Research

Prof. Ryan Williams has published a new proof that explores computational complexity and flips the script on years of assumptions about the trade-offs between computation space and time, reports Max Springer for Scientific American. Williams found that “any problem can be transformed into one you can solve by cleverly reusing space, deftly cramming the necessary information into just a square-root number of bits,” Springer explains. “This progress is unbelievable,” says Mahdi Cheraghchi of the University of Michigan. “Before this result, there were problems you could solve in a certain amount of time, but many thought you couldn’t do so with such little space.” 

The New Yorker reporter Kyle Chayka spotlights a study by MIT researchers examining the impact of AI chatbot use on the brain. “The results from the analysis showed a dramatic discrepancy: subjects who used ChatGPT demonstrated less brain activity than either of the other groups,” explains Chayka. 

A study by researchers from MIT and elsewhere compares productivity differences between remote and in-person work attendance, reports Gleb Tsipursky for The Hill. The study found that “employees do not simply become more efficient because a manager watches their every move,” explains Tsipursky. “Rather, they want clarity, communication, and trust.” 

Researchers from MIT have found that “extended use of LLMs for research and writing could have long-term behavioral effects, such as lower brain engagement and laziness,” reports Theo Burman for Newsweek. “The study found that the AI-assisted writers were engaging their deep memory processes far less than the control groups, and that their information recall skills were worse after producing work with ChatGPT,” explains Burman. 

Researchers at MIT have found that “AI agents can make the workplace more productive when fine-tuned for different personality types, but human co-workers pay a price in lost socialization,” reports Kaustuv Basu for Bloomberg. The researchers concluded “found that humans using AI raised their productivity by 60%—partly because those workers sent 23% fewer social messages,” writes Basu. 

Sloan Lecturer Michael Schrage speaks with Fortune reporter Sheryl Estrada about prompt-a-thons, “structured, sprint-based sessions for developing prompts for large language models (LLMs).” The “prompt-a-thon process reframes prompting as a high-impact diagnostic and design discipline—engineered for fast, actionable insight,” explains Estrada. “It’s not just about using AI more effectively—it’s about thinking and collaborating more intelligently with it,” adds Schrage. 

Writing for The Boston Herald, President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif and Alan M. Leventhal, founder of Beacon Capital Partners, underscore the importance of protecting Massachusetts’ research infrastructure, noting that the state’s life sciences sector alone supports 143,000 jobs. “It is imperative that we act now to preserve the research infrastructure that Massachusetts has built so carefully over the last decades. This is the time for the Commonwealth’s leadership in government, academia, business, and philanthropy to join forces and take bold action,” they write. “Decisive action will enable us to preserve our world-leading research infrastructure and protect the economic health of our Commonwealth for the benefit of all our citizens.” 

Graduate student Alex Kachkine has developed a new technique that “uses AI-generated polymer films to physically restore damaged paintings in hours,” reports Benj Edwards for Ars Technica. “Kachkine's method works by printing a transparent ‘mask’ containing thousands of precisely color-matched regions that conservators can apply directly to an original artwork,” explains Edwards. “Unlike traditional restoration, which permanently alters the painting, these masks can reportedly be removed whenever needed. So it's a reversible process that does not permanently change a painting.” 

MIT researchers have found that ChatGPT use can lead to a decline in cognitive engagement, reports Robert B. Tucker for Forbes. “Brain regions associated with attention, memory, and higher-ordered reasoning were noticeably less active” in study participants, Tucker explains.

Researchers at MIT have found that the use of ChatGPT can “reduce activity in brain regions associated with memory and learning,” reports Eve Upton-Clark for Fast Company. “ChatGPT users felt less ownership over their essays compared to the other groups,” writes Upton-Clark. “They also struggled to recall or quote from their own essays shortly after submitting them—showing how reliance on the LLM bypassed deep memory processes.” 

Researchers at MIT have found that “people who used ChatGPT to write a series of essays suffered a ‘cognitive cost’ compared to others who used only their brains or a traditional search engine,” reports Ross Cristantiello for Boston.com. “The researchers found that as users relied on ‘external support’ more and more, their brain connectivity gradually scaled down,” explains Cristantiello. “Subjects who began the tests using ChatGPT before being told to use only their brains showed ‘weaker neural connectivity’ and ‘under-engagement’ of certain networks in their brains.”  

A study by researchers at MIT and elsewhere has proposed an alternative scenario to how life survived “Snowball Earth,” a “super ice age that froze the entire planet from poles to the equator” during the Cryogenian period, reports David Bressan for Forbes. “The scientists found that lifeforms could have survived the global freeze by thriving in watery oases on the surface,” explains Bressan.

A study by MIT researchers finds that individuals who relied solely on ChatGPT to write essays had "lower levels of brain activity and presented less original writing,” reports Greta Cross for USA Today. "While these tools offer unprecedented opportunities for enhancing learning and information access, their potential impact on cognitive development, critical thinking and intellectual independence demands a very careful consideration and continued research," the researchers explain.

Researchers at MIT have found that ChatGPT use can “harm an individual’s critical thinking over time,” reports Rachel Scully for The Hill. “They discovered that subjects who used ChatGPT over a few months had the lowest brain engagement and ‘consistently underperformed at neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels,’” explains Scully. 

Researchers at MIT have developed a new HIV vaccine that could offer “strong protection with just one injection,” reports Ian Randall for Newsweek. “The vaccine includes two ‘adjuvants’—materials that help stimulate the immune system response,” explains Randall. “In the experiments, the dual-adjuvant vaccine was found to produce a wider diversity of antibodies to protect against an HIV protein than with either single adjuvant or none at all.”