Rhiannon Williams
Reporter at MIT Technology Review, writing about AI, robots & what's next.
I write The Download, officially the Best Technology Newsletter 2025: technologyreview.com/topic/download-news…
- 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
- The first part features an interview with Amir Mizroch, a father I spoke to who used Google NotebookLM to bring a long-dormant project to life (www.wbur.org/endlessthrea...), while I speak to host Amory Sivertson about what I discovered in the second part (www.wbur.org/endlessthrea...) 🧵 2/3
- You can check out the original piece here too: www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/13/1... 🧵3/3
- 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...
- tip @techmeme.com
- 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...
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- 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...
- fao @techmeme.com
- 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
- 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...
- I was lucky enough to see Brian, Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplain perform on the Pet Sounds 50th anniversary tour in 2016 and I'll never forget it. He was the rarest talent.
- 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 WilliamsThe company claims its ability to tackle complex, multistep problems paves the way for much more proficient AI agents.
- Pocket shutting down is a CRIME
- I’ve been worried about this ever since I noticed the discover tab get decidedly worse, but this is a genuine shame. Is no one else obsessively saving stuff to read later? :’( www.theverge.com/news/672924/...
- 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...
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- 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...
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- 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...
- 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...
- 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...
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- lol Google's AI Overview has mashed together the achievements of legendary AC/DC singer Brian Johnson with legendary British special effects director Brian Johnson
- "I loved the bit when the chestburster started shrieking out Let Me Put My Love Into You"
- Reposted by Rhiannon WilliamsICYMI this series of 'as told tos' from @rhiannonwilliams.bsky.social is super fascinating - looking at al the ways in which people are using chatbots, and forming relationships with them. www.technologyreview.com/2025/02/13/1...
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