Brian Dowling
Brian writes about technology and innovation from Boston. Before joining Xconomy, he reported on Massachusetts government and politics for the Boston Herald and previously wrote as a general assignment reporter covering everything from crime and courts to electoral politics, business, and international politics. Brian earned a master’s degree in newspaper writing from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and started his career at the Hartford Courant writing about manufacturing and energy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Theology from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Recent posts
More money is flowing into AI research at MIT, thanks to an expansion of the Institute’s partnership with computing giant IBM; DataRobot announces its $200 million-plus funding round; a tech startup... Read more »
When MIT and IBM launched a joint research lab in 2017, the New York-headquartered company pledged $240 million over a decade to chip away at the fundamental obstacles keeping artificial intelligence... Read more »
It’s still a ways off before visions of all-powerful encryption-breaking quantum computers come to pass. But the new quantum technologies here today are already beginning to make a dent in the... Read more »
The funding deals ramped up this week in Boston, and the drip, drip, drip of details about the MIT Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein continued to form an unwelcome puddle for... Read more »
Ecommerce software company Shopify will purchase warehouse robotics startup 6 River Systems in a $450 million deal aimed at improving logistics in its new system of fulfillment centers.
Based in Waltham,... Read more »
The ripple effects from a report Friday in The New Yorker about ties between the MIT Media Lab and disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continue to spread. After... Read more »
For a week shortened by the Labor Day holiday heralding the coming end of summer, the past few days yielded their fair share of Boston-area technology business news. Read on for... Read more »
Cogito CEO Joshua Feast isn’t convinced that artificial intelligence will topple the staffing model for call centers. Customer service is not destined—at least anytime soon, he believes—to be handed off completely... Read more »
[Updated 12:35 pm, 8/30/19. Clarified new DraftKings venture.] Welcome to August’s automotive-themed tech news round-up. This week’s batch of news features a dose of updates that range from self-driving... Read more »
There’s a time in a self-driving car company’s life where a minivan is just more sensible than a sleek, European city car.
NuTonomy, the autonomous vehicle startup spun out of... Read more »
The deal VMware unveiled this week to buy cybersecurity firm Carbon Black triggered a heaping share of skepticism.
“I’m having a hard time with the Carbon Black acquisition,” said Jeffries analyst... Read more »
A slower news week for Boston technology news, but not without its fireworks. Among them: Researchers are not taking the news well that MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito had extensive... Read more »
VMware is shelling out big bucks for two companies to fill out its technology stack: developer platform Pivotal Software for $2.7 billion and cybersecurity firm Carbon Black for $2.1 billion.
“These... Read more »
The Boston tech scene lands its first IPO of 2019. DataRobot rakes in about $200 million more. Pushback on facial recognition spreads from Somerville, MA, to neighboring Cambridge. Markforged and Desktop... Read more »
Shares of Waltham, MA-based software intelligence firm Dynatrace hit the public markets for the first time today, and it was a strong debut. Bankers elevated the initial stock pricing above earlier... Read more »
Markforged is reviving its courtroom battle with 3D printing rival Desktop Metal with a lawsuit that alleges “a campaign of dirty tricks” by the competitor that violates a 2018 deal the... Read more »
[Update: On Sept. 17, DataRobot announced it had raised $206 million in a Series E round led by Sapphire Ventures. It brings the Boston company’s total amount raised to $431... Read more »
Mohamad Ali’s departure from Carbonite’s corner office didn’t follow the usual tech executive roadmap to which even his earlier career had hewn. Ali’s career ran through posts building technology tools... Read more »
CEO hopping in Boston, trade-war fallout, acquisitions, IPOs, and autonomous ships. This week in Boston tech news had it all. Read on for all the details.
—Mohamad Ali is stepping down... Read more »
Talk at the Xconomy and the World Frontiers Forum’s Net@50 event started with a simple phrase about taco toppings and ended with discussion of a brain-computer interface that could perhaps enable... Read more »
