Technology and society

Dezeen reporter Rima Sabina Aouf spotlights how MIT researchers have created a “thin and flexible fiber computer and woven it into clothes, suggesting a potential alternative to current wearable electronics.” Prof. Yoek Fink explains: "In the not-too-distant future, fiber computers will allow us to run apps and get valuable health care and safety services from simple everyday apparel.” He adds: "The convergence of classical fibers and fabrics with computation and machine learning has only begun.” 

MIT engineers have manufactured a programmable computer fiber that can be woven into clothing and used to help monitor the wearer’s vital signs, reports Jennifer Ouellette for Ars Technica. “The long-term objective is incorporating fiber computers into apparel that can sense and respond to changes in the surrounding environment and individual physiology,” Ouellette notes. 

New Scientist reporter Alex Wilkins spotlights how MIT researchers have created a “computer that can be stitched into clothes, made from chips that are connected in a thread of copper and elastic fiber.” U.S. Army and Navy members will  be testing the use of the fiber computer to help monitor health conditions and prevent injury during a monthlong mission to the Arctic. Prof. Yoel Fink explains: “We’re getting very close to a point where we could write apps for fabrics and begin to monitor our health and do all kinds of things that a phone, frankly, cannot do.” 

Writing for Project Syndicate, Prof. Daron Acemoglu addresses the potential benefits and risks posed by AI advancements. “AI, properly developed and used, can indeed make us better – not just by providing ‘a bicycle for the mind,’ but by truly expanding our ability to think and act with greater understanding, independent of coercion or manipulation,” explains Acemoglu. “Yet owing to its profound potential, AI also represents one of the gravest threats that humanity has ever faced. The risk is not only (or even mainly) that superintelligent machines will someday rule over us; it is that AI will undermine our ability to learn, experiment, share knowledge, and derive meaning from our activities.”

Writing for The Boston Globe, President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif highlights the fundamental contributions made by universities across the United States in the advancement of scientific and technological innovations, and the role of government funding in these sectors. “Since World War II, the ideas born in university research laboratories have helped to make America great,” writes Reif. “Universities’ contributions should be recognized, and the systems that allow them to contribute should not be recklessly derailed.” 

Steve Mann PhD '97 has been awarded the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for his contributions toward the development of virtual reality, augmented reality, wearable technology, eXtended Reality products and services, reports Thomas Coughlin for Forbes. “Widely regarded as ‘the father of wearable computing,’” Mann “invented, designed, and built the world’s first smartwatch capable of downloading and running a wide variety of apps for health, well-being, and fitness tracking, ushering in a new era of personal health,” explains Coughlin. 

A new study by researchers at MIT has found that “while highly skilled workers reported a 40% surge in performance when artificial intelligence was used within the boundary of its capabilities, overreliance on AI resulted in a performance drop of 19%,” reports Chris Callagher for USA Today. 

Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee speaks with Forbes reporter Joe McKendrick about lessons that he believes technology companies need to absorb. McAfee notes that successful companies “are a lot more egalitarian, they try to modularize themselves and give a great deal of autonomy, and they try to settle their arguments via evidence.”

Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with New York Times reporter Jeff Sommer about the anticipated impact of future AI on various industries. “There is a lot of hype in the industry,” says Acemoglu. While some AI companies have “impressive achievements,” Acemoglu adds that many financial and economic calculations were being based on mere “projections into the future that are sometimes exaggerated.”

Lincoln Lab Senior Scientist Vijay Gadepally speaks with Washington Post reporter Nicolas Rivero about ways to make AI more sustainable. “Whatever we do, energy usage is likely going to go up,” says Gadepally. “That train has left the station.”

Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Bloomberg reporter Jeran Wittenstein about the implications of new AI advancements on areas such as productivity, the labor market and economic growth. “I hope I’m wrong, I hope we get some productivity growth. That would be really cool,” says Acemoglu. “But I don’t see it yet.”

Prof. Max Tegmark speaks with CNBC “Beyond The Valley” podcast hosts Arjun Kharpal and Tom Chitty about concerns surrounding the future of AI systems. “I think, on an optimistic note here, we can have almost everything that we’re excited about with AI,” says Tegmark, “if we simply insist on having some basic safety standards before people can sell powerful AI systems.”

Former postdoctoral associate Wen Shuhao and postdoctoral fellows Ma Jian and Lai Lipeng co-founded Xtalpi, a biotech startup that “uses AI and quantum physics-based calculations to find suitable structures that are fit for drug making,” reports Zinnia Lee for Forbes. The company plans to expand their technology to other industries such as solar panels and electric vehicle batteries. 

Drew Houston '06, founder and CEO of Dropbox, speaks with NBC Boston reporter Ashton Jackson about his work creating and developing the cloud storage platform. "I started Dropbox more out of just personal frustration," says Houston. "It really felt like something only I was super interested in as far as file syncing, and focusing on one customer, which was myself." 

NeuroBionics, an MIT spinoff, has developed bioelectric fibers that could deliver neuromodulation therapy aimed at helping people who live with neurological conditions like depression, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease, reports Connie Loizos for TechCrunch. “The fibers are powered by a fairly standard implantable battery that’s shaped like an AirPod case, designed to last five to 10 years, and is used by other medical device makers for spinal cord stimulation, among other things,” writes Loizos.