10 Breakthrough Technologies

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MIT Technology Review’s reporters and editors constantly debate which emerging technologies will define the future. Once a year, they take stock and share some educated guesses with their readers. Here are the advances that they think will drive progress or incite the most change—for better or worse—in the years ahead.

1. Sodium-ion batteries.  Sodium-ion batteries, made from abundant materials like salt, are emerging as a cheaper, safer alternative to lithium. Backed by major players and public investment, they’re poised to power grids and affordable EVs worldwide.
2. Generative coding.  AI coding tools are revolutionizing how we write, test, and deploy code, making it easier and faster to build sophisticated websites, games, and other applications than ever before.
3. Next-gen nuclear.  Nuclear power already provides steady electricity to grids around the world, without producing any greenhouse-gas emissions. New designs rely on alternative fuels and cooling systems or take up less space, which could get more reactors online faster.
4. AI companions.  Every day, millions of people interact with AI chatbots. Some of them form what feel like close, personal bonds with the bots. There’s mounting evidence that this can be dangerous, and politicians are finally waking up.
5. Base-edited baby.  When he was just seven months old, baby KJ became the first person to receive a personalized gene-editing treatment. A clinical trial is now planned, and bespoke gene-editing drugs could be approved within the next few years.
6. Gene resurrection.  Growing banks of gene information on extinct creatures are providing clues to new treatments and suggesting solutions to climate change—and may help save endangered species.
7. Mechanistic interpretability.  Nobody knows exactly how large language models work, which means we don’t have a clear idea of their limitations. But that’s changing: Clever research techniques are giving us the best glimpse yet of what’s really going on inside the black box.
8. Commercial space stations.  Space tourism may seem fanciful, but this might be the year paying customers can finally check into a room with a galactic view. The shiny new modules will also support research missions by scientists and space agencies.
9. Embryo scoring.  Screening embryos for genetic diseases is relatively common practice in fertility clinics today, and it can give potential parents some peace of mind. Now, though, new startups are making bold claims about using similar techniques to predict certain traits, including intelligence.
10. Hyperscale AI data centers.  The race for AI supremacy has supercharged data centers. Hyperscale AI data centers pack powerful computer chips into synchronized clusters that work like giant, high-speed supercomputers—sizzling hot, power-hungry behemoths pushing infrastructure to its limits.