Category Artificial Intelligence

Annotating regions of interest in medical images, a process known as segmentation, is often one of the first steps clinical researchers take when running a new study involving biomedical images. For instance, to determine how the size of the brain’s…

Whitney Zhang ’21 believes in the importance of valuing workers regardless of where they fit into an organizational chart. Zhang is a PhD student in MIT’s Department of Economics studying labor economics. She explores how the technological and managerial decisions companies…

MIT Department of Mathematics researchers David Roe ’06 and Andrew Sutherland ’90, PhD ’07 are among the inaugural recipients of the Renaissance Philanthropy and XTX Markets’ AI for Math grants.  Four additional MIT alumni — Anshula Gandhi ’19, Viktor Kunčak…

The artificial intelligence models that turn text into images are also useful for generating new materials. Over the last few years, generative materials models from companies like Google, Microsoft, and Meta have drawn on their training data to help researchers…

The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship strives to teach students the craft of entrepreneurship. Over the last few years, no technology has changed that craft more than artificial intelligence. While many are predicting a rapid and complete transformation in…

When OpenAI introduced ChatGPT to the world in 2022, it brought generative artificial intelligence into the mainstream and started a snowball effect that led to its rapid integration into industry, scientific research, health care, and the everyday lives of people…

When researchers are building large language models (LLMs), they aim to maximize performance under a particular computational and financial budget. Since training a model can amount to millions of dollars, developers need to be judicious with cost-impacting decisions about, for…

For pregnant women, ultrasounds are an informative (and sometimes necessary) procedure. They typically produce two-dimensional black-and-white scans of fetuses that can reveal key insights, including biological sex, approximate size, and abnormalities like heart issues or cleft lip. If your doctor…

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) recently announced that it has selected MIT to establish a new research center dedicated to advancing the predictive simulation of extreme environments, such as those encountered in hypersonic flight and atmospheric…

Artificial intelligence optimization offers a host of benefits for mechanical engineers, including faster and more accurate designs and simulations, improved efficiency, reduced development costs through process automation, and enhanced predictive maintenance and quality control. “When people think about mechanical engineering, they’re…

3D printing has come a long way since its invention in 1983 by Chuck Hull, who pioneered stereolithography, a technique that solidifies liquid resin into solid objects using ultraviolet lasers. Over the decades, 3D printers have evolved from experimental curiosities…

Many attempts have been made to harness the power of new artificial intelligence and large language models (LLMs) to try to predict the outcomes of new chemical reactions. These have had limited success, in part because until now they have…

Synthetic data are artificially generated by algorithms to mimic the statistical properties of actual data, without containing any information from real-world sources. While concrete numbers are hard to pin down, some estimates suggest that more than 60 percent of data…

Caroline Uhler is an Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Engineering at MIT; a professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the Institute for Data, Science, and Society (IDSS); and director of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center at the…

Every year, global health experts are faced with a high-stakes decision: Which influenza strains should go into the next seasonal vaccine? The choice must be made months in advance, long before flu season even begins, and it can often feel…

Environmental scientists are increasingly using enormous artificial intelligence models to make predictions about changes in weather and climate, but a new study by MIT researchers shows that bigger models are not always better. The team demonstrates that, in certain climate…

Cognitive readiness denotes a person’s ability to respond and adapt to the changes around them. This includes functions like keeping balance after tripping, or making the right decision in a challenging situation based on knowledge and past experiences. For military…

Back in the 17th century, German astronomer Johannes Kepler figured out the laws of motion that made it possible to accurately predict where our solar system’s planets would appear in the sky as they orbit the sun. But it wasn’t…

Using machine learning, MIT chemical engineers have created a computational model that can predict how well any given molecule will dissolve in an organic solvent — a key step in the synthesis of nearly any pharmaceutical. This type of prediction…

Within the past few years, models that can predict the structure or function of proteins have been widely used for a variety of biological applications, such as identifying drug targets and designing new therapeutic antibodies. These models, which are based…

Using artificial intelligence, MIT researchers have come up with a new way to design nanoparticles that can more efficiently deliver RNA vaccines and other types of RNA therapies. After training a machine-learning model to analyze thousands of existing delivery particles,…

With help from artificial intelligence, MIT researchers have designed novel antibiotics that can combat two hard-to-treat infections: drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae and multi-drug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Using generative AI algorithms, the research team designed more than 36 million possible compounds and computationally…

“Manufacturing is the engine of society, and it is the backbone of robust, resilient economies,” says John Hart, head of MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering (MechE) and faculty co-director of the MIT Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM). “With manufacturing a…

Is this movie review a rave or a pan? Is this news story about business or technology? Is this online chatbot conversation veering off into giving financial advice? Is this online medical information site giving out misinformation? These kinds of…

