Rhiannon Williams
@rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social
Reporter at MIT Technology Review, writing about AI, robots & what's next.
I write The Download, officially the Best Technology Newsletter 2025: https://www.technologyreview.com/topic/download-newsletter/
I write The Download, officially the Best Technology Newsletter 2025: https://www.technologyreview.com/topic/download-newsletter/
Pinned
I'm so excited that my daily newsletter The Download won Best Technology Newsletter 2025 at this year's Publisher Newsletter Awards! it's truly an honour to be recognised among such a crowded field of amazing writers
Earlier this year, I wrote an article for our print magazine about how AI is changing our relationships with others and ourselves. Now, the brilliant team at WBUR have released a two-part Endless Thread podcast based on my reporting! 🧵1/3
September 8, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Earlier this year, I wrote an article for our print magazine about how AI is changing our relationships with others and ourselves. Now, the brilliant team at WBUR have released a two-part Endless Thread podcast based on my reporting! 🧵1/3
this is actually drawn from my real hair, but I’m flattered if it could be mistaken for a wig!
It is very weird and meta that this AI clone appears to be wearing a wig.
AI avatars are more humanlike than ever before.
The uncanny valley is narrowing. Are we ready for what comes next?
The uncanny valley is narrowing. Are we ready for what comes next?
September 4, 2025 at 10:43 PM
this is actually drawn from my real hair, but I’m flattered if it could be mistaken for a wig!
Earlier this summer, I visited Synthesia's London offices to be turned into a hyperrealistic AI avatar. It was unnerving and eye-opening in equal measure.
Check out my story, featuring weirdly smooth hands, addictive AI, and Ed Sheeran bad-mouthing (sorry Ed) www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/04/1...
Check out my story, featuring weirdly smooth hands, addictive AI, and Ed Sheeran bad-mouthing (sorry Ed) www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/04/1...
September 4, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Earlier this summer, I visited Synthesia's London offices to be turned into a hyperrealistic AI avatar. It was unnerving and eye-opening in equal measure.
Check out my story, featuring weirdly smooth hands, addictive AI, and Ed Sheeran bad-mouthing (sorry Ed) www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/04/1...
Check out my story, featuring weirdly smooth hands, addictive AI, and Ed Sheeran bad-mouthing (sorry Ed) www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/04/1...
I wrote about my favourite podcast (and Instagram account)
Every Outfit for MIT Technology Review magazine! Fuckettes in STEM, rise up! You can read the full story here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/25/1...
Every Outfit for MIT Technology Review magazine! Fuckettes in STEM, rise up! You can read the full story here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/25/1...
August 26, 2025 at 2:46 PM
I wrote about my favourite podcast (and Instagram account)
Every Outfit for MIT Technology Review magazine! Fuckettes in STEM, rise up! You can read the full story here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/25/1...
Every Outfit for MIT Technology Review magazine! Fuckettes in STEM, rise up! You can read the full story here: www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/25/1...
Reposted by Rhiannon Williams
@inafried.bsky.social fun fun fun...
surfaced by @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social at MIT-TechReview...
"This fun website refreshes every few seconds with a new picture of someone pointing at your mouse pointer."
pointerpointer.com
surfaced by @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social at MIT-TechReview...
"This fun website refreshes every few seconds with a new picture of someone pointing at your mouse pointer."
pointerpointer.com
pointerpointer.com
Please hold still while we locate your pointer...
pointerpointer.com
August 1, 2025 at 6:18 AM
@inafried.bsky.social fun fun fun...
surfaced by @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social at MIT-TechReview...
"This fun website refreshes every few seconds with a new picture of someone pointing at your mouse pointer."
pointerpointer.com
surfaced by @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social at MIT-TechReview...
"This fun website refreshes every few seconds with a new picture of someone pointing at your mouse pointer."
pointerpointer.com
Google’s generative video model Veo 3 has a subtitles problem.
The AI model is still slapping garbled, nonsensical captions on its videos more than a month after launch, even when users explicitly ask for no captions at all: www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/15/1...
The AI model is still slapping garbled, nonsensical captions on its videos more than a month after launch, even when users explicitly ask for no captions at all: www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/15/1...
Google’s generative video model Veo 3 has a subtitles problem
The AI model is still slapping garbled, nonsensical captions on videos more than a month after launch, even when users explicitly ask for no captions at all.
www.technologyreview.com
July 16, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Google’s generative video model Veo 3 has a subtitles problem.
The AI model is still slapping garbled, nonsensical captions on its videos more than a month after launch, even when users explicitly ask for no captions at all: www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/15/1...
