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Vertical columns show skin textures with a variety of skin tones, and an inset circle magnifies three columns.

Doctors have more difficulty diagnosing disease when looking at images of darker skin

Dermatologists and general practitioners are somewhat less accurate in diagnosing disease in darker skin, a new study finds. Used correctly, AI may be able to help.

February 5, 2024

AgeLab’s Bryan Reimer named to US Department of Transportation innovation committee

Research scientist will help ensure that transportation’s future is safe, efficient, sustainable, equitable, and transformative.

January 29, 2024

Three squares over black-and-white pixels resembling television static: Left side contains a brown mannequin’s hand tapping a phone screen with its ring finger down in a dark room; at center is a grayscale pixelated image of that gesture; at right is a grayscale, more pixelated image of the gesture.

Study: Smart devices’ ambient light sensors pose imaging privacy risk

The ambient light sensors responsible for smart devices’ brightness adjustments can capture images of touch interactions like swiping and tapping for hackers.

January 29, 2024

Photo of the MIT Dome and surrounding Killian court in autumn with leaves on the ground

School of Engineering fourth quarter 2023 awards

Faculty and researchers across MIT’s School of Engineering receive many awards in recognition of their scholarship, service, and overall excellence.

January 26, 2024

Three people sit around a table with laptops in front of a whiteboard and window

Generating the policy of tomorrow

Hundreds of participants from around the world joined the sixth annual MIT Policy Hackathon to develop data-informed policy solutions to challenges in health, housing, and more.

January 24, 2024

A man and a woman , stand in front of a colorful background. They're holding a piece of translucent, paper-like biomaterial packaging.

Q&A: A blueprint for sustainable innovation

Atacama Biomaterials, co-founded by Paloma Gonzalez-Rojas SM ’15, PhD ’21, combines architecture, machine learning, and chemical engineering to create eco-friendly materials.

January 24, 2024

Close-up photo of a hand gesturing toward a series of floating icons resembling an ancient Greek temple, a book, a balanced scale, a gavel, a paper with a checkmark, and the silhouette of a person in a suit from the bust upwards.

What to do about AI in health?

Although artificial intelligence in health has shown great promise, pressure is mounting for regulators around the world to act, as AI tools demonstrate potentially harmful outcomes.

January 23, 2024

Drawing of a large group of people from an aerial perspective forming a distorted oval shape. Several individuals are standing apart from the formation.

New hope for early pancreatic cancer intervention via AI-based risk prediction

MIT CSAIL researchers develop advanced machine-learning models that outperform current methods in detecting pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

January 18, 2024

Headshots of Athul Paul Jacob, Maohao Shen, Victor Butoi, and Andi Peng.

Reasoning and reliability in AI

PhD students interning with the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab look to improve natural language usage.

January 18, 2024

Realistic illustration of a plane tacking off from a computer tablet a person is holding. Geometric white lines and blue dots surround the scene

Stratospheric safety standards: How aviation could steer regulation of AI in health

An interdisciplinary team of researchers thinks health AI could benefit from some of the aviation industry’s long history of hard-won lessons that have created one of the safest activities today.

January 17, 2024

Rendering of the new MIT Music Building, which feagtures two cubical brick buildings connected by a large arched overhang that serves as both entryway and performance space

3 Questions: A new home for music at MIT

Keeril Makan describes how a new facility, now under construction, features rehearsal and performance spaces, a recording studio, classrooms, and music technology laboratories.

January 9, 2024

With a thought bubble containing a to-do list over its head, a robotic arm begins to complete kitchen tasks in three panels: opening a microwave, opening and closing a cupboard door, and placing a pot on a stove.

Multiple AI models help robots execute complex plans more transparently

A multimodal system uses models trained on language, vision, and action data to help robots develop and execute plans for household, construction, and manufacturing tasks.

January 8, 2024

Thousands of tiny lights hang from the ceiling of an at least 15-story hotel-style atrium. They are seen from the ground looking up.

Technique could efficiently solve partial differential equations for numerous applications

MIT researchers propose “PEDS” method for developing models of complex physical systems in mechanics, optics, thermal transport, fluid dynamics, physical chemistry, climate, and more.

January 8, 2024

Digital illustration of a white robot with a magnifying glass, looking at a circuit-style display of a battery with a brain icon. The room resembles a lab with a white table, and there are two tech-themed displays on the wall showing abstract neural structures in glowing turquoise. A wire connects the robot's magnifying glass to the larger display.

AI agents help explain other AI systems

MIT researchers introduce a method that uses artificial intelligence to automate the explanation of complex neural networks.

January 3, 2024

Several sentences overlapping each other with three of them gray, and one that says “People on Insta be like, ‘Gross!’” in bright colors.

Complex, unfamiliar sentences make the brain’s language network work harder

A new study finds that language regions in the left hemisphere light up when reading uncommon sentences, while straightforward sentences elicit little response.