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The original was posted on /r/technology by /u/techreview on 2025-01-08 14:57:04+00:00.

Original Title: We’re a team of science & tech journalists covering AI, climate change, and biotech. We just published our annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies, a round-up of promising tech that we believe could have a real impact on the world. Ask us anything about emerging tech in 2025 and beyond!

Hi Reddit! We’re a team of tech journalists from MIT Technology Review, excited to answer all of your questions about emerging tech in 2025 and beyond. 

We are:

We just published our annual list of 10 Breakthrough Technologies. Every year, our reporters and editors look for promising technologies poised to have a real impact on the world. We consider dozens of advances across the fields of AI, biotech, computing, and climate. We can’t see the future, but we expect these ten breakthroughs to affect our world in a big way, for decades to come.

Here are the ten items on this year’s list:

  1. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory: A powerful new telescope will help astronomers study dark matter, explore the Milky Way, and untangle other cosmic unknowns.
  2. Generative AI search: Generative search promises to make finding what you’re looking for simple and quick. It may signal the end of traditional search engines and the rise of personal AI assistants.
  3. Small language models: Cheaper and less power-hungry AI models can now stand with the heavyweights across a range of specific tasks.
  4. Cattle burping remedies: A food supplement that significantly reduces the amount of methane that cattle belch is now available in dozens of countries.
  5. Robotaxis: Driverless cars have completed years of beta testing, and they are now finally becoming available to the public.
  6. Cleaner jet fuel: New fuels made from used cooking oil, industrial waste, or even gasses in the air could help power planes without fossil fuels.
  7. Fast-learning robots: We’re getting closer to general-purpose robots that could be dropped into new environments and tackle a variety of tasks on our behalf, almost instantly.
  8. Long-acting HIV prevention meds: A new drug could help us end AIDS once and for all—if we can ensure access for those who need it.
  9. Green steel: Making steel is one of the largest industrial sources of carbon dioxide. The first industrial green-steel plant, which uses hydrogen made with renewable power is scheduled to begin operations next year in northern Sweden.
  10. Stem-cell therapies that work: Experimental transplants of lab-made cells seem to be helping treat two very different conditions—epilepsy and type 1 diabetes.

Ask us anything! (We’ll be here responding to your questions this Friday, January 10 at 12 p.m. EST, but feel free to get 'em in early.) Proof pics here.