Members of the MIT community speak to Boston 25 News reporter Lisa Gresci about how they use AI, and their concerns with regulating the technology. Developers should consider, “how AI can help communities so [they are] not just building things, but are also deploying it [with purpose] out in the world,” says graduate student Anku Rani.
In a video, Visiting Scholar Ariel Ekblaw speaks to NBC News about floating, magnetic tiles that could be used to build structures in space. “We could self-assemble these [tiles] on the Moon,” says Ekblaw. “We could make habitats for the Artemis program. Once we have this idea of modular space tiles, there’s so many different things that we can do with self-assembly.”
MIT researchers have created a microscope that can image electrical activity in neurons across the brain, writes Earth.com’s Eric Ralls. “We can now ask: Which neurons respond first?” says Zeguan Wang, first author on the study. “Where does a sequence begin, and how does activity spread to recruit the rest of the network?”
MassLive’s “Most Influential Innovators” list, which celebrates inventors from across the Commonwealth, spotlights numerous MIT community members including President Sally Kornbluth, Prof. Russ Tedrake; Noubar Afeyan PhD ‘87 (a member of the MIT Corporation), Visiting Scientist Brandon Sorbom PhD ‘17, Visiting Scholar Ariel Ekblaw SM '17, PhD ‘20, Tye Brady SM '99, Maxim Lobovsky SM ‘11, and Andy Ory. “Kornbluth has been working hard to defend the university, which has long been a major economic engine not just for Massachusetts, but for the country,” writes reporter Scott Kirsner.
MIT Media Lab researchers found that using large language models for writing assistance was associated with weaker recall and lower ownership of the work produced, writes Forbes’ Glenn Llopis. “Notice the pattern: when AI does too much, the person may retain too little,” writes Llopis.
A study by researchers from the MIT Media Lab found up to 55% lower neural connectivity in participants who used AI for writing assistance, and flagged children as especially vulnerable, writes Forbes’ Dana Williams. “83% of participants who used a chatbot could not quote a single sentence from an essay they had finished minutes earlier, versus roughly 11% of those who wrote unaided,” Williams notes. “The words were produced, but they never entered a mind.”
MIT researchers found that purchased AI tools succeed roughly twice as often as comparable in-house builds, Forbes’ Dennis Vorobyov highlights. “[S]o spend the engineering effort where you are genuinely differentiated,” writes Vorobyov. “Budget wise, none of this requires a moonshot, just clarity and sequencing.”
Prof. Danielle Wood speaks to the Scientific American’s Tom Metcalfe about how the current models of space travel, that have created trash and debris in Earth’s atmosphere and orbit, are unsustainable. “Sustainability in space means that we are able to leave to future generations something like the natural state of the Earth, the moon and the solar system,” says Wood.
The New York Times’ Dana Goldstein highlights an MIT study that found individuals who used AI for writing assistance recorded lower brain activity than those who worked without LLMs. “The writers who used AI struggled to remember what, exactly, they had written, and felt little ownership over their work,” writes Goldstein. “The findings join a growing body of research suggesting that frequent AI use can degrade critical thinking.”
MIT students and community members spoke with 7 News Boston about their experiences viewing Wednesday’s partial solar eclipse, using the Unistellar eVscope Two, a smart telescope provided by the MIT Astrogazers, an outreach group largely made up of MIT graduate students. “To be able to see this celestial event in a way that’s so approachable, and the way that everybody in the community can enjoy it, especially when you have the right gear, is a really special opportunity,” says Joe Diaz, program manager and STEAM educator at the MIT Media Lab.
Researchers from the Media Lab developed MemPal, a wearable camera that creates a real-time automated text diary of actions and conversations to help older adults locate objects and provide reminders, writes WBUR’s Mike Kalin. “A small study conducted last year by researchers at the MIT Media Lab confirmed improved performance of object finding among users and an overall positive perception of the system. Tools like MemPal could be essential as cases of dementia continue to proliferate,” writes Kalin.
Prof. Danielle Wood joins Edgar B. Herwick III, host of GBH’s “The Curiosity Desk,” to discuss the growing problems posed by space junk, and how space technology helps support our critical infrastructure. “Technology from space helps make life safer on Earth, supports our weather forecasting [and] our daily transportation. All the technology that lets us get deliveries and Uber—that's all coming from space,” says Wood. “We definitely need space to be safe—to keep our lives safe.”
Graduate students Alfonso Parra Rubio and Erik Strand from the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms worked with the Boston Public Library and the Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture to create a chain-like aluminum sculpture, which will be on display at the library until November, writes Axios’ Steph Solis. “It's a feat of science-driven design and art,” notes Solis.
Fast Company reporter Jude Cramer spotlights a new study by MIT researchers that finds individuals who rely on AI to verify facts saw a 15% decline in their ability to detect fake news when unassisted by AI. “AIs that ‘tell’ by providing direct answers are more likely to foster reliance, while those that ‘ask’ via Socratic questioning are better at engaging someone to actually learn how to discern the truth on their own,” says graduate student Valdemar Danry. “But it’s very much a trade-off between speed and effort.”
For Fast Company, reporter Max Ufberg features MIT startup Formlabs, a company that has spent over a decade building 3D printers that make professional grade prototyping cheaper and faster. Using the selective laser sintering (SLS) Fuse X1 machine, Ufberg notes that Formlabs will apply their playbook to larger industrial systems. “The goal has always been make it easier to go from an idea to a real thing,” says Formlabs CEO Maxim Lobovsky ‘11.