Researchers from the Data Provenance Initiative, a research group led by MIT engineers, have found that “important web sources used for training AI models have restricted the use of their data,” reports Kevin Roose for The New York Times. “We’re seeing a rapid decline in consent to use data across the web that will have ramifications not just for A.I. companies, but for researchers, academics and noncommercial entities,” explains graduate student Shayne Longpre.
Prof. Stuart Madnick speaks with Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray about how the CrowdStrike update caused a global IT outage. Madnick “expects the hits to keep on coming because so many companies depend on certain IT vendors,” writes Bray. “This is happening more and more often, and the consequences are even larger and larger,” cautions Madnick.
Visiting Scientist Ariel Ekblaw speaks with Scientific American’s Andrew Chapman about a microgravity water cooker called the H0TP0T, part of a mock space habitat set to open in Boston in early August. For the project “Ekblaw and a colleague interviewed nearly two dozen astronauts—who often mentioned better cooking options and tastier food as important ways to improve their well-being,” Chapman explains.
Prof. Armando Solar-Lezama speaks with The Wall Street Journal reporter Isabelle Bousquette about large language models (LLMs) in academia. Instead of building LLMs from scratch, Solar-Lezama suggests “students and researchers are focused on developing applications and even creating synthetic data that could be used to train LLMs,” writes Bousquette.
Prof. Michael Cusumano speaks with Associated Press reporters Matt O’Brien and Sarah Parvini about a new approach to AI acquisitions and the impact on smaller AI startups. “To acquire only some employees or the majority, but not all, license technology, leave the company functioning but not really competing, that’s a new twist,” says Cusumano.
Institute Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with CNBC Last Call host Brian Sullivan about what he describes as exaggerated claims about the macroeconomic effects of AI. “I am completely convinced that there are some impressive changes and there are some things that AI can really help us with, but it's not going to suddenly revolutionize everything we do,” Acemoglu says. “And if it's going to do it, it's going to take a while.”
Prof. David Rand speaks with New York Times reporters Tiffany Hsu and Stuart A. Thompson about the challenges of stopping the spread of misinformation. “It seems like an easy enough problem: there’s the true stuff and there’s the false stuff, and if the platforms cared about it, they would just get rid of the false stuff,” says Rand. “Then we started working on it and it was like, ‘Oh God.’ It’s actually way more complicated.”
Forbes reporter Ulrich Boser spotlights Prof. Rosalind Picard and her work toward advancing “the capability of computers to recognize human emotions.” “AI can enhance learning, and chatbots can supplement many aspects of teaching and tutoring but true success lies in establishing better tutoring platforms to support – not replace – teachers,” writes Boser.
MIT scientists studying parrots have discovered higher intelligence than previously thought, with some birds besting five-year-old children at logic games. With a tablet computer, parrots “have even figured out how to communicate using modern video conferencing technology,” writes Mack DeGeurin for Popular Science. When shown pictures of other parrots they had previously chatted with, “the parrots repeatedly requested to chat with their long-distance friends.”
Ivan Casadevantre MS '15 and Hasier Larrea MS '15 co-founded ORI Living – a furniture company that uses electromechanics to develop furniture systems designed for space efficiency. “You have to make those small spaces feel and act as if they were much larger,” says Larrea. “And that’s when we started thinking about robotics, thinking about engineering, and how we bring all those technologies to make it possible to live large in a smaller footprint.”
Prof. Sherry Turkle joins Manoush Zomorodi of NPR’s "Body Electric" to discuss her latest research on human relationships with AI chatbots, which she says can be beneficial but come with drawbacks since artificial relationships could set unrealistic expectations for real ones. "What AI can offer is a space away from the friction of companionship and friendship,” explains Turkle. “It offers the illusion of intimacy without the demands. And that is the particular challenge of this technology."
MIT scientists have created RoboGrocery, a robot prototype that can pack a bag of standard groceries, reports Mack DeGeurin for Popular Science. Using an RGB-D camera equipped with computer vision technology and grippers with pressure sensors, RoboGrocery’s “ability to assess items, determine their delicacy, and pack efficiently without causing damage sets it apart from conventional robotic packers,” explains Prof. Daniela Rus.
Using multimodal sensing and a soft robotic manipulator, MIT scientists have developed an automated system, called RoboGrocery, that can pack groceries of different sizes and weights, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. Heater explains that as the soft robotic gripper touches an item, “pressure sensors in the fingers determine that they are, in fact, delicate and therefore should not go at the bottom of the bag — something many of us no doubt learned the hard way. Next, it notes that the soup can is a more rigid structure and sticks it in the bottom of the bag.”
Prof. Yoon Kim speaks with Vox reporter Adam Clark Estes on how to address hallucinations and misinformation within large language models. “I don't think we'll ever be at a stage where we can guarantee that hallucinations won't exist,” says Kim. “But I think there's been a lot of advancements in reducing these hallucinations, and I think we'll get to a point where they'll become good enough to use.”
Researchers from MIT have developed RoboGrocery, a soft robotic system that “can determine how to pack a grocery item based on its weight, size and shape without causing damage to the item,” reports Jennifer Kite-Powell for Forbes. “This is more than just automation—it's a paradigm shift that enhances precision, reduces waste and adapts seamlessly to the diverse needs of modern retail logistics,” says Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL.