TechCrunch reporter Danny Crichton spotlights r2C, a startup founded by three MIT alums that is aimed at analyzing and improving lines of code. “With r2c’s technology, developers can scan their codebases on-demand or enforce a regular code check through their continuous integration platform,” writes Crichton.
Forbes contributor Adi Gaskell writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a machine learning system that can determine whether a task is best performed by a human or AI. The researchers developed the system to be “capable of learning and adapting as it goes, such that it can identify,” Gaskell explains, “when the expert isn't available or whether they have a certain level of experience, before choosing whether to defer to them.”
MIT researchers have unveiled a new autonomous modular boat, called the Roboat II, which that uses lidar, GPS and other sensors to navigate its surroundings, reports Kyro Mitchell for Popular Mechanics. The Roboat II “can attach itself to other Roboat II’s to form one large vessel, which is then controlled by a main ‘leader’ boat.”
Forbes reporter Eva Amsen writes about a new study by researchers from the Media Lab that explores how to credit art developed by AI systems. The researches found that “credit for AI-generated art all depends on how we think and talk about the role of AI.”
Researchers from MIT Lincoln Laboratory have developed a new quantum chip with integrated photonics, a “vital step to advance the evolution of trapped-ion quantum computers and quantum sensors,” reports Paul Smith-Goodson for Forbes.
Prof. Fadel Adib has created a new underwater device that not only broadcasts and receives sound, but is also powered by sound, reports The Economist. In the future, Adib and his colleagues hope the device could be used to “transmit information about water temperature, acidity and salinity.”
NBC News reporters Lindsay Hoffman and Caroline Kim spotlight graduate student Joy Buolamwini’s work uncovering racial and gender bias in AI systems in a piece highlighting women who are “shattering ceilings, making groundbreaking discoveries, and spreading public awareness during the global pandemic.” Hoffman and Kim note that Buolamwini’s research "helped persuade these companies to put a hold on facial recognition technology until federal regulations were passed.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Prof. D. Fox Harrell, Francesca Panetta and Pakinam Amer of the MIT Center for Advanced Virtuality explore the potential dangers posed by deepfake videos. “Combatting misinformation in the media requires a shared commitment to human rights and dignity — a precondition for addressing many social ills, malevolent deepfakes included,” they write.
Forbes contributor Peter High spotlights how a study from researchers at MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) examines the digital savviness of companies and their boards. “We found that of all listed companies in the United States with revenues over a billion, only 24% of their boards were digitally savvy, and their companies had much better performance,” explains Peter Weill, senior research scientist and chairman of CISR.
CNN reporter Christine Walker spotlights the MIT App Inventor 2020 virtual hackathon, which allowed aspiring coders from all over the world to create apps aimed at improving the global good. “There was a sense of helplessness that was settling down. And a big theme in our workplace is empowerment," says Selim Tezel, a curriculum developer for App Inventor. "We wanted to give them a context in which they could be creative and sort of get rid of that feeling of helplessness."
The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence has awarded Prof. Regina Barzilay a $1 million prize for her work advancing the use of AI in medicine, reports John McCormick for The Wall Street Journal. "Regina is brilliant, has very high standards, and is committed to helping others,” says Prof. James Collins. “And I think her experience with—her personal experience with cancer—has motivated her to apply her intellectual talents to using AI to advance health care.”
The AP highlights how Prof. Regina Barzilay has been named the inaugural winner of a new award given by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence for her work “using computer science to detect cancer and discover new drugs has won a new $1 million award for artificial intelligence.”
Prof. Regina Barzilay has been named the inaugural recipient of the Squirrel AI Award for Artificial Intelligence to Benefit Humanity for her work developing new AI techniques to help improve health care, reports Rebecca Robbins for STAT. Robbins writes that Barzilay is focused on turning the “abundance of research on AI in health care into tools that can improve care.”
Writing for Fortune, graduate student Jenny Blessing and alumni McCoy Patiño, Tran Nguyen, and Julian Gomez explore how providing tracking options for mail-in ballots could help mitigate the risks of mailing delays. “Mail tracking capability increases accountability of the USPS and boosts public confidence in voting by mail,” they write.
MIT researchers have developed a new model that helps quantify a company’s security risk, and estimates possible financial losses, reports Catherine Stupp for The Wall Street Journal. The tool “collects encrypted data from companies about recent incidents and analyzes the anonymized information to determine the probability of different kinds of attacks more broadly,” writes Stupp.