Prof. Iyad Rahwan speaks with New Scientist reporter Sean O’Neill about his work investigating the ethics of artificial intelligence. “I’m pushing for a negotiated social-contract approach,” explains Rahwan. “As a society we want to get along well, but to do it we need property rights, free speech, protection from violence and so on. We need to think about machine ethics in the same way.”
The Media Lab will host a patent archive with Google, Cisco, and the Patent and Trademark Office, writes Bloomberg BNA reporter Malathi Nayak. “This archive really can help individuals who don’t have any clout to reach patent examiners to get their work in front of them and to block bad patents from being issued,” explains research specialist Kate Darling.
Researchers from the MIT Media Lab, Google, Cisco, and the United States Patent and Trademark Office are working together to create an archive for IT industry patents, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. Heater explains that the MIT-hosted “Prior Art Archive” will help patent applicants “find easily accessible examples of prior art and other technical information for reference.”
Researchers from MIT and the Qatar Computing Research Institute have developed a machine learning tool that can identify fake news, reports Steven Melendez for Fast Company. Melendez writes that the system “uses a machine learning technique known as support vector machines to learn to predict how media organizations will be classified by Media Bias/Fact Check.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Eugenia Cheng examines how three MIT researchers developed the RSA encryption system. “The development of RSA cryptography shows how mathematics research done for curiosity’s sake can eventually become useful, even if it takes several centuries,” writes Cheng. “It’s almost impossible to predict what research will yield practical results.”
On this episode of BBC’s Witness podcast, Prof. Ioannis Yannas speaks about his work developing artificial skin made of collagen. Used to cover burns too large for skin grafts, the collagen membrane kept infection out and “solved the problem of having the patient grow back their own skin organ, which was unheard of at that time,” explains Yannas.
Prof. Yoel Fink speaks with BBC Click about his work developing fabrics embedded with light-emitting diodes that could help keep pedestrians safe. Fink explains that the fabric can detect the lights from an oncoming vehicle and establish an “affirmative link between the car and pedestrian.”
In this video, Reuters reporter Matthew Stock explores how researchers at the MIT Senseable City Lab are using big data to help make crowded cities better places to live. Stock explains that researchers hope to use anonymous data to improve public infrastructure and living spaces to “make the metropolis fit for future generations.”
Vox reporter Zack Beauchamp highlights a study co-authored by Prof. Ezra Zuckerman Sivan that finds voters often support a politician they recognize is lying when the politician is viewed as upholding a specific group’s best interests. Zuckerman Sivan explains that the lies are seen as “as a tool for expressing a larger truth.”
In an article for The Washington Post, Beth Simone Noveck highlights RiskMap, an open-source platform developed by researchers from MIT’s Urban Risk Lab that allows users to gather and access information about disaster areas. Noveck writes that “RiskMap is a paradigmatic example of collective intelligence.”
Wall Street Journal reporters Annie Gasparro and Jesse Newman spotlight the Media Lab’s Open Agriculture Initiative, where Caleb Harper is at work developing a Food Computer. Harper explains that the Food Computer, a controlled environment where all of a plant’s needs are controlled and tracked, is a “fundamentally different way of thinking about where we plant things and why.”
Forbes contributor Jeff McMahon writes that a new study by MIT researchers finds that nuclear reactors “cost so much in the West because of poor construction management practices.” The study’s authors suggest several ways to reduce the cost of constructing a nuclear plant, including standardizing multi-unit sites, seismic isolation, and modular construction.
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee has created a new technology aimed at allowing people more control over their online data, reports the BBC News. Berners-Lee felt that the “current model of handing over lots of data to many different online services did not serve people well,” the BBC explains.
In an article for Forbes, Charles Towers-Clark spotlights how MIT researchers developed a surgical technique that allows amputees to receive feedback from prosthetic limbs. The technique, Towers-Clark writes, “uses a muscle graft from another part of the body to complete the muscle pair, avoiding rejection which currently occurs in around 20% of cases, and allowing the patient to communicate naturally with the new limb.”
Wired reporter Megan Molteni highlights Prof. Aviv Regev’s work leading the Human Cell Atlas, an effort to catalog the cells in the human body that could eventually serve as a roadmap for understanding and treating disease. “From the beginning we have designed this as a public good and an open resource to enable science around the world,” Regev explains.