Kristin Houser

Pittsburgh

Staff Writer at Freethink, where I cover the people and ideas changing the world. Curious / Thoughtful / Open / Constructive

Articles

Humanoid helpers are now entering our homes

1 month ago | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

It’s 2027. You just introduced yourself to NEO, the humanoid robot who will be living with you for the foreseeable future. The robot is designed to help out with chores and other tasks, and it’s not long before you find yourself grateful not just for its assistance, but also its company. Your days of doing chores may be numbered.
Fire-resilient prefab homes are helping LA build back better

1 month ago | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2026. You’re moving into your first home, which was built mostly in a factory and then assembled onsite. Unlike the “prefab” homes of the past, this one was fully customizable, giving you the opportunity to design your dream home and then inhabit it just a few months later.
Arc Institute’s new AI can read and write the code of life

1 month ago | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2040. You’re at your doctor’s office, going over the results of your genome analysis. An advanced AI has identified patterns in your DNA code that suggest you’re at high risk of developing a certain disease in the future. Thankfully, the same AI can be used to design a treatment.
All PCs will be AI PCs "pretty soon," says Intel exec

2 months ago | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2026. You just bought a new laptop, and unlike your last one, this device is an “AI PC.” The distinction means you can now run all the latest AI applications directly on your device without draining your battery, keeping your data private and secure.
Today’s wearables track your body. Tomorrow’s could treat it.

2 months ago | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2026. You check your smartphone and see a notification from your AI fitness coach. Based on data collected from your wearable fitness tracker, it has personalized recommendations on what you should do and eat today—taking the guesswork out of meeting your health goals.
These red-hot "green jobs" could help Gen Z cope with its eco-anxiety

2 months ago | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2029. You’re still a few months away from graduating from college, but job offers are already rolling in. That’s because you majored in renewable energy engineering—making you a valuable commodity in the increasingly eco-conscious labor market.
Why nations are looking offshore to decarbonize their grids

2 months ago | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2050, and the world has met its goal of net-zero carbon emissions. Instead of coal and gas plants, our electricity is mostly generated by wind farms, solar arrays, and nuclear power plants, which can now be found all across the globe—including over the water.
Sal Khan wants to give every student on Earth a personal AI tutor

2 months ago | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. It’s 2026. Your son is falling behind in biology, but money is too tight for a tutor. Too tight for a human one, anyways. Thankfully, he’s able to access a high-quality AI tutor that provides the kind of one-on-one help he needs to catch up with his classmates—for free.
Inside the Virtual Lab

Jan 20, 2025 | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

A “Virtual Lab” developed at Stanford University promises to revolutionize the role of AI in science—and potentially help us find solutions to the world’s biggest problems in the process. In 2024, Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis (an AI expert) and John Jumper (a chemist) earned the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (well, half the Nobel Prize) for leading the development of AlphaFold 2, an AI that accurately predicts protein structures, solving one of the biggest problems in biology.
The startup using “digital twins” to protect homes from wildfires

Jan 18, 2025 | freethink.com | Kristin Houser

This article is an installment of Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Saturday morning by subscribing above. At the time of this writing, Southern California is battling one of its worst wildfire outbreaks in modern history—24 lives have been lost, 60 square miles have been burned, and more than 12,300 structures have been destroyed, including many residential homes.