MIT researchers have found that more workers without college degrees are optimistic about AI and automation initiatives in the workplace, than those workers with a college diploma, reports Rebecca Klar for Bloomberg Law. The study found “27.4% of workers without a college degree estimated that automation will be beneficial for their job security, compared to 23.7% of workers with a college degree,” explains Klar.
Researchers at MIT have found that “60% of workers who work with robotics and AI think they’ll see positive career impacts as a result in terms of productivity, satisfaction, and job safety,” reports Sam Becker for Fast Company.
MIT has been named the number 2 university in the nation on U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of the country’s top universities and colleges, reports Ross Cristantiello for Boston.com
MIT has been named to the second spot in U.S News & World Report’s “Best National University Rankings,” reports Frank O’Laughlin for Boston 25 News.
MIT was named the number 2 university in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s annual ranking of the best colleges and universities in the country, reports Travis Andersen for The Boston Globe.
Writing for The Washington Post, Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, and Nico Enriquez, a graduate student at Stanford, make the case that the United States should not only be building more efficient AI software and better computer chips, but also creating “interstate-type corridors to transmit sufficient, reliable power to our data centers.” They emphasize: “The United States has the talent, investor base, corporations and research institutions to write the most advanced AI models. But without a powerful data highway system, our great technology advances will be confined to back roads.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Bloomberg reporters John Lee and Katia Dmitrieva about the social and economic impacts of AI. “We don’t know where the future lies,” says Acemoglu. “There are many directions, the technology is malleable, we can make different choices.”
TechCrunch reporters Kyle Wiggers and Devin Coldewey spotlight a new generative AI model developed by MIT researchers that can help counteract conspiracy theories. The researchers “had people who believed in conspiracy-related statements talk with a chatbot that gently, patiently, and endlessly offered counterevidence to their arguments,” explain Wiggers and Coldewey. “These conversations led the humans involved to stating a 20% reduction in the associated belief two months later.”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that LLM-based AI chatbots are more effective at implanting false memories than “other methods of trying to implant memories, such as old-fashioned surveys with leading questions or conversations with a pre-scripted chatbot,” reports Jeremy Kahn for Fortune. “It seems the ability of the generative AI chatbot to shape each question based on the previous answers of the test subjects gave it particular power,” explains Kahn.
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere have created an AI Risk Repository, a free retrospective analysis detailing over 750 risks associated with AI, reports Tor Constantino for Forbes. “If current understanding is fragmented, policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders may believe they have a relatively complete shared understanding of AI risks when they actually don’t,” says Peter Slattery, a research affiliate at the MIT FutureTech project. “This sort of misconception could lead to critical oversights, inefficient use of resources, and incomplete risk mitigation strategies, which leave us more vulnerable.”
In an article for Forbes, Robert Clark spotlights how MIT researchers developed a new model to predict irrational behaviors in humans and AI agents in suboptimal conditions. “The goal of the study was to better understand human behavior to improve collaboration with AI,” Clark writes.
Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner spotlights Prof. Mitchel Resnick, Prof. Neil Gershenfeld, and the late Prof. Emeritus Woodie Flowers and their work developing programs that “get kids excited about, and more proficient in, STEM.” Kirsner underscores: “Each of the initiatives brings some of the hands-on problem solving, messiness, and collaborative prototyping elements of MIT’s culture into the wider world. And they’ve all had a big impact on the way kids learn about technology.”
Forbes contributor Peter High spotlights research by Senior Research Scientist Peter Weill, covering real-time decision-making, the importance of digitally savvy leadership and the potential of generative AI. High notes Weill’s advice to keep up. “The gap between digitally advanced companies and those lagging is widening, and the consequences of not keeping pace are becoming more severe. ‘You can’t get left behind on being real time,’ he warned.”
Researchers from MIT and Northwestern University have developed some guidelines for how to spot deepfakes, noting “there is no fool-proof method that always works,” reports Jeremy Hsu for New Scientist.
Senior lecturer Paul McDonagh-Smith speaks with Forbes reporter Joe Mckendrick about the history behind the AI hype cycle. “While AI technologies and techniques are at the forefront of today’s technological innovation, it remains a field defined — as it has from the 1950s — by both significant achievements and considerable hype," says McDonagh-Smith.