Any motorist who has ever waited through multiple cycles for a traffic light to turn green knows how annoying signalized intersections can be. But sitting at intersections isn’t just a drag on drivers’ patience — unproductive vehicle idling could contribute…

Four new faculty members join the School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) this fall, offering the MIT community creativity, knowledge, and scholarship in multidisciplinary roles. “These individuals add considerable strength and depth to our faculty,” says Hashim Sarkis, dean of…

Artificial intelligence is changing the way businesses store and access their data. That’s because traditional data storage systems were designed to handle simple commands from a handful of users at once, whereas today, AI systems with millions of agents need…

M.C. Escher’s artwork is a gateway into a world of depth-defying optical illusions, featuring “impossible objects” that break the laws of physics with convoluted geometries. What you perceive his illustrations to be depends on your point of view — for…

If you rotate an image of a molecular structure, a human can tell the rotated image is still the same molecule, but a machine-learning model might think it is a new data point. In computer science parlance, the molecule is…

Music technology took center stage at MIT during “FUTURE PHASES,” an evening of works for string orchestra and electronics, presented by the MIT Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program as part of the 2025 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC).  The well-attended…

In an office at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), a soft robotic hand carefully curls its fingers to grasp a small object. The intriguing part isn’t the mechanical design or embedded sensors — in fact, the hand…

City life is often described as “fast-paced.” A new study suggests that’s more true that ever. The research, co-authored by MIT scholars, shows that the average walking speed of pedestrians in three northeastern U.S. cities increased 15 percent from 1980…

One of the shared, fundamental goals of most chemistry researchers is the need to predict a molecule’s properties, such as its boiling or melting point. Once researchers can pinpoint that prediction, they’re able to move forward with their work yielding…

Seven faculty in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning (SA+P) have been honored for their contributions through promotions, effective July 1. Three faculty promotions are in the Department of Architecture; three are in the Department of Urban Studies and…

In 2001, MIT became the first higher education institution to provide educational resources for free to anyone in the world. Fast forward 24 years: The Institute has now launched a dynamic AI-enabled website for its non-degree learning opportunities, making it…

AI image generation — which relies on neural networks to create new images from a variety of inputs, including text prompts — is projected to become a billion-dollar industry by the end of this decade. Even with today’s technology, if…

Let’s say you’re reading a story, or playing a game of chess. You may not have noticed, but each step of the way, your mind kept track of how the situation (or “state of the world”) was changing. You can…

As countries across the world experience a resurgence in nuclear energy projects, the questions of where and how to dispose of nuclear waste remain as politically fraught as ever. The United States, for instance, has indefinitely stalled its only long-term…

Large language models (LLMs) excel at using textual reasoning to understand the context of a document and provide a logical answer about its contents. But these same LLMs often struggle to correctly answer even the simplest math problems. Textual reasoning…

Imagine a future where artificial intelligence quietly shoulders the drudgery of software development: refactoring tangled code, migrating legacy systems, and hunting down race conditions, so that human engineers can devote themselves to architecture, design, and the genuinely novel problems still…

MIT researchers have developed a new theoretical framework for studying the mechanisms of treatment interactions. Their approach allows scientists to efficiently estimate how combinations of treatments will affect a group of units, such as cells, enabling a researcher to perform…

In order to produce effective targeted therapies for cancer, scientists need to isolate the genetic and phenotypic characteristics of cancer cells, both within and across different tumors, because those differences impact how tumors respond to treatment. Part of this work…

Generative artificial intelligence is transforming the ways humans write, read, speak, think, empathize, and act within and across languages and cultures. In health care, gaps in communication between patients and practitioners can worsen patient outcomes and prevent improvements in practice…

Marine scientists have long marveled at how animals like fish and seals swim so efficiently despite having different shapes. Their bodies are optimized for efficient, hydrodynamic aquatic navigation so they can exert minimal energy when traveling long distances. Autonomous vehicles…

For all their impressive capabilities, large language models (LLMs) often fall short when given challenging new tasks that require complex reasoning skills. While an accounting firm’s LLM might excel at summarizing financial reports, that same model could fail unexpectedly if…

Data and politics are becoming increasingly intertwined. Today’s political campaigns and voter mobilization efforts are now entirely data-driven. Voters, pollsters, and elected officials are relying on data to make choices that have local, regional, and national impacts. A Department of…

The MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative (MIT HEALS) is launching the Biswas Postdoctoral Fellowship Program to advance the work of outstanding early-career researchers in health and life sciences. Supported by a gift from the Biswas Family Foundation, the program…