The AI model is still slapping garbled, nonsensical captions on its videos more than a month after launch, even when users explicitly ask for no captions at all: www.technologyreview.com/2025/07/15/1...
Not Jeremy Hunt using ChatGPT to write his new book 🥴
June 21, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Not Jeremy Hunt using ChatGPT to write his new book 🥴
I'm so excited that my daily newsletter The Download won Best Technology Newsletter 2025 at this year's Publisher Newsletter Awards! it's truly an honour to be recognised among such a crowded field of amazing writers
June 16, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I'm so excited that my daily newsletter The Download won Best Technology Newsletter 2025 at this year's Publisher Newsletter Awards! it's truly an honour to be recognised among such a crowded field of amazing writers
Incredibly sad news about Nitzer Ebb's Douglas McCarthy. A huge influence on so many of my favourite musicians, and one of Essex's finest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHM...
Nitzer Ebb - Join in the Chant
YouTube video by A.M.V.
www.youtube.com
June 12, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Incredibly sad news about Nitzer Ebb's Douglas McCarthy. A huge influence on so many of my favourite musicians, and one of Essex's finest: www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHM...
Brian Wilson was a visionary who changed popular music forever. He will be dearly missed www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpd4...
The Beach Boys - God only knows (1966) fully restored video
YouTube video by Mike Adams
www.youtube.com
June 11, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Brian Wilson was a visionary who changed popular music forever. He will be dearly missed www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpd4...
Anthropic's new hybrid AI model, Claude Opus 4, can play Pokémon Red for more than 24 hours. The company claims its ability to tackle these kinds of complex, multistep problems over a prolonged period of time paves the way for much more proficient AI agents: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/22/1...
Anthropic’s new hybrid AI model can work on tasks autonomously for hours at a time
The company claims its ability to tackle complex, multistep problems paves the way for much more proficient AI agents.
www.technologyreview.com
May 23, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Anthropic's new hybrid AI model, Claude Opus 4, can play Pokémon Red for more than 24 hours. The company claims its ability to tackle these kinds of complex, multistep problems over a prolonged period of time paves the way for much more proficient AI agents: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/22/1...
Reposted by Rhiannon Williams
The company claims its ability to tackle complex, multistep problems paves the way for much more proficient AI agents.
Anthropic’s new hybrid AI model can work on tasks autonomously for hours at a time
The company claims its ability to tackle complex, multistep problems paves the way for much more proficient AI agents.
www.technologyreview.com
May 22, 2025 at 6:26 PM
The company claims its ability to tackle complex, multistep problems paves the way for much more proficient AI agents.
Pocket shutting down is a CRIME
May 22, 2025 at 6:49 PM
Pocket shutting down is a CRIME
Millions of people argue online every day, but remarkably few of them change someone’s mind. New research suggests that large language models (LLMs) might do a better job—suggesting that AI could become a powerful persuasive tool, for better or worse: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/19/1...
AI can do a better job of persuading people than we do
OpenAI’s GPT-4 is much better at getting people to accept its point of view during an argument than humans are—but there’s a catch.
www.technologyreview.com
May 20, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Millions of people argue online every day, but remarkably few of them change someone’s mind. New research suggests that large language models (LLMs) might do a better job—suggesting that AI could become a powerful persuasive tool, for better or worse: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/19/1...
Reposted by Rhiannon Williams
Millions of people argue with each other online every day, but remarkably few of them change someone’s mind. New research suggests that large language models might do a better job. The finding suggests that AI could become a powerful tool for persuading people, for better or worse.
AI can do a better job of persuading people than we do
OpenAI’s GPT-4 is much better at getting people to accept its point of view during an argument than humans are—but there’s a catch.
www.technologyreview.com
May 19, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Millions of people argue with each other online every day, but remarkably few of them change someone’s mind. New research suggests that large language models might do a better job. The finding suggests that AI could become a powerful tool for persuading people, for better or worse.
This is fascinating: a new AI system for noise-cancelling headphones addresses one of automatic translation’s biggest challenges—translating the speech of multiple speakers simultaneously: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/09/1...
A new AI translation system for headphones clones multiple voices simultaneously
Spatial Speech Translation addresses one of automatic translation’s biggest challenges: lots of people speaking at the same time.
www.technologyreview.com
May 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
This is fascinating: a new AI system for noise-cancelling headphones addresses one of automatic translation’s biggest challenges—translating the speech of multiple speakers simultaneously: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/09/1...
Reposted by Rhiannon Williams
🌍📰 So flattered and excited that our work on “AI” stereotyping and bias across languages and cultures is reported in @mittechreviewbr.bsky.social by @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social !!
Really great overview of what we’ve been up to and why it matters.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/30/1...
