In the Media

Prof. Marzyeh Ghassemi speaks with Mark Herz, host of GBH Morning Edition, about the potential benefits and issues associated with using AI in medicine. “Where I really see a lot of fantastic opportunity is identifying spaces where humans don’t have a fundamental capacity, like early breast cancer detection where it’s a sub-clinical presentation,” says Ghassemi. “These are spaces where humans cannot do or have been proven not to be good at a very specific clinical task. And there, AI can really help close the gap.” 

In discussion with Deni Ellis Bechard for Scientific American, Prof. Emeritus Rodney Brooks shares his thoughts on a robot that ran a half marathon faster than a human. “When you see a performance of an AI system or a robot on one thing, that fools us into thinking that it has the same general competence as a human,” says Brooks. “And that’s a mistake people make.” 

A new study from MIT researchers shows that plants can ‘hear’ rain coming. “Plants have external sensing resulting from cellular structures called statoliths, which shift and settle at the bottom of plant cells, while assisting the organisms in detecting changes in stability and position,” reports Rob Taub for NewsNation.

Researchers at MIT have found that plants can sense the sound of rain before the water reaches them.  “The sound of rain spurs rice seeds to sprout up to 40 percent faster than they would otherwise,” writes K.R. Callaway for Scientific American. “The results mark the first direct evidence that plants sense the sound of the world around them and respond to it.” 

Prof. Susan Solomon joins Rachel Feltman on Scientific American’s Science Quickly podcast to discuss her experience researching the cause and solution for the Antarctic ozone hole in the 1980s. “Amazingly, we can show, with 95 percent confidence, now the Antarctic ozone hole is beginning to heal,” says Solomon, who published a paper on that topic last year. “That was a real incredible moment for me…I was there in 1986, and in 2026 I saw this paper appear that actually shows that we can be confident we’re seeing recovery.”

Prof. Thomas Malone and his colleagues at MIT Sloan have developed a way to analyze work, which may help predict which jobs are likely most vulnerable to AI. The researchers found that “AI mainly threatens workers who manage information. But not all of them,” writes Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. “Malone noted that some industries demand human empathy, a sense of ethics, and a knack for teamwork. That’s why he thinks health care jobs are relatively safe.” 

Prof. Shu-Heng Shao was one of 15 recipients of the New Horizon Prizes, a Breakthrough Prize that is awarded to early-career physicists and mathematicians. “Shao worked alongside other researchers to develop the theory of “generalized symmetries” in quantum field theory, which helped create a “new language” of possibilities in the field beyond the traditional understanding of symmetries,” reports Bryan Hecht for The Boston Globe.

Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with with Greg Iacurci at CNBC about using AI for personal finances. “One of the things about [large language models] that I find particularly concerning is that no matter what you ask it, it’ll always come back with an answer that sounds authoritative, even if it’s not,” said Lo. ″[People] should be using AI for financial planning — but it’s how they use it that’s important.” 

Prof. Anette “Peko” Hosoi and Andy Harland of Loughborough University lace up their shoes to chat about how runners can optimize their marathon performance with Edgar B. Herwick III of GBH’s Curiosity Desk.  The Boston Marathon “is an iconic race and it is challenging for a lot of different reasons,” Hosoi notes. “Boston starts on a downhill, so you feel great…but if you are not managing your energy by the time you get to Heartbreak Hill at mile 20 you are going to be suffering.” 

President Sally Kornbluth joins Sloan Senior Lecturer Brian Halligan MBA ’05 on his podcast “Long Strange Trip: CEO to CEO” to chat leadership strategies, AI and education, and MIT's approach to preparing students for life after college. “People talk to me, alums talk to me about how MIT changed their lives. It's not because of some particular class or some particular skill they acquired. It’s the whole environment,” Kornbluth notes. She adds that when it comes to educating students, at MIT "we want them to have the kind of knowledge base and ability to navigate the world that will enable them to do anything they want to do.”

MIT scientists have developed a new model, dubbed "PlanetWaves," that predicts wave behavior on different planets, showing that the "smallest gust of wind on Titan could generate huge, roiling waves across seas of hydrocarbons," reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. “PlanetWaves is far more than a novel simulator,” writes Paul. “Calculating fluid behaviors on distant planets and moons could help inform engineers building new spacecraft and probes.”

Prof. Simon Johnson joins Michel Martin of NPR’s Morning Edition to discuss the International Monetary Fund’s latest forecast showing the impact of the war in Iran on economic growth and inflation. Johnson notes that the war “is a big shock to energy prices. Energy prices are an important element of economies around the world...So I'm afraid a lot of countries are suffering a deceleration of growth or even some negative growth.”

MIT researchers have developed a new traffic navigation system that more accurately reflects travel time by including parking data, reports Catherine Parotta for Boston 25. “What we can do is figure out if you’re best off trying this parking lot first, even if it’s farther than the closest parking lot,” explains Prof. Cathy Wu. Graduate student Cameron Hickert adds that: “We hope that this can help people make better decisions." 

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Clare Ansberry about how the baby boomers are shaping and transforming the future of aging. “They are reinventing old age,” he notes. Coughlin adds: “If you don’t have expectations of getting better, then you simply become satisfied with what is.” 

In an article for The Financial Times, Prof. Carlo Ratti writes about his group’s new research that “reveals that those over the age of 66 have more encounters with a broader cross-section of society than younger, working-age groups.” Ratti adds: “Armed with data that shows retirement expands opportunities for social interaction, cities could be designed to support this more deliberately. Retirement communities could be woven into student neighborhoods, for example, allowing knowledge to circulate across generations. Public spaces could be optimized to encourage everyday mixing.”