Artificial intelligence news, research, and commentary.
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Introducing: the Kids issue If the desire to limit kids’ use o
Puzzles and games have been central to AI development since the very beginning. Just as we humans like to test our smarts with crosswords or logic puzzles, developers can test how far models have adva
When my oldest child was born, I immediately set up Gmail and Twitter accounts in her name. I broadly announced her birth online and proceeded to plaster her photo across all sorts of platforms. In sh
It’s a glorious day in Kirkland, Washington, an affluent Seattle suburb on the eastern shore of Lake Washington. The temperature is in the mid-80s, and the sky is incapable of being any more blue. The
During the original US missions to the moon in the 1960s and ’70s, astronauts relied on radio-frequency systems to communicate, sending grainy, low-quality images and videos to Earth. But on the Arte
Many people find AI-based chatbots helpful in keeping up with news, but a study by Pattie Maes and her colleagues at the MIT Media Lab points to a big problem with this strategy. Participants who eval
When remotely operated vehicles settle on the seafloor or dig through a sand bed, they can kick up clouds of sediment that onboard cameras struggle to see through. Often, the only thing to do is wait
Oral and forehead thermometers may not accurately capture a person’s core body temperature, and the few ingestible temperature sensors on the market are so big they are hard to swallow and risk obstru
Vaccines that turn the body’s immune system against tumors have shown promise in clinical trials, and a handful have been FDA approved for certain cancers. In many patients, however, these vaccines do
When Don Yansen ’63 arrived at the MIT AgeLab for a study on technology in caregiving for older adults, he didn’t plan to launch another company. But when he heard participants talk about how hard mo
For Rupert Young ’95, SM ’95, his career in data science and cybersecurity began when his grandfather gifted him thousands of stamps: He built intricate databases to catalogue them, displaying the “pr
Even as a teenager, Laurie Stach ’06 says, she had a “crazy ambition to take on the world and solve problems.” At MIT, she realized she wasn’t the only one. “Adults always see these youth who are good
As a first-generation student from a small town, Gohar Khan ’21 had to navigate the college admissions process largely on his own. He founded his YouTube channel, Gohar’s Guide, to make things easier
Petroleum-based adhesives are everywhere: bonding the wood and drywall in a construction project, holding together the joints of furniture, and even sticking labels to otherwise recyclable containers.
Do fine art and high tech ever converge? At Sotheby’s they do, thanks to Kelly Shen ’17. Shen works in the growing field of art intelligence for the New York auction house. Shen builds algorithms to p
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. How to encourage smarter AI use in the classroom Chatbots took
Humanoid robots are having a moment in China. The popular machines are part of the country’s strategy to bring artificial intelligence into daily life. Embedding the technology into physical systems—a
Counting the creatures in the world around us is critical for a raft of conservation efforts. It helps scientists gauge biodiversity, track migration, and spot invasive species. That census-taking, th