In the Media

Forbes reporter Joe McKendrick spotlights a study by researchers from the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence evaluating “the performance of humans alone, AI alone, and combinations of both.” The researchers found that “human–AI systems do not necessarily achieve better results than the best of humans or AI alone,” explains graduate student Michelle Vaccaro and her colleagues. “Challenges such as communication barriers, trust issues, ethical concerns and the need for effective coordination between humans and AI systems can hinder the collaborative process.”

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, shares the importance of having conversations about intergenerational family wealth transfers to help avoid disputes in inheritances plans, report Anne Tergesen and Dalvin Brown for The Wall Street Journal. "The only way to avoid causing stress, surprise or anger to people is to have these discussions gradually over time," says Coughlin.

Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, speaks with NBC Boston reporter Colton Bradford about her work developing a new AI system aimed at making grocery shopping easier, more personalized and more efficient. “I think there is an important synergy between what people can do and what machines can do,” says Rus. “You can think of it as machines have speed, but people have wisdom. Machines can lift heavy things, but people can reason about what to do with those heavy things.” 

Prof. David Autor has been named a Senior Fellow in the Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Fellows program, and Profs. Sara Beery, Gabriele Farina, Marzyeh Ghassemi, and Yoon Kim have been named Early Career AI2050 Fellows, reports Michael T. Nietzel for Forbes. The AI2050 fellowships provide funding and resources, while challenging “researchers to imagine the year 2050, where AI has been extremely beneficial and to conduct research that helps society realize its most beneficial impacts,” explains Nietzel. 

TIME has named Lisa Su ’90 SM ’91 PhD ’94, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, the 2024 CEO of the year. “It was at MIT that Su first experienced a semiconductor lab, where she was taken by the idea that such a tiny piece of hardware could carry so much mathematical firepower,” writes Billy Perrigo. “I was really lucky early in my career,” says Su. “Every two years, I did a different thing.” Su adds: “I felt like I was in training for the opportunity to do something meaningful in the semiconductor industry. And AMD was my shot.”

Ben Armstrong, executive director of the Industrial Performance Center, speaks with Financial Times reporter Michael Acton about the future of foreign semiconductor company investments in the United States. Armstrong notes that it could take some time to see returns from the CHIPS and Science Act. “You could say the chip boom hasn’t even started yet,” says Armstrong. “The real benefits in growth that could come from it are not likely to pay off until a few years from now.”

Gloria L. Fox, the longest-serving Black woman representative in the Massachusetts Legislature who completed the MIT Community Fellows program, has died at the age of 82, reports Tiana Woodard for The Boston Globe. Fox is remembered as a “superwoman, a legend, and a lifelong advocate of Boston’s black communities,” writes Woodard. “Fox held the seat, representing parts of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mission Hill, and the Fenway for more than 30 years… she championed legislation that addressed health disparities, foster care, criminal justice, and disinvestment, no matter what opposition she faced.” 

New Yorker reporter Rivka Galchen visits the lab of Prof. Hugh Herr to learn more about his work aimed at the “merging of body and machine.” Herr and his team are developing bionic prosthesis that can be completely controlled by the human brain and are designed to allow users “to walk approximately as quickly and unthinkingly as anyone else.”  Herr imagines a future where “we will be able to sculpt our own brains and bodies, and therefore our own identities and experiences.”

Alex Oliva '16, MEng '18 will be touring the country with “Nutcracker! Magical Christmas Ballet” as an acrobat/aerialist, “spinning across the stage inside a 73-inch Cyr wheel,” reports Cate McQuaid for The Boston Globe. “It’s a very simple device, just a circle,” says Oliva. “The laws of physics govern the movement of it the same way that you can spin a coin.”

Researchers at MIT have developed a new type of dynamic gastric balloon that inflates on demand and could be used to help patients feel more full before meals, reports Margherita Bassi for Gizmodo. The engineers have “designed a potential future alternative for patients who, for any number of reasons, cannot treat obesity through medications or invasive surgeries such as gastric bypass surgery or stapling,” writes Bassi. 

Writing for The New York Times, Prof. Anant Agarwal shares AI’s potential to “revolutionize education by enhancing paths to individual students in ways we never thought possible.” Agarwal emphasizes: “A.I. will never replace the human touch that is so vital to education. No algorithm can replicate the empathy, creativity and passion a teacher brings to the classroom. But A.I. can certainly amplify those qualities. It can be our co-pilot, our chief of staff helping us extend our reach and improve our effectiveness.”

Boston Globe reporter Malcom Gay spotlights the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building, a “new hub for music instruction and performance” for MIT’s 30 on-campus ensembles and more than 1,500 students enrolled in music classes each academic year. Gay notes that: “The more than 35,000-square-foot structure offers a variety of classroom, performance, rehearsal, and studio spaces.” He adds that there will be “more than 25 concerts at Tull Concert Hall that are open to the public this spring.”

Anna Sun '23 co-founded Nowadays, an AI-powered event planner, reports Julie Bort for TechCrunch. Nowadays “emails venues, caterers, and the like to gather bids,” explains Bort. “It will even make phone calls to nudge a response to unanswered emails. It then organizes the information and presents it to the event planner, who can make decisions and sign contracts.” 

Lisa Su '90, SM '91, PhD '94, chair and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, has been named one of the Financial Times’ most influential women of the year. “Lisa Su is a trailblazer,” writes Tsai Ing-wen, the former president of Taiwan. “Su has shattered glass ceilings, becoming the first female CEO to lead AMD, the AI chipmaker based in Silicon Valley, and she has broken stereotypes in her industry.” Ing-Wen adds that Su is a “role model, as well as an example of perseverance and strength who inspires us all.”

The MIT Museum is hosting an “After Dark: Made in the ‘90s” event on December 12, reports Claudine Bellanger for The Boston Globe. The event “will feature retro games, a discussion of the decade’s space exploration pursuits with former astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman,” and more, writes Bellanger.