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Hiawatha Bray of The Boston Globe writes that fake news articles are destined for the same fate as spam emails thanks to research from MIT postdoc Ramy Baly, who is developing software to flag fake news sites. Baly hopes to “create a consumer news app that would direct users to reliable news sources from every point on the political compass.”
Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed reports that MIT has announced a $1 billion plan to create a college of computing. The college, which will be named for Stephen Schwarzman, will also “promote teaching and research on computing and artificial intelligence.”
MIT’s new college of computing will teach students how to apply computer science and artificial intelligence in their specific field of study, writes Dave Gershgorn for Quartz. Gershgorn notes that researchers studying the impact of AI on society “have consistently suggested the expansion of interdisciplinary education, on the grounds that computer scientists can sometimes overlook the nuances of other fields.”
With the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, MIT is looking to educate the next generation of people working in the field of AI and computer science, writes James Vincent for The Verge. Vincent explains that the college is also aimed at investigating the ethics involved with the fields of computing and AI, positioning “the college as an ethically minded enterprise.”
In an article for TechCrunch, Danny Crichton calls the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing a “doubling down on the future of computer science.” Crichton writes that “the objective of the new school will be to ensure that all MIT students become familiar with the field regardless of their chosen profession.”
The New York Times writes about the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, calling MIT’s move “a particularly ambitious step.” President Reif says the College will “educate the bilinguals of the future,” people in fields like biology, chemistry, politics, history, and linguistics who are also skilled in the techniques of modern computing that can be applied to them.
TechCrunch reporter Kate Clark spotlights Prof. Tim Berners-Lee’s quest to decentralize the web and provide people with power over their personal data through his new startup inrupt. Clark explains that inrupt is expanding the platform Berners-Lee developed that allows users to “keep their data wherever they choose, rather than being forced to store it on centralized servers.”
Popular Science reporter Rob Verger writes that MIT researchers have developed a new AI system that can help identify fake news. Verger explains that the researchers set out to create a tool that could “evaluate how factually strong different sites are, and their political bias.”
Researchers from MIT and the Qatar Computing Research Institute have developed a machine learning tool that can identify fake news, reports Steven Melendez for Fast Company. Melendez writes that the system “uses a machine learning technique known as support vector machines to learn to predict how media organizations will be classified by Media Bias/Fact Check.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Eugenia Cheng examines how three MIT researchers developed the RSA encryption system. “The development of RSA cryptography shows how mathematics research done for curiosity’s sake can eventually become useful, even if it takes several centuries,” writes Cheng. “It’s almost impossible to predict what research will yield practical results.”
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee has created a new technology aimed at allowing people more control over their online data, reports the BBC News. Berners-Lee felt that the “current model of handing over lots of data to many different online services did not serve people well,” the BBC explains.
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee discusses his new startup Inrupt, which is “the first major commercial venture built off of Solid, a decentralized web platform he and others at MIT have spent years building,” writes Katrina Brooker for Fast Company. Inrupt’s mission is “to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it,” says Brooker.
CSAIL researchers have developed a technique that makes it possible to create 3-D motion sculptures from 2-D video, reports Jennifer Kite-Powell for Forbes. The new technique could “open up the possibility to study social disorders, interpersonal interactions and team dynamics,” Kite-Powell explains.
BBC Click reports on a system developed by CSAIL researchers that creates 3-D motion sculptures based off of 2-D video. The technique, say the researchers, “could help dancers and athletes learn more about how they move.”
Prof. John Leonard speaks with Bloomberg News about his work with the Toyota Research Institute on developing a system that combines machine learning technologies and sensors to make vehicles safer. “Imagine if you had the most vigilant and capably trained driver in the world that could take over in a situation where a teenager took a curve too fast,” says Leonard of the inspiration for the system.