Bloomberg News reporter Carol Massar spotlights how MIT researchers have developed a robot that can identify and sort recyclables. “The system includes a soft Teflon hand that uses tactile sensors to detect the size of an object and the pressure needed to grasp it,” Massar reports. “From there it can determine if it’s made of metal, paper or plastic.”
Researchers at MIT have found that adversarial examples, a kind of optical illusion for AI that makes the system incorrectly identify an image, may not actually impact AI in the ways computer scientists have previously thought. “When algorithms fall for an adversarial example, they’re not hallucinating—they’re seeing something that people don’t,” Louise Matsakis writes for Wired.
MIT researchers have identified a new method to engineer neural networks in a way that allows them to be a tenth of the size of current networks without losing any computational ability, reports Avery Thompson for Popular Mechanics. “The breakthrough could allow other researchers to build AI that are smaller, faster, and just as smart as those that exist today,” Thompson explains.
Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney writes that a programmer has cracked a 20-year-old cryptographic puzzle that was created to celebrate 35 years of research at MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science (now CSAIL). When he created the puzzle, Prof. Ron Rivest expected it would require “35 years of continuous computation to solve, with the computer being replaced every year by the next fastest model available.”
A cryptographic puzzle used to seal a time capsule at the Stata Center has been solved, reports Tim Caputo for WHDH News. Prof. Ron Rivest explains that the puzzle is based on a fairly simple operation. “Multiply a number by itself, divide by a third number and take the remainder,” he explains. “But, you do that over and over and over again.”
A cryptographic puzzle developed to honor MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science (now CSAIL) has been cracked by a programmer from Belgium, reports Spencer Buell for Boston Magazine. Buell explains that the answer to the puzzle reveals a “‘secret message’ that unlocks a time capsule designed by architect Frank Gehry, which contains geeky artifacts contributed by early computing luminaries, including Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee.”
Axios reporter Steve Levine highlights Media Lab Director Joi Ito’s recent comments about how the internet may be heading toward a dark period due to rising violence and political tensions around the world. Ito notes that both democratic and authoritarian nations are creating “a balkanized and not-so-open internet everywhere.”
Wired reporter Daniel Oberhaus spotlights how a programmer has solved the cryptographic puzzle that was used to ceremonially seal a time capsule of early computer history at the Ray and Maria Stata Center. The puzzle, which was designed by Institute Professor Ron Rivest, “involved finding the number that results from running a squaring operation nearly 80 trillion times.”
Writing for Wired, Prof. Joi Ito, director of the Media Lab, argues against the notion of singularity, the concept that AI will supersede humans. “Instead of thinking about machine intelligence in terms of humans vs machines, we should consider the system that integrates humans and machines – not artificial intelligence but extended intelligence,” writes Ito.
Quartz reporter Anne Quito spotlights how graduate student Arnav Kapur has developed a wearable device that allows users to access the internet without speech or text and could help people who have lost the ability to speak vocalize their thoughts. Kapur explains that the device is aimed at augmenting ability.
Motherboard reporter Nicole Carpenter explores the history of the source code for the text adventure game Zork, which was developed in 1977 by members of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science. Carpenter explains that for a niche group of programmers, the source code, could serve as “a collection of information that’ll propel their research forward.”
In this video, Reuters explores how MIT researchers have developed a robot that can automatically sort recycling. The robot uses a pressure sensor to squeeze items to determine how they should be sorted.
Axios reporter Ina Fried spotlights how graduate student Arnav Kapur has developed a system that can detect speech signals. “The technology could allow those who have lost the ability to speak to regain a voice while also opening up possibilities of new interfaces for general purpose computing,” Fried explains.
BBC Click spotlights how CSAIL researchers have developed a robot that can automatically sort recycling. “Many paper and plastic cups look the same, but by introducing the ability to squeeze the object and to know whether it is flexible or not we are able to go one step beyond what today’s methods can do, explains Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL.
TechCrunch reporter Brian Heater writes that MIT researchers have developed a robot that can recycle materials using sensors that allow it to differentiate between objects. Heater explains that “the system utilizes a Teflon gripper with built in sensors that are capable of determining an object’s makeup based on size and stiffness.”