Olivia Jeffers

Welcome to Compassionate Technologies. Here you'll get a dose of real science and business in your inbox every Sunday morning. Why? Because cutting-edge research shouldn't be locked in an ivory tower. This newsletter covers the relationships between machine learning, robotics, genetic engineering, and climate science. It's all connected, and it's my passion to simplify and make clear those connections for all of you. Love, Olivia.

Previous issues

#26

May 7, 2017

[announcing] the "AI across America" podcast project – Dear readers, thank you so much for your support!While I am on pause from the newsletter, I want to l
#25

April 30, 2017

[on pause] working on something awesome, be back soon! – Dear readers,I will be putting the newsletter on pause because I'm working on a few really cool thing
#24

April 23, 2017

Part III: The Biology of Machines, the Chemistry of Transistors – Fundamentally, computing is a all about controlling and managing information over time. Brains can co
#23

April 16, 2017

Part II: The Many Faces of a Neuron: Cell, Wire, and Computer – It seems that somehow, from a dense spaghetti-network of over 100 billion neurons and glial cells* th
#22

April 9, 2017

Part I: The Mind of Matter, Delving into Consciousness – With conscious machines on the horizon, there are so many ways to ask the question: what makes us, us
#21

April 2, 2017

'Borg Mice: the very real science behind Elon Musk's Neuralink investment – Transistor, meet Neuron.It’s all over the news. Elon Musk has done it again. From SpaceX to Tesla, an
#20

March 26, 2017

Algorithm Serves as Togolese ‘Village Elder’ for Flood Prediction – Using algorithms to predict floods and assign early action in Togo, West Africa.In honor of Internati
#19

March 19, 2017

Hunger, a technical or social problem? Do we really need GMOs? – Spring is almost here, which means it's time to talk about food, agriculture, and bring these heady t
#18

March 12, 2017

"Innovation Orchards" and the Engine, turning science into business – Announcing The Engine, Katie Rae of TechStars and Anantha Chandrakasan of MIT formally introduce a $1
#17

March 5, 2017

From Broadway to NASA, Soft Robots in Space – Last year in Brooklyn, I visited the office and maker space of SuperReleaser designer Kari Love and s
#16

February 26, 2017

Who owns gene editing? #CRISPR #BroadWins – The Broad Institute at MIT prevails over UC-Berkeley in a patent brawl over gene editing technology l
#15

February 19, 2017

One day, I'll sit on a couch and tell an AI my feelings... – “What will happen when AI understands emotions better than we do?” students asked several times at th
#14

February 12, 2017

One day, I'll sit on a couch and tell an AI my feelings... – "What will happen when AI understands emotions better than we do?" students asked several times at th
#13

February 5, 2017

Tech In China. Will China Open as America Closes? (Part Two) – China does business it’s own way, and as a result, large foreign companies such as General Electric,
#12

January 29, 2017

Tech in China? The History You Need to Know in 5 Minutes (Part One) – Tradition and modernity, communism and capitalism converge into a fascinating future as China celebra
#11

January 22, 2017

Social Media Collides with Social Unrest at the #WomensMarch – Yesterday at the Women's March in Boston Common, the cell towers were so overloaded that we lost mess
#10

January 15, 2017

I'm in love with my tech... – Did you know you get a similar dopamine rush when you check your phone as when you see your new girlf
#9

January 8, 2017

You're a buggy machine, and it's okay – Having a rough time with yourself after the holidays? Ate too much, can't stick to the gym? It's anot
#8

January 1, 2017

Dear AI, please save us from ourselves, a message from 12,017 – It’s hard to fathom the challenges facing humanity, when we can barely handle our own New Year’s reso
#7

December 25, 2016

An Old Buddhist Exercise with a Technological Spin – With the holidays in full swing, many of us are now re-immersed in family environments. Reconnecting
#6

December 18, 2016

Inspiring Effective Compassion and Action in Marketing Campaigns for Syrian Aid – What can we do to be effective in helping Syrians instead of using divisive social media advertising?
#5

December 11, 2016

Rethinking Intimacy in a Post-Scarcity World – How can we get the intimacy that we need in a world with so many people and new technologies for conn
#4

December 4, 2016

Thoughts On Technology after 100 Hours of Meditation – Originally published January 29, 2016, "Thoughts on Technology After Vipassana" a 100-hour silent med
#3

November 27, 2016

Are we a product of our technologies, or are they a product of us? – "Our technologies have immense powers of both creation and destruction - the two agents necessary for
#2

November 20, 2016

How Big is Big Data? Beyond the Hype – Good morning and welcome to my Sunday newsletter, I hope you enjoy this weekly dose of science, tech,
#1

November 13, 2016

Why Compassion and Technology Matters, Election Edition – Good morning and welcome to our Sunday Newsletter, I hope you enjoy this weekly dose of science, tech