Prof. Stuart Madnick speaks with CNBC reporter Cheryl Winokur Munk about the growing risk of "malvertising" – a new cyberattack technique that places online ads for malicious purposes. “You see something appearing on a Google search, you kind of assume it is something valid,” says Madnick. “You should assume that this could happen to you no matter how careful you are.”
A new paper by MIT researchers has found that “aviation safety is improving by the decade,” reports Monica Pitrelli for CNBC. The paper “states that the risk of dying on a commercial flight globally was 1 per 13.7 million passenger boardings from 2018 to 2022 — a significant improvement from the decade before, and far cry from the one death for every 350,000 boardings that occurred between 1968-1977,” explains Pitrelli.
Researchers at MIT have developed “a publicly available database, culled from reports, journals, and other documents to shed light on the risks AI experts are disclosing through paper, reports, and other documents,” reports Jon McKendrick for Forbes. “These benchmarked risks will help develop a greater understanding the risks versus rewards of this new force entering the business landscape,” writes McKendrick.
Prof. Stuart Madnick speaks with NPR host Alisa Chang about the recent influx of security breaches and how individuals can prepare for future attacks. “There are certain responsibilities companies have, particularly with the disclosure of private information,” explains Madnick. He emphasizes that individuals, "have to realize there are risks and behave as cautiously and fruitfully as you can.”
A new database of AI risks has been developed by MIT researchers in an effort to help guide organizations as they begin using AI technologies, reports Will Knight for Wired. “Many organizations are still pretty early in that process of adopting AI,” meaning they need guidance on the possible perils, says Research Scientist Neil Thompson, director of the FutureTech project.
A new study by MIT researchers finds that commercial air travel continues to get safer, with the risk of a fatality 1 per every 13.7 million passenger boardings globally in the 2018 to 2022 period, reports Brittany Anas for Forbes. “Researchers explain that this trend in safer flights can be understood through ‘Moore’s Law,’ which is the observation that innovators find ways to double computing power of chips every roughly 18 months,” Anas writes. “However, in this case, the MIT team points out, commercial travel has become almost twice as safe in each decade since the late 1960s.”
Elliot Schwartz ’89 PhD ’94 joins NPR’s Planet Money host Jeff Guo to discuss his work using data to help coaches and athletes make sense of the complicated judging systems used in many Olympic sports . “Seeing what happened to artistic swimming kind of makes you realize that the goal of these judging systems is not just about being objective. It's about motivating athletes to push the limits,” Guo says.
A new study by MIT researchers finds that air travel has never been safer, with the fatality rate falling to 1 per every 13.7 million passenger boardings globally in the 2018-2022 period, reports Agence France-Presse. Prof. Arnold Barnett compared aviation safety increases to "'Moore's Law,’ the famous prediction by Intel founder Gordon Moore that the computing power of chips doubles roughly every 18 months. From 1978-1987 the risk of dying was 1 per 750,000 boarding passengers; from 1988-1997 it was 1 per 1.3 million; and in 1998-2007, 1 per 2.7 million.”
MIT researchers have found that “when nudged to review LLM-generated outputs, humans are more likely to discover and fix errors,” reports Carter Busse for Forbes. The findings suggest that, “when given the chance to evaluate results from AI systems, users can greatly improve the quality of the outputs,” explains Busse. “The more information provided about the origins and accuracy of the results, the better the users are at detecting problems.”
MIT graduate student Jerry Lu and University of Virginia Prof. Ken Ono are developing new techniques to help swimmers competing at the Paris Olympics glide through the water even faster, reports Davide Castelvecchi for Nature. Lu and Ono created 3D models of the athletes and then suggested “tiny changes that can shave off precious fractions of a second at every stroke."
Research Scientist Mathieu Huot speaks with Tech Briefs reporter Andrew Corselli about his work with GenSQL, a generative AI system for databases that “could help users make predictions, detect anomalies, guess missing values, fix errors, or generate synthetic data with just a few keystrokes.”
Prof. Stuart Madnick’s research shows "data breaches increased 20% from 2022 to 2023 while the number of victims of such breaches worldwide doubled over the same period," reports Steven Smith for Forbes
Prof. Stuart Madnick speaks with CNN reporter Allison Morrow about cybersecurity concerns stemming from the recent global technology outage. “There are organizations that we’re heavily dependent upon that we don’t even realize how dependent we are until they stop functioning,” says Madnick.
Prof. Stuart Madnick speaks with Boston Globe reporter Hiawatha Bray about how the CrowdStrike update caused a global IT outage. Madnick “expects the hits to keep on coming because so many companies depend on certain IT vendors,” writes Bray. “This is happening more and more often, and the consequences are even larger and larger,” cautions Madnick.
MIT spinout, Cogito, uses “advanced voice analytics to scrutinize voice tons and speech patterns, not just during customer interactions but also within internal team communications,” reports Andre Shojaie for Forbes. “By providing real-time feedback to representatives, Cogito helps them adjust their emotional tone and empathy levels accordingly,” explains Shojaie. “This application significantly reduces stress and cultivates a supportive work environment by enhancing interpersonal interactions among team members.”