and winning. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

All PCs will be AI PCs “pretty soon,” says Intel exec 

Manufacturers are now equipping their PCs with the hardware needed to run the latest AI applications locally. Here's what that means for you. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

We’re able to create new creatures through gene editing. What’s stopping us?

The question isn’t whether we can sculpt new life. The question is what comes next. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

Today’s wearables track your body. Tomorrow’s could treat it.

Wearables that treat health issues, track countless biomarkers, and last far longer than today's devices are on the horizon. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

How AI is reshaping the legal profession

AI-powered tools may already be giving some lawyers the upper hand in court. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

These red-hot “green jobs” could help Gen Z cope with its eco-anxiety

"Green" jobs that help combat the climate crisis are on the rise, according to the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs 2025 report. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

Why nations are looking offshore to decarbonize their grids

Interest and investment in offshore solar, wind, and nuclear power systems is increasing as global efforts to decarbonize ramp up. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

Blind optimism is not a cure for blind pessimism

We need to fully acknowledge problems, while vigorously pursuing solutions. Call it “solutionism.” | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

Alec Stapp: The red-tape holding renewable energy back

We seem to be on the precipice of a green revolution: Over the last 50 years, the price of solar panels has fallen by 99.5%. Over the last 30 years, […] | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 1 month ago

Sal Khan wants to give every student on Earth a personal AI tutor

Khan Academy's new AI tutor, Khanmigo, has the potential to revolutionize education for students and teachers alike. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 2 months ago

Why use pristine drinking water for toilets?

Water shortages are becoming more and more frequent. Even in the US, aging infrastructure, contaminated wells, and failing septic systems leave millions without access to clean water. But wastewater infrastructure […] | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 2 months ago

Inside the “Virtual Lab” where AIs and humans collaborate

A “Virtual Lab” populated by AI scientists could overcome one of the biggest challenges in interdisciplinary research. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 2 months ago

The startup using “digital twins” to protect homes from wildfires

Stand Insurance is using computer simulations and "digital twins" to help homeowners make their properties fire resilient. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 2 months ago

Pantheon creator Craig Silverstein on uploading our brains to the internet

How the cult hit sci-fi show imagines a “techno-realist” future. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 2 months ago

The US needs another 4 million houses. Here’s how it could get them.

Restrictive zoning policies helped create America's housing shortage. Zoning reform could help end it. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 2 months ago

How AI is being drafted for a digital cold war

"Technology has always been co-opted for war, but truly intelligent AI, let alone a superintelligence, is a different beast entirely." | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 2 months ago

T-Minus: Counting down the top 10 space stories of 2024

A look back on the 10 greatest space stories of 2024, from SpaceX's "Mechazilla" to a first-of-its-kind civilian spacewalk. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

How cryopreservation could end death as we know it

The technology could one day allow people with terminal illnesses to go into "hibernation" until a cure is found. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

40 generations of historians waited to read these scrolls. Now, we can.

In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius erupted in Italy, destroying not only the city of Pompeii, but also neighboring Herculaneum, a beachside town which was home to a vast library full […] | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

Google’s $1 billion bet on Africa’s digital future

Just 37% of sub-Saharan Africans use the internet today, but Google predicts the next 10 years will be the region’s “digital decade.” | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

How Neuralink’s chief competitor is tapping into the brain without surgery

“Hello, world!” read one inconspicuous tweet posted on the Twitter account of Tom Oxley, founder and CEO of Synchron, a startup that develops brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), in December 2021. The […] | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

Can reality be expanded? This tech says yes.

VR experiences are getting increasingly visually impressive. Some of the graphics in virtual worlds are so advanced that they seem almost indistinguishable from our world of reality. But there’s still […] | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

How to reclaim meaning in a changing world

The following is Chapter 4 from the book The Techno-Humanist Manifesto by Jason Crawford, Founder of the Roots of Progress Institute. The entirety of the book will be published on Freethink, one […] | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

Should we turn the electricity grid over to AI?

AI could one day be woven throughout the grid management system — here are the pros and cons. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

Has the US reached “peak obesity”?

A CDC survey suggests America’s obesity rate may be falling. Is this a turning point in the obesity epidemic? Or just a temporary plateau? | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

AI skeptic Gary Marcus on AI’s moral and technical shortcomings

From hallucinations to regulatory battles, Gary Marcus argues the AI status quo has failed us and it's time citizens demand something more. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

The big problems driving nanotech development

Freethink talks to Brian Anthony, associate director of MIT.nano, on the enormous benefits – and challenges – of microscopic tech. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

Can humans purge the bots without sacrificing our privacy?

A group backed by Sam Altman is pursuing the creation of "personhood credentials" that would prove an internet user is a real person. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 3 months ago

T-Minus: Kessler Syndrome

Experts answer 10 big questions about the nightmare scenario that could send us back to the pre-Space Age. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 months ago

Flexport is using generative AI to create the “holy grail” of shipping

Flexport is using generative AI to read documents, talk to truckers, and create a "knowledge agent" that's an expert in shipping. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 months ago

How Boom is resurrecting supersonic flight

If Boom gets its way, the future of supersonic passenger travel will be quieter, cleaner, and more affordable than its past. | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 months ago

This tiny pill spies on your stomach

Could the future of healthcare be a tiny robotic camera? Swallow this 13mm pill and you can pilot it around your stomach for a view into your body. This moving […] | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 months ago

Police spend 40% of their time on paperwork. Can AI help?

Axon's AI innovations promise to free officers from desks, but not without questions of ethics. CEO Rick Smith addresses concerns and community trust: | Continue reading


@freethink.com | 4 months ago