MIT Technology Review’s 10 Breakthrough Technologies

What will really matter in the long run? That’s the question MIT tackles each year as it compiles this annual list. We can’t see the future, but we expect these technologies to affect our world in a big way, for decades to come.

1. Vera C. Rubin Observatory.  A powerful new telescope will come online this year in a remote region of Chile and begin a decade-long survey of the southern sky. Inside is the largest digital camera ever made for astronomy, which will snap photos continuously for years to help astronomers study dark matter, explore the Milky Way, and untangle other cosmic unknowns.
2. Generative AI search.  Generative search promises to make finding what you’re looking for simple and quick. When you type in a query, an AI model summarizes information from many online sources to return a unique answer. On your device, it can comb through documents, photos, and videos, recognizing objects and people to help you find them faster. This may signal the end of traditional search engines and the rise of personal AI assistants.
3. Small language models.  Large language models can do amazing things because they’re crammed with hundreds of billions—even trillions—of parameters (the values that determine their behavior) and were trained on most of the internet’s data. But cheaper and less power-hungry small language models can now stand with the heavyweights across a range of specific tasks. Move over dinosaurs. The future belongs to smaller, nimbler beasts.
4. Cattle burping remedies.  Cow burps are one of the largest sources of agricultural emissions—and one of the trickiest ones to solve. A food supplement that significantly reduces the amount of methane that cattle belch is now available in dozens of countries. Other products, which might prove even more effective, are likely on the way.
5. Robotaxis.  Robotaxis have completed years of beta testing, and they are now finally becoming available to the public. In more than a dozen cities worldwide, riders can summon one whenever they want. Now, the biggest players are ramping up for intense competition as they expand into new cities under regulators’ watchful eyes.
6. Cleaner jet fuel.  New fuels made from used cooking oil, industrial waste, or even gasses in the air could help power planes without fossil fuels. These alternative jet fuels have been in development for years, but now they’re becoming a big business, with factories springing up to produce them and new government mandates requiring their use.
7. Fast-learning robots.  Thanks to today’s generative AI boom, robots are now learning new tasks faster than ever. Today’s automatons are not one-trick ponies—we’re getting closer to general-purpose robots that could be dropped into new environments and tackle a variety of tasks on our behalf, almost instantly.
8. Long-acting HIV prevention meds.  A trial of a new HIV prevention medicine found that 100% of treated women and girls were protected from acquiring HIV infections. And it only needs to be injected once every six months. The drug could help us end AIDS once and for all—if we can ensure access for those who need it.
9. Green steel.  Making steel is one of the largest industrial sources of carbon dioxide, emitting more carbon than all of India (the world’s third largest emitter) and far more than air travel. The first industrial green-steel plant, which uses hydrogen made with renewable power, is being built by Stegra, a $7 billion startup that is scheduled to begin operations next year in northern Sweden.
10. Stem-cell therapies that work.  Stem cells from human embryos will cure disease. That’s the big promise scientists made decades ago. And now it’s finally coming true. Experimental transplants of lab-made cells seem to be helping treat two very different conditions—epilepsy and type 1 diabetes.