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Generative AI and other innovations topping MIT Technology Review's 2025 list

For decades, editors at MIT Technology Review have set themselves the annual challenge of trying to predict which emerging technologies will be the most impactful that year. This year

In a world brimming with innovation and limited time, it can be hard to tell what technology has the potential to really shift life. Yet, every year, MIT Technology Review undertakes this very task and puts out an annual list to magazine readers of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. Today, host Regina G. Barber hops through highlights from the list with Amy Nordrum, an executive editor at the publication.

Check out the full list here.

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Their home survived the fires, but there's still danger everywhere

A home destroyed by the Eaton Fire (R) is seen next to another left intact in Altadena, California.

As evacuation orders are lifted, people in Los Angeles are returning to their homes--if their homes survived. But the disaster doesn't end when the fire stops.

A single block and a half separates the Altadena home of Jennifer and Ed Barguiarena from complete destruction. Just down the street lies charred, flattened debris.

But for families like the Barguiarenas β€” the seemingly lucky ones, whose houses survived β€” an altogether different ordeal is just beginning.

The water still isn't safe to drink, cook or wash with. There are fine layers of ash and dust in people's homes and yards. And families like the Barguiarenas are also worried about what they can't see – the possibility that toxins like lead and asbestos might have drifted into their homes.

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(Image credit: ZOE MEYERS)

'The birds are back.' Resilience in the ruins of the Palisades fire

A car burned from the Palisades Fire is seen at Will Rogers State Park, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood on January 15, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

Will Rogers State Historic Park is a vast stretch of natural space in the Santa Monica Mountains. It's a treasure to Angelenos. People get married there, picnic there, and have kids' birthday parties on the great lawn.

The park's namesake, Will Rogers, was a vaudeville performer, radio and movie star, and was known as America's "cowboy philosopher."

His nearly century-old ranch house is the park's centerpiece. It's survived a near miss with wildfire before. Last week, as firestorm engulfed large parts of Los Angeles, this piece of American history was reduced to rubble.

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(Image credit: Apu Gomes)

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