In the Media

Researchers from MIT and BU developed the Cleana toilet seat, which is aimed at addressing poor toilet etiquette, reports Katie Thompson for WCVB. “One toilet seat lifts and stays in the up position after the seat is placed down is designed for a more high-traffic commercial space,” writes Thompson. “The residential version, meanwhile, includes a seat and lid that are both designed to automatically lower after use, helping protect the open toilet bowl from small children and pets — as well as creating a better aesthetic look.”

A study from MIT and elsewhere has found that a new building code in Massachusetts designed to promote “net zero” development, “would increase construction costs and potentially worsen the state’s housing crisis,” reports Greg Ryan for NBC Boston.

MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Dean Daniel Huttenlocher speaks at the Aspen Ideas Festival on how to regulate AI while maximizing its positive impact, reports NBC. “I think when we think about regulation [of artificial intelligence] we need to think about this in the ways we’ve traditionally thought about things – risk, reward, tradeoffs – and that tends to be domain specific,” says Huttenlocher. “It’s hard to have sort of an abstract notion of this new technology and what the risk [and] reward is across all domains.”

New York Times reporter Robert D. McFadden highlights the work of Prof. John Goodenough, a scientist who worked at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory for over 20 years and played a “crucial role in developing the revolutionary lithium-ion battery” has died at age 100. “At MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory in the 1950s and ’60s, he was a member of teams that helped lay the groundwork for random access memory (RAM) in computers and developed plans for the nation’s first air defense system,” writes McFadden.

Prof. Deb Roy speaks with CNBC reporter Deirdre Bosa about “the relationship between machine-leaning technology and humans.”

Researchers at MIT have developed an extra-absorbent hydrogel that can draw water from the air, reports Ross Cristantiello for Boston.com. The new hydrogel “could potentially help communities ravaged by drought and make air conditioners more energy-efficient,” writes Cristantiello.

Writing for Bloomberg, Prof. Thomas Malone about the need to adapt copyright laws in the era of generative AI. “One promising possibility is to introduce a new body of law based on the premise that different legal protections are appropriate when these massive AI systems can process vast amounts of information far faster and less expensively than humans can,” writs Malone.

Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang co-founded Sublime Systems, a company that has developed a new method for producing cement that is powered by electrochemistry instead of fossil fuel-powered heat, reports Catherine Clifford for CNBC. “I believe climate change has pushed all of us into an extremely fertile, creative period that will be looked back on as a true renaissance,” says Chiang. “After all, we're trying to re-invent the technological tools of the industrial revolution. There's no shortage of great problems to work on!  And time is short.”

Chancellor Melissa Nobles discusses challenges facing higher education, touching on the importance of diversity, inclusion, and affordability in higher learning, as well as her research on race and politics. Nobles notes that MIT’s signature ability is “to foster excellence in fundamental research and education and then to use that research and education to help tackle the world’s toughest problems. Our success rests crucially on our people. We support, we welcome, and we collaborate with some of the best faculty and staff around the world. And, of course, we attract the best students.”

In a letter to the editor of The Washington Post, MIT President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif and Ezekiel J. Emanuel, vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania, emphasize the importance of ensuring international graduate students can stay and work in the U.S. after graduation. “International graduate students are one of the 21st century’s most valuable resources,” they write. “It is time for the United States to start treating them that way.”

Writing for The Hill, Randolph Kirchain and Hessam AzariJafari of the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub emphasize the importance of encouraging development of building materials with low lifetime carbon impact. “When we choose a construction material without considering its life cycle impacts,” they write, “we not only miss an opportunity to reduce use phase and end-of-life emissions, but we can unintentionally worsen them.”

Lecturer Jim Aloisi speaks with CNN reporter Nathaniel Meyersohn about how Taylor Swift’s sold-out Eras Tour is impacting public transportation across the United States. “What Taylor Swift is doing, and I thank her for this — although I don’t know she intended to — is proving that if you give people better, reliable transit alternatives, they’ll take it,” says Aloisi. “They would prefer to do that than be stuck in soul-crushing traffic.”

Ali Khademhosseini PhD ’05 founded Omeat, a cultivated meat startup that “enables the cultivation of any meat in a way that is orders-of-magnitude more sustainable and humane than the conventional approach,” reports Christine Hall for TechCrunch.

Prof. Marzyeh Ghassemi speaks with Yahoo News reporter Rebecca Corey about the benefits and risks posed by the use of AI tools in health care. “I think the problem is when you try to naively replace humans with AI in health care settings, you get really poor results,” says Ghassemi. “You should be looking at it as an augmentation tool, not as a replacement tool.”

Prof. Kevin Esvelt and his students have found that language-generating AI models could make it easier to create pandemic potential pathogens, reports Kelsey Piper for Vox.