Gizmodo reporter Jennings Brown writes that researchers from the MIT Media Lab are developing a machine learning system that can develop addresses for regions of the planet that don’t have a recognized address system. Brown explains that the researchers “compared their results to an unmapped suburban region and found that their system labeled more than 80 percent of the populated portions.”
CSAIL researchers have developed a new technique to recreate paintings from a single photograph, reports John Biggs for TechCrunch. “The project uses machine learning to recreate the exact colors of each painting and then prints it using a high-end 3D printer that can output thousands of colors using half-toning,” Biggs explains.
Forbes contributed Jennifer Kite-Powell writes about a system, called RePaint, developed by MIT researchers that uses AI and 3-D printing to replicate paintings. "We can picture RePaint being applied to restoration practice and education in museums so that greater numbers of people could be exposed to famous pieces of art beyond just the specific museums that house them," explains CSAIL mechanical engineer Mike Foshey.
Fast Company reporter Jesus Diaz writes that CSAIL researchers have developed a new technique to replicate works of art. Diaz explains that the system “uses a combination of 10 different transparent inks, placed by a 3D printer and governed by a complex AI system that decides how to layer and mix those inks to match a painting’s original colors.”
BBC News reporter David Robson writes that MIT researchers have devised a simple test to help determine whether you are communicating with a chatbot or a human. Robson writes that the findings suggest “knowingly flouting a taboo and provoking, rather than simply describing, an emotion might be the most straightforward way of conveying your shared humanity.”
MIT researchers examined why a third of Wikipedia deliberations go unresolved and developed a new tool that could be used to help resolve more discussions, reports Samantha Cole for Motherboard. Cole explains that “the tool uses the data they found and analyzed in this research, to summarize threads and predict when they’re at risk of going stale.”
Smithsonian reporter Randy Rieland writes that MIT researchers have developed a machine learning model that can detect speech and language patterns associated with depression. The researchers note that the system is intended to assist, not replace clinicians. “We’re hopeful we can provide a complementary form of analysis,” explains Senior Research Scientist James Glass.
MIT researchers have developed a language translation model that operates without human annotations and guidance, reports Liangyu for Xinhua news agency. The system, which may enable computer-based translations of the thousands of languages spoken worldwide, is “a step toward one of the major goals of machine translation, which is fully unsupervised word alignment,” Liangyu explains.
Fortune reporter Aaron Pressman highlights how Prof. Julie Shah is working on making human-robot collaboration on the assembly line more effective through the use of collaborative robots, dubbed cobots. Pressman writes that Shah “is working on software algorithms developed with machine learning that will teach cobots how and when to communicate by reading signals from the humans around them.”
Popular Science reporter Rob Verger highlights how an MIT spinout and MIT researchers are developing tools to detect depression. “The big vision is that you have a system that can digest organic, natural conversations, and interactions, and be able to make some conclusion about a person’s well-being,” says grad student Tuka Alhanai.
MIT’s new college of computing represents the Institute’s “first fundamental restructuring in nearly 70 years,” writes Kaveh Wadell of Axios. The college is intended to connect parts of the Institute that have been “siloed from MIT's technology focus” and encourage students “to develop ‘bilingual’ skills: that is, to study computing and another discipline together.”
Taylor Pettaway of the Boston Herald writes that MIT’s new college of computing will be one of the university’s largest structural changes made since 1950. Offering classes in different fields, “students will be able to experience on campus new computational tools and these new abilities transform academics on campus with every study,” says Provost Martin Schmidt.
President L. Rafael Reif joins Bloomberg Bay State Business to speak with hosts Peter Barnes, Janet Wu and Pat Carroll about MIT’s $1 billion commitment to furthering the study of computer science and AI through a new college for computing.
Chronicle of Higher Education reporter Lee Gardner notes that MIT is making a $1 billion investment in furthering the study of computation and AI. “The institute’s project will support the search for solutions to two other daunting challenges,” Gardner explains, “how to handle the ethical and philosophical implications of AI for the societies it will transform, and how to break down institutional silos in academe.”
WGBH reporter Maggie Penn examines how the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing will integrate the study of computer science and AI into every academic discipline. "Much of higher education is silo-ed, a lot of universities are dealing with that," explains Melissa Nobles, dean of SHASS. "This is a really creative way of getting around that and creating something new that is truly collaborative."