Boston Globe reporter Andy Rosen writes that MIT is establishing a college of computing as part of an effort to examine the impact computer science and AI is having on all disciplines. “We have to move much faster educating the next generation for the new economy,” explains President L. Rafael Reif. “The way to do that is to come up with integrated curriculum.”
Financial Times reporter Clive Cookson writes that MIT is establishing a college of computing to help students and researchers use computing and AI to advance their work. President L. Rafael Reif explains that the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing “will constitute both a global centre for computing research and education, and an intellectual foundry for powerful new AI tools.”
The New York Times writes about the new MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, calling MIT’s move “a particularly ambitious step.” President Reif says the College will “educate the bilinguals of the future,” people in fields like biology, chemistry, politics, history, and linguistics who are also skilled in the techniques of modern computing that can be applied to them.
CNBC reporter Andrew Zaleski writes that MIT researchers have developed a neuromorphic chip design that could help advance the development of computers that operate like humans. The design could “lead to processors capable of carrying out machine learning tasks with dramatically lower energy demands,” Zaleski explains.
In this Reuters video, Jim Drury highlights how MIT researchers have developed an activity simulator that could one day help teach robots how to complete household chores. The simulator, VirtualHome, could train robots to “help the elderly or disabled in their homes,” Drury explains.
Researchers from MIT and the Qatar Computing Research Institute have developed a machine learning tool that can identify fake news, reports Steven Melendez for Fast Company. Melendez writes that the system “uses a machine learning technique known as support vector machines to learn to predict how media organizations will be classified by Media Bias/Fact Check.”
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee has created a new technology aimed at allowing people more control over their online data, reports the BBC News. Berners-Lee felt that the “current model of handing over lots of data to many different online services did not serve people well,” the BBC explains.
Prof. Tim Berners-Lee discusses his new startup Inrupt, which is “the first major commercial venture built off of Solid, a decentralized web platform he and others at MIT have spent years building,” writes Katrina Brooker for Fast Company. Inrupt’s mission is “to decentralize the web and take back power from the forces that have profited from centralizing it,” says Brooker.
MIT spinout Affectiva Inc. has developed a new system that can study a driver’s face to help assess their mental state, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Bray explains that the system “analyzes facial expressions to determine if a driver is distracted, angry, scared, sleepy, or drunk.”
Forbes reporter Maribel Lopez writes about how researchers at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab are tackling a variety of AI challenges with real-world applications. Lopez notes that it’s great to see organizations like MIT and IBM coming together to “bridge the gap between science and practical AI solutions that can be used for both commercial and social good.”
Fortune reporters Aaron Pressman and Adam Lashinsky highlight graduate student Joy Buolamwini’s work aimed at eliminating bias in AI and machine learning systems. Pressman and Lashinsky note that Buolamwini believes that “who codes matters,” as more diverse teams of programmers could help prevent algorithmic bias.
BBC Click reports on an AI system developed by CSAIL researchers that simplifies image editing. “Instead of requiring the user to select the pixels very accurately, our system can just detect it and give the opacities for every object in the image automatically, which can then be used for editing the images in a realistic way,” explains visiting researcher Yagiz Aksoy.
CSAIL researchers have created a system that allows robots to see and pick up objects they have never encountered without assistance from humans, writes Jason Murdock for Newsweek. The researchers are now working on teaching the system to “move objects with a specific goal in mind, such as cleaning a desk,” reports Murdock.
CSAIL researchers have developed a new system that gives robots a greater visual understanding of the world around them, reports Heather Kelly for CNN. “We want robots to learn by themselves how to very richly and visually understand lots of objects that are useful for lots of tasks,” explains graduate student Pete Florence.
Wired reporter Matt Simon writes that MIT researchers have developed a new system that allows robots to be able to visually inspect and then pick up new objects, all without human guidance. Graduate student Lucas Manuelli explains that the system is “all about letting the robot supervise itself, rather than humans going in and doing annotations.”