CSAIL researchers have created a system that can sense a person’s movements through walls, writes John Biggs for TechCrunch. The system is primarily intended as a healthcare device and could help with “passive monitoring of a subject inside a room without cameras or other intrusions,” and could provide insight into disease progression, Biggs explains.
Fast Company reporter Melissa Locker writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a system that allows wireless devices to sense a person’s movement through walls. Locker explains that the technology was created as a way to help those who are elderly, as it could be used to “monitor diseases like Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis and provide a better understanding of disease progression.”
In response to a reader’s question about self-driving cars, Mercury News reporter Gary Richards describes new technology in the works by MIT researchers to allow, “driverless cars to change lanes more like human drivers do.”
Visiting Lecturer Irving Wladawsky-Berger writes about Prof. Thomas Malone’s book, Superminds, which examines how machines are becoming increasingly able to complement human intelligence. Wladawsky-Berger writes that Malone shows how, “humans can supply the general intelligence and whatever other skills machines don’t have, and machines can supply the vast information, computational power and other specialized capabilities that people don’t have.”
To prove that the data used to train machine learning algorithms can greatly influence its behavior, MIT researchers input gruesome and violent content into an AI algorithm, writes Benjamin Fearnow for Newsweek. The result is “Norman,” an AI system in which “empathy logic simply failed to turn on,” explains Fearnow.
In this video, BBC Click spotlights VirtualHome, a simulator developed by CSAIL researchers that could be used to teach robots to perform household chores. The researchers hope the system could one day allow for seamless human-robot collaboration by allowing robots to, “cooperate with [humans] in finishing their activity,” explains graduate student Xavier Puig.
HuffPost reporter Thomas Tamblyn writes that MIT researchers developed a new AI system that sees the worst in humanity to illustrate what happens when bias enters the machine learning process. “An AI learns only what it is fed, and if the humans that are feeding it are biased (consciously or not) then the results can be extremely problematic.”
Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray writes about Technology Review’s EmTech Next conference, which examined how technology and AI will impact the future of work. Prof. David Mindell noted that while AI could impact the types of jobs available in the future, machines will always need human assistance. “When robots succeed,” said Mindell, “they’re never alone.”
Bloomberg’s Faye Flam discusses “Superminds,” a new book by Prof. Thomas Malone, and the impact of technology on human intelligence. “One take-home message in "Superminds" is that artificial intelligence is already here, and already changing the world,” writes Flam. “It's beside the point whether a robot with humanlike intelligence is still 20 years away."
In an effort to determine how different data impacts the view of AI, Media Lab researchers used gruesome images to train a system, which ultimately created a psychopathic AI, writes BBC reporter Jane Wakefield. "It highlights the idea that the data we use to train AI is reflected in the way the AI perceives the world and how it behaves," says Prof. Iyad Rahwan.
Prof. Patrick Winston is teaching a computer to read a truncated version of Macbeth in an effort to determine “how to build computer systems that can simulate the human mind’s unique powers of perception and insight,” writes Andy Rosen for The Boston Globe. Winston believes understanding stories is “a fundamental differentiating capability of us humans. And machines don’t have it yet.”
CSAIL researchers have developed a new system that could be used to train machines to complete tasks, writes Patrick Lucas Austin for Gizmodo. The researchers hope the system could eventually be used to, “teach robots how to accomplish tasks simply by showing them actual instructional videos,” Austin explains.
MIT researchers have created a system that aims to teach robots how to perform household chores by breaking down activities into simple steps, reports Sean Captain for Fast Company. Captain explains that in order to simplify each chore, the researchers, “identified sub-tasks to describe thousands of duties in settings such as kitchens, dining rooms, and home offices.”
Wired reporter Matt Simon writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a new virtual system that could eventually be used to teach robots how to perform household chores. Researchers hope the system could one day help robots, “learn to anticipate future actions and be able to change the environment for the human,” explains PhD student Xavier Puig.
MIT researchers have developed a virtual reality system that can train drones to fly faster while also avoiding obstacles, reports Lauren Barack for Salon. Barack explains that the “researchers are programming the drones so they think they're in a living room or bedroom while they fly. They virtually see obstacles around them, but those impediments aren't really there.”