Really great overview of what we’ve been up to and why it matters.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/30/1...
This data set helps researchers spot harmful stereotypes in LLMs
A new multilingual tool aims to make it easier to evaluate AI models for bias in multiple languages.
www.technologyreview.com
May 2, 2025 at 9:26 PM
🌍📰 So flattered and excited that our work on “AI” stereotyping and bias across languages and cultures is reported in @mittechreviewbr.bsky.social by @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social !!
Really great overview of what we’ve been up to and why it matters.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/30/1...
Really great overview of what we’ve been up to and why it matters.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/30/1...
Reposted by Rhiannon Williams
AI models are riddled with culturally specific biases. A new data set, called SHADES, is designed to help developers combat the problem by spotting harmful stereotypes and other kinds of discrimination that emerge in AI chatbot responses across a wide range of languages.
This data set helps researchers spot harmful stereotypes in LLMs
A new multilingual tool aims to make it easier to evaluate AI models for bias in multiple languages.
www.technologyreview.com
April 30, 2025 at 1:48 PM
AI models are riddled with culturally specific biases. A new data set, called SHADES, is designed to help developers combat the problem by spotting harmful stereotypes and other kinds of discrimination that emerge in AI chatbot responses across a wide range of languages.
Reposted by Rhiannon Williams
I'm thrilled that The Download, my daily newsletter I write for MIT Technology Review, is shortlisted for Best Technology Newsletter at the 2025 Publisher Newsletter Awards! ✨ publishernewsletters.com/2025/en/page...
April 23, 2025 at 12:23 PM
I'm thrilled that The Download, my daily newsletter I write for MIT Technology Review, is shortlisted for Best Technology Newsletter at the 2025 Publisher Newsletter Awards! ✨ publishernewsletters.com/2025/en/page...
Vibe coding can help make a vague idea for a website, app or a game into a reality. But you can’t just vibe code real, valuable, secure, robust apps into existence: www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...
What is vibe coding, exactly?
While letting AI take the wheel and write the code for your website may seem like a good idea, it’s not without its limitations.
www.technologyreview.com
April 16, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Vibe coding can help make a vague idea for a website, app or a game into a reality. But you can’t just vibe code real, valuable, secure, robust apps into existence: www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/16/1...
The AI industry loves agents. But the same sophisticated abilities that make agents helpful assistants could also turn them into powerful cyberattack tools—and they're already hacking into systems out in the wild. We need to be ready for what's coming: www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/04/1...
Cyberattacks by AI agents are coming
Agents could make it easier and cheaper for criminals to hack systems at scale. We need to be ready.
www.technologyreview.com
April 4, 2025 at 3:59 PM
The AI industry loves agents. But the same sophisticated abilities that make agents helpful assistants could also turn them into powerful cyberattack tools—and they're already hacking into systems out in the wild. We need to be ready for what's coming: www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/04/1...
Drop everything—there's an uncut version of the White Lotus series three theme featuring the essential warbling: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-xT...
The White Lotus Season 3 Soundtrack | Enlightenment UNCUT ENDING (Main Title Theme)
YouTube video by Cristobal Tapia de Veer
www.youtube.com
April 3, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Drop everything—there's an uncut version of the White Lotus series three theme featuring the essential warbling: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-xT...
This is v interesting—OpenAI has published its first study into how using ChatGPT affects human wellbeing. The results are pretty preliminary, but it's a crucial first step towards greater understanding of how chatbots may be affecting us—and why: www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/21/1...
OpenAI has released its first research into how using ChatGPT affects people’s emotional well-being
We’re starting to get a better sense of how chatbots are affecting us—but there’s still a lot we don’t know.
www.technologyreview.com
March 28, 2025 at 10:09 AM
This is v interesting—OpenAI has published its first study into how using ChatGPT affects human wellbeing. The results are pretty preliminary, but it's a crucial first step towards greater understanding of how chatbots may be affecting us—and why: www.technologyreview.com/2025/03/21/1...
Over a decade ago, I spat into a plastic tube and sent it to 23andMe so they could analyse my DNA. Now the company's filed for bankruptcy, my genetic data—alongside tens of millions of other people's—could be sold. And deleting that data is far from easy: www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/14/1...
How to… delete your 23andMe data
But truly deleting your personal genetic information from the DNA testing company is easier said than done.
www.technologyreview.com
March 24, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Over a decade ago, I spat into a plastic tube and sent it to 23andMe so they could analyse my DNA. Now the company's filed for bankruptcy, my genetic data—alongside tens of millions of other people's—could be sold. And deleting that data is far from easy: www.technologyreview.com/2024/10/14/1...