Yichao “Peak” Ji is one of MIT Technology Review’s 2025 Innovators Under 35. Meet the rest of this year’s honorees. When Yichao Ji—also known as “Peak”—appeared in a launch video for Manus in March, he didn’t expect it to go viral. Speaking in fluent English, the 32-year-old introduced the AI agent built by Chinese startup Butterfly…
Blog
-
Imagining the future of banking with agentic AI
Agentic AI is coming of age. And with it comes new opportunities in the financial services sector. Banks are increasingly employing agentic AI to optimize processes, navigate complex systems, and sift through vast quantities of unstructured data to make decisions and take actions—with or without human involvement. “With the maturing of agentic AI, it is…
-
The Download: unnerving AI avatars, and Trump’s climate gift to China
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Synthesia’s AI clones are more expressive than ever. Soon they’ll be able to talk back. —Rhiannon Williams Earlier this summer, I visited the AI company Synthesia to give it what it needed to…
-
Synthesia’s AI clones are more expressive than ever. Soon they’ll be able to talk back.
Earlier this summer, I walked through the glassy lobby of a fancy office in London, into an elevator, and then along a corridor into a clean, carpeted room. Natural light flooded in through its windows, and a large pair of umbrella-like lighting rigs made the room even brighter. I tried not to squint as I…
-
Building the AI-enabled enterprise of the future
Artificial intelligence is fundamentally reshaping how the world operates. With its potential to automate repetitive tasks, analyze vast datasets, and augment human capabilities, the use of AI technologies is already driving changes across industries. In health care and pharmaceuticals, machine learning and AI-powered tools are advancing disease diagnosis, reducing drug discovery timelines by as much…
-
The connected customer
As brands compete for increasingly price conscious consumers, customer experience (CX) has become a decisive differentiator. Yet many struggle to deliver, constrained by outdated systems, fragmented data, and organizational silos that limit both agility and consistency. The current wave of artificial intelligence, particularly agentic AI that can reason and act across workflows, offers a powerful…
-
What health care providers actually want from AI
In a market flooded with AI promises, health care decision-makers are no longer dazzled by flashy demos or abstract potential. Today, they want pragmatic and pressure-tested products. They want solutions that work for their clinicians, staff, patients, and their bottom line. To gain traction in 2025 and beyond, health care providers are looking for real-world solutions…
-
Can an AI doppelgänger help me do my job?
Everywhere I look, I see AI clones. On X and LinkedIn, “thought leaders” and influencers offer their followers a chance to ask questions of their digital replicas. OnlyFans creators are having AI models of themselves chat, for a price, with followers. “Virtual human” salespeople in China are reportedly outselling real humans. Digital clones—AI models that…
-
The Download: AI doppelgängers in the workplace, and using lidar to measure climate disasters
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Can an AI doppelgänger help me do my job? —James O’Donnell Digital clones—AI models that replicate a specific person—package together a few technologies that have been around for a while now: hyperrealistic video…
-
Software commands 40% of cybersecurity budgets as gen AI attacks execute in milliseconds
Software spending now makes up 40% of cybersecurity budgets, with investment expected to grow as CISOs prioritize real-time AI defenses.