[Originally in Spanish] MIT researchers have developed a new technique to educate robots by increasing human input, reports Uriel Bederman for TN Tecno. “We can’t expect non-technical people to collect data and fine-tune a neural network model," explains graduate student Felix Yanwei Wang. "Consumers will expect the robot to work right out of the box, and if it doesn’t, they’ll want an intuitive way to customize it. That’s the challenge we’re addressing in this work."
Prof. Behnaz Farahi and her team have created “Gaze to the Stars,” an art installation that features video projections of eyes onto the MIT Dome while sharing stories of aspiration, struggle, longing, and hope, reports Emily Maher for WCVB. “Farahi and her team created a space, a pod, where people looked into a screen of stars as their eyes were scanned,” explains Maher. “Next, an AI voice began encouraging them to share their stories.”
A new proposal by graduate student Shayne Longpre and other AI researchers suggests “a new scheme supported by AI companies that gives outsiders permission to probe their models and a way to disclose flaws publicly,” reports Will Knight for Wired. “The authors suggest three main measures to improve the third-party disclosure process: adopting standardized AI flaw reports to streamline the reporting process; for big AI firms to provide infrastructure to third-party researchers disclosing flaws; and for developing a system that allows flaws to be shared between different providers,” writes Knight.
Prof. Behnaz Farahi speaks with WBUR reporter Maddie Browning about her “Gaze to the Stars” exhibit, which will bring illuminated projections of eyes to the MIT Dome. “This is an incredible time to really use art and technology, not to just create something which is provocative, but also have a meaningful experience to share stories that matters,” says Farahi.
Research Scientist Eva Ponce, director of online education for the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics, speaks with Financial Times reporter Rafe Uddin about how companies are shifting toward automation and the impact on employees. “Companies are investing more in upskilling associates… ensuring they’re ready for a new style of work,” says Pone. “More complex tasks will still need to be done by people… These technologies are disruptive. The warehouse of the future is a combination of robotics, sensors and computer vision.”
Researchers from MIT and elsewhere estimate that “while 36% of U.S. private sector jobs were technically ‘exposed’ to automation through computer vision… it would only make economic sense for firms to pursue automation for 8% of all private sector jobs—just a quarter of those jobs labelled ‘exposed,’” report François Candelon, David Zuluaga Martínez and Etienne Cavin for Fortune.
Prof. Sara Beery speaks with TechCrunch reporter Kyle Wiggers about the use of AI tools in the advancement of science. “Most science isn’t possible to do entirely virtually — there is frequently a significant component of the scientific process that is physical, like collecting new data and conducting experiments in the lab,” explains Beery.
Prof. Ryan Williams speaks with New Scientist reporter Matthew Sparkes about his finding concerning the relationship between the amount of memory a computation requires and how long it takes, a discovery that has “wowed computer scientists.” Says Williams of the discovery: “It kind of shakes my world view. I’m still just shocked that it even exists.”
Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee co-founded Workhelix, a “tech-enabled service startup that works with enterprises to better understand and monitor AI automation at their companies,” reports Rebecca Szkutak for Tech Crunch. “Workhelix breaks down a company’s employee positions into specific job functions and tasks and scores each task for its suitability for AI adoption,” explains Szkutak. “This helps companies build roadmaps for how and where to adopt AI and gives enterprises a way to monitor if the AI they adopted is working.”
Writing for Project Syndicate, Prof. Daron Acemoglu addresses the potential benefits and risks posed by AI advancements. “AI, properly developed and used, can indeed make us better – not just by providing ‘a bicycle for the mind,’ but by truly expanding our ability to think and act with greater understanding, independent of coercion or manipulation,” explains Acemoglu. “Yet owing to its profound potential, AI also represents one of the gravest threats that humanity has ever faced. The risk is not only (or even mainly) that superintelligent machines will someday rule over us; it is that AI will undermine our ability to learn, experiment, share knowledge, and derive meaning from our activities.”
Steve Mann PhD '97 has been awarded the IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award for his contributions toward the development of virtual reality, augmented reality, wearable technology, eXtended Reality products and services, reports Thomas Coughlin for Forbes. “Widely regarded as ‘the father of wearable computing,’” Mann “invented, designed, and built the world’s first smartwatch capable of downloading and running a wide variety of apps for health, well-being, and fitness tracking, ushering in a new era of personal health,” explains Coughlin.
A new study by researchers at MIT has found that “while highly skilled workers reported a 40% surge in performance when artificial intelligence was used within the boundary of its capabilities, overreliance on AI resulted in a performance drop of 19%,” reports Chris Callagher for USA Today.
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with New York Times reporter Jeff Sommer about the anticipated impact of future AI on various industries. “There is a lot of hype in the industry,” says Acemoglu. While some AI companies have “impressive achievements,” Acemoglu adds that many financial and economic calculations were being based on mere “projections into the future that are sometimes exaggerated.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Bloomberg reporter Jeran Wittenstein about the implications of new AI advancements on areas such as productivity, the labor market and economic growth. “I hope I’m wrong, I hope we get some productivity growth. That would be really cool,” says Acemoglu. “But I don’t see it yet.”
Prof. Max Tegmark speaks with CNBC “Beyond The Valley” podcast hosts Arjun Kharpal and Tom Chitty about concerns surrounding the future of AI systems. “I think, on an optimistic note here, we can have almost everything that we’re excited about with AI,” says Tegmark, “if we simply insist on having some basic safety standards before people can sell powerful AI systems.”