In the Media

Researchers from MIT have developed liquid metal printing, a new technique that can be used to quickly 3D print large-scale objects such as furniture, reports Designboom. The researchers say this technique can enable 3D printing, “ten times faster than a comparable metal additive manufacturing process, and the process of melting the metal may be more efficient than some other methods, given that metal is also more accessible with the abundance of scraps that can be recycled,” writes Designboom.

Prof. Emeritus Henry Jacoby writes for The Hill about the potential impact of the 2024 presidential election on climate change. “Laissez-faire, ‘do nothing’ climate policy is a recipe for present and future climate and societal harm,” Jacoby writes. “The climate system will not magically self-repair if we continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”

MIT researchers have developed a 3D printing technique called liquid metal printing (LMP) that capable of printing large aluminum parts at least 10 times faster than a comparable metal additive manufacturing process, reports Brian Heater for TechCrunch. LMP “utilizes a bed of 100-micron glass beads to create a structure into which molten aluminum is deposited — a process not entirely dissimilar from injection molding,” explains Heater. “The beads are capable of standing up to the intense temperature, while allowing the heat to quickly dissipate as the metal solidifies.”

Fast Company reporter Adele Peters spotlights Boston Metal – an MIT startup that uses electrolysis to heat iron ore and create liquid steel without releasing carbon emissions. “If the process runs on renewable energy, the steel is zero-emissions,” explains Peters. “The same technique can be used to extract other valuable metals from mining waste.”

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have developed an AI model that is capable of identifying 3 ½ times more people who are at high-risk for developing pancreatic cancer than current standards, reports Felice J. Freyer for The Boston Globe. “This work has the potential to enlarge the group of pancreatic cancer patients who can benefit from screening from 10 percent to 35 percent,” explains Freyer. “The group hopes its model will eventually help detect risk of other hard-to-find cancers, like ovarian.”

New York Times opinion writer Peter Coy spotlights the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative, a new effort aimed at analyzing the forces that are eroding job quality for non-college workers and identifying ways to move the economy onto a more equitable trajectory. Nothing is “inexorable,” said Prof. Daron Acemoglu during the project’s kickoff event. “The answer in most cases is, AI will do whatever we choose it to do.”

Researchers at MIT have developed a cathode, the negatively-charged part of an EV lithium-ion battery, using “small organic molecules instead of cobalt,” reports Hannah Northey for Energy Wire. The organic material, "would be used in an EV and cycled thousands of times throughout the car’s lifespan, thereby reducing the carbon footprint and avoiding the need to mine for cobalt,” writes Northey. 

Researchers at MIT have released a new working paper that aims to quantify the severity and speed with which AI systems could replace human workers, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. The paper concluded that “it’s not enough for AI systems to be good at tasks not performed by people,” explains Bray. “The system must be good enough to justify the cost of installing it and redesigning the way a job is done.”

A new working paper by MIT researchers predicts “only 23% of wages linked to vision-related tasks could be feasibly cost-effectively replaced by AI,” reports Gil Press for Forbes. The researchers “argue that their findings apply also to generative AI or the automation of language-related tasks,” writes Press.

Prof. Jonathan Weissman and his colleagues have developed a new tool for monitoring changes in human blood cells, which could one day help researchers predict disease risk, reports Megan Molteni for STAT. “The technology paves the way for a day in the not too distant future where it is conceivable that from a simple blood draw, a doctor could get a sense of what’s going on in that patient’s bone marrow,” writes Molteni, “picking up perturbations there that could help predict a diverse range of diseases.”

A new working paper by MIT researchers finds that artificial intelligence is not currently a cost-effective replacement in jobs where computer vision is employed, reports Saritha Rai for Bloomberg. “Our study examines the usage of computer vision across the economy, examining its applicability to each occupation across nearly every industry and sector,” explains Research Scientist Neil Thompson, director of the FutureTech Research Project at CSAIL. “We show that there will be more automation in retail and healthcare, and less in areas like construction, mining or real estate.”

In a new study examining the potential impact of AI on jobs that employ computer vision, MIT researchers found, “a vast majority of jobs previously identified as vulnerable to AI are not economically beneficial for employers to automate at this time,” reports Catherine Thorbecke for CNN. “In many cases, humans are the more cost-effective way, and a more economically attractive way, to do work right now,” says Research Scientist Neil Thompson, director of the FutureTech Research Project at CSAIL. “What we’re seeing is that while there is a lot of potential for AI to replace tasks, it’s not going to happen immediately.”

A new working paper by MIT researchers focuses on whether human work, including vision tasks, are worth replacing with AI computer vision, reports Jeremy Hsu for New Scientist. “There are lots of tasks that you can imagine AI applying to, but actually cost-wise you just wouldn’t want to do it,” says Research Scientist Neil Thompson, director of the FutureTech Research Project at CSAIL.

Writing for The Hill, Prof. Arnold Barnett examines the safety of passenger flights. “The safety of flying in countries like the U.S. is the eighth wonder of the world,” notes Barnett. “Far from being nervous as we approach the airport, we should be awestruck that flying is so free of risk — and deeply grateful to those who have made it so.”

Prof. Ron Weiss co-founded Strand Therapeutics, a biotech company developing mRNA therapies, reports Emily Mullin for Wired. “The notion is that genetic circuits can really have significant impact on safety and efficacy,” says Weiss. “This begins to really open up the door for creating therapies whose sophistication can match the underlying complexity of biology.”