In the Media

Writing for Forbes, lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota '08, SM '16, MBA '16 explores the role of artificial intelligence and biotechnology in transforming the healthcare industry specifically for venture capitalists (VCs). “The fusion of AI and biotechnology presents a wealth of opportunities for venture capitalists,” writes Hayes-Mota. “By staying attuned to emerging trends and adopting strategies for impactful investments, VCs can drive innovation and create transformative changes in healthcare.” 

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed a new technique that removes lead from water using repurposed beer yeast, reports Boston 25 News. The researchers “developed a hydrogel capsule to hold the yeast after it is cleaned, freeze-dried, and ground into a powder,” explains Boston 25. “Researchers said the yeast capsules could be modified to remove other dangerous contaminants from water, including PFAS and microplastics.” 

Prakash Govindan PhD '12 and Anurag Bajpayee SM '08 PhD '12 co-founded AlkaLi, a startup working to extract lithium from brine and process it for use in batteries, reports Amy Feldman for Forbes. AlkaLi uses resins and membranes to more easily extract the lithium from brine, then relies on its own technology to concentrate the mineral, which ultimately is precipitated into a solid for use in batteries,” writes Feldman. 

Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, speaks with Forbes’ Jann Freed about the importance of social connections in retirement. We focus on money and financial security, but we should also be considering “the social capital (friends) we will need to remain connected, engaged, to have fun, and to manage the many challenges older age will bring,” says Coughlin.

DragonBot, an AI tool developed by the MIT Personal Robotics Group, “is designed to teach children empathy and social skills,” reports Neil Sahota for Forbes. “These interactions, while mediated through technology, are invaluable in nurturing the social and emotional growth of children,” writes Sahota.

Research Scientist Neil Thompson speaks with New York Times reporter Hank Sanders about the economic and social impact of AI technology in the fast-food industry. Thompson explains that “voice A.I. is inaccurate often enough that it requires some level of human oversight, which decreases cost savings,” writes Hank.

Researchers from MIT have developed “sustainable, offshore, hydrodynamic,” artificial reef structures capable of dissipating “more than 95% of an incoming wave’s total energy,” reports Nick Warburton for Materials World. The design “comprises vertical cylinders with four rudder-like slats attached to them, so that water can flow through the structure to generate 'swirling masses of water' or large eddies,” explains Warburton. 

Wall Street Journal reporter Justin Lahart spotlights the work of Prof. David Autor, an economist whose “thinking helped change our understanding of the American labor market.” Harvard Prof. Lawrence Katz says Autor has “probably been the most insightful and influential scholar of the labor market” in decades.  “To me, the labor market is the central institution of any society,” says Autor. “The fastest way to improve people’s welfare is to improve the labor market.” 

MIT researchers have improved upon the diffusion models used in AI image generation, reports Alok Jha for The Economist. Working with electrically charged particles, the team created “Poisson flow generative models,” which “generate images of equal or better quality than state-of-the-art diffusion models, while being less error-prone and requiring between ten and 20 times fewer computational steps,” Jha explains. 

Prof. Evelina Fedorenko has uncovered evidence that the human brain uses language for communicating, not reasoning, writes Carl Zimmer for The New York Times. “Other regions in the brain are working really hard when you’re doing all these forms of thinking, but it became clear that none of those things seem to engage language circuits,” she says. 

Gizmodo reporter Passant Rabie spotlights new research by MIT geologists that finds waves of methane on Titan likely eroded and shaped the moon’s coastlines. “If we could stand at the edge of one of Titan’s seas, we might see waves of liquid methane and ethane lapping on the shore and crashing on the coasts during storms,” explains Prof. Taylor Perron. “And they would be capable of eroding the material that the coast is made of.” 

MIT scientists have found that lakes and seas made of methane may have shaped Titan’s shores, writes Jess Thomson for Newsweek. “This discovery could allow astronomers to learn even more about the conditions on Titan,” writes Thomson. “Knowing that waves carved out the coast enables them to predict how fast and strong the winds on the moon are and from which direction they blow.” 

Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Greg Rosalsky of NPR’s Planet Money about AI’s potential effect on jobs, specifically the translation business. “I think how good AI has become is often exaggerated,” says Acemoglu. “But there is pretty much nothing that humans do as meaningful occupation that generative AI can now do. So in almost everything it can at best helps humans, and at worst, not even do that.”

Prof. Hugh Herr joins the BBC’s Shiona McCallum to discuss a program by the K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics aimed at bringing prosthetics to those who suffered forced amputations during the Sierra Leone Civil War. “When we train a young person on how to construct an arm or leg prothesis we’ve impacted the country for solidly forty years,” Herr says. “That person’s going to be living in that country and contributing to their community for a very long time. That’s exciting.” 

Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of the Engine Ventures, speaks with Boston Globe reporter Aaron Pressman about The Engine Ventures’ third investment fund, which remains focused on “helping early-stage startups develop and commercialize ‘tough tech,’ which can include anything from fusion power generators to cement made without fossil fuels.” Rae notes: “You see this dynamism not just for climate, but for all things manufacturing, whether it’s biotech, whether it’s AI chips, it is about as an exciting moment as you could get for what we do.”