A paper from MIT researchers suggests that small towns will be more negatively impacted by automation than larger cities, writes Ari Gaskell for HuffPost. The researchers found that, “automation is more likely in roles with repetitive tasks playing a major part, and such lower skilled roles tend to be concentrated more in smaller towns than larger cities.”
MIT researchers have developed an artificial neural network that can generate horror stories by collaborating with people on Twitter, HuffPost reports. Pinar Yanardag, a postdoc at the Media Lab, explains that the system is, “creating really interesting and weird stories that have never really existed in the horror genre.”
Associated Press reporter Matt O’Brien details how Media Lab researchers have developed a new system, dubbed Shelley, that can generate scary stories. O’Brien explains that, “Shelley's artificial neural network is generating its own stories, posting opening lines on Twitter, then taking turns with humans in collaborative storytelling.”
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Senior Lecturer Robert Pozen writes about how to improve the bipartisan health care bill. Pozen writes that measures such as broadening the use of tax-advantaged accounts and encouraging the growth of interstate sales of health care policies should, “ensure the bill has a smoother journey through the legislative process.”
Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Scott Carlson speaks with Prof. Mitchel Resnick about his new book, which highlights the importance of kindergarten. Resnick explains that schools should create a more kindergarten-like environment for all students that enables “kids to follow their own ideas, to have their own agency, to make progress on problems and projects they really care about.”
In an article for Forbes, Elaine Pofeldt highlights how programs such as the MITx MicroMasters in Supply Chain Management provide workers with an opportunity to update their skills at any point in their career. “Education is the ultimate safety net,” explains Anant Agarwal, president of edX.
Noreen O’Donnell and Estefania Hernandez report for NBC Boston on how sustainable energy could be used to help bring power back to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. O’Donnell and Hernandez note that Francis O’Sullivan, director of research for MITEI, explains that, “new technologies could be introduced in strategic locations, such as around public safety buildings or hospitals.”
MIT freshman Katie Collins is highlighted by The Boston Globe for her “noteworthy performance” at the Division 3 pre-nationals women’s cross-country meet. Collins’ performance helped the Engineers to a second-place finish in the meet.
UPI reporter Brooks Hays writes that an international team of astronomers, including MIT Prof. Saul Rappaport, has detected comets outside the Milky Way. “The distant ice balls, roughly the size of Halley's Comet, were spotted orbiting a small star 800 light-years from Earth. They were documented using transit photometry,” Hays explains.
Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald is the recipient of the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, which includes a residency and public talk by the singer-actress, reports Don Aucoin for The Boston Globe.
MIT scientists have developed a technique that could potentially be used one day to treat diseases of the brain, muscles, liver and kidneys by using CRISPR to edit RNA, writes Melissa Healy for The Los Angeles Times. Making edits to the chemical message of RNA, “doesn’t effect a permanent change in a cell’s architectural plan; rather, it essentially alters the implementation of that plan,” explains Healy.
Newsweek reporter Joseph Frankel writes that MIT Media Lab researchers have developed an AI system named Shelley that uses human input to write short horror stories. Frankel explains that Shelley, “tweets out one or two sentences as the start of a new horror story, then calls for users to respond with their own lines.”
Prof. Feng Zhang and his colleagues have created a CRISPR-based system that can edit RNA in human cells, reports Amy Dockser Marcus for The Wall Street Journal. “The new RNA-editing system, which the scientists have dubbed Repair, allows the editing of individual RNA letters, correcting a common mutation known to play a role in a number of diseases.”
Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson writes that Prof. Feng Zhang and his colleagues have engineered CRISPR so that it can edit single RNA letters in human cells. Cookson explains that the researchers believe that, “RNA editing offers a safer and more flexible way to make corrections than the permanent changes involved in DNA editing.”
New Scientist reporter Timothy Revell writes that researchers from the MIT Media Lab have developed a new AI system that can tell scary stories. Revell explains that the system is “powered by deep learning algorithms that have been trained on stories collected from the subreddit /r/nosleep where people share their own original eerie works.”