Scientists are striving to discover new semiconductor materials that could boost the efficiency of solar cells and other electronics. But the pace of innovation is bottlenecked by the speed at which researchers can manually measure important material properties. A fully…

The explosive growth of AI-powered computing centers is creating an unprecedented surge in electricity demand that threatens to overwhelm power grids and derail climate goals. At the same time, artificial intelligence technologies could revolutionize energy systems, accelerating the transition to…

Several researchers have taken a broad view of scientific progress over the last 50 years and come to the same troubling conclusion: Scientific productivity is declining. It’s taking more time, more funding, and larger teams to make discoveries that once…

Diffusion models like OpenAI’s DALL-E are becoming increasingly useful in helping brainstorm new designs. Humans can prompt these systems to generate an image, create a video, or refine a blueprint, and come back with ideas they hadn’t considered before. But…

Leveraging the strengths of two world-class research institutions, MIT and Mass General Brigham (MGB) recently celebrated the launch of the MIT-MGB Seed Program. The new initiative, which is supported by Analog Devices Inc. (ADI), will fund joint research projects led…

In the Northeastern United States, the Gulf of Maine represents one of the most biologically diverse marine ecosystems on the planet — home to whales, sharks, jellyfish, herring, plankton, and hundreds of other species. But even as this ecosystem supports…

A large language model (LLM) deployed to make treatment recommendations can be tripped up by nonclinical information in patient messages, like typos, extra white space, missing gender markers, or the use of uncertain, dramatic, and informal language, according to a…

Launched in February of this year, the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium (MGAIC), a presidential initiative led by MIT’s Office of Innovation and Strategy and administered by the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, issued a call for proposals,…

MIT Morningside Academy for Design (MAD) Fellow Caitlin Morris is an architect, artist, researcher, and educator who has studied psychology and used online learning tools to teach herself coding and other skills. She’s a soft-spoken observer, with a keen interest in how…

During his first year at MIT in 2021, Matthew Caren ’25 received an intriguing email inviting students to apply to become members of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing’s (SCC) Undergraduate Advisory Group (UAG). He immediately shot off an application. Caren…

Research has shown that large language models (LLMs) tend to overemphasize information at the beginning and end of a document or conversation, while neglecting the middle. This “position bias” means that, if a lawyer is using an LLM-powered virtual assistant…

On May 6, MIT AgeLab’s Advanced Vehicle Technology (AVT) Consortium, part of the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics, celebrated 10 years of its global academic-industry collaboration. AVT was founded with the aim of developing new data that contribute to…

In 15 TED Talk-style presentations, MIT faculty recently discussed their pioneering research that incorporates social, ethical, and technical considerations and expertise, each supported by seed grants established by the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), a cross-cutting initiative of…

As more connected devices demand an increasing amount of bandwidth for tasks like teleworking and cloud computing, it will become extremely challenging to manage the finite amount of wireless spectrum available for all users to share. Engineers are employing artificial…

Art restoration takes steady hands and a discerning eye. For centuries, conservators have restored paintings by identifying areas needing repair, then mixing an exact shade to fill in one area at a time. Often, a painting can have thousands of…

Travel agents help to provide end-to-end logistics — like transportation, accommodations, meals, and lodging — for businesspeople, vacationers, and everyone in between. For those looking to make their own arrangements, large language models (LLMs) seem like they would be a…

Research that crosses the traditional boundaries of academic disciplines, and boundaries between academia, industry, and government, is increasingly widespread, and has sometimes led to the spawning of significant new disciplines. But Munther Dahleh, a professor of electrical engineering and computer…

Suppose you were shown that an artificial intelligence tool offers accurate predictions about some stocks you own. How would you feel about using it? Now, suppose you are applying for a job at a company where the HR department uses…

An autonomous drone carrying water to help extinguish a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada might encounter swirling Santa Ana winds that threaten to push it off course. Rapidly adapting to these unknown disturbances inflight presents an enormous challenge for the…

Will the perfect storm of potentially life-changing, artificial intelligence-driven health care and the desire to increase profits through subscription models alienate vulnerable patients? For the third year in a row, MIT’s Envisioning the Future of Computing Prize asked students to describe,…

Data should drive every decision a modern business makes. But most businesses have a massive blind spot: They don’t know what’s happening in their visual data. Coactive is working to change that. The company, founded by Cody Coleman ’13, MEng…

Artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT provide plausible-sounding answers to any question you might ask. But they don’t always reveal the gaps in their knowledge or areas where they’re uncertain. That problem can have huge consequences as AI systems are increasingly…

For weeks, the whiteboard in the lab was crowded with scribbles, diagrams, and chemical formulas. A research team across the Olivetti Group and the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub (CSHub) was working intensely on a key problem: How can we reduce…

When you’re trying to communicate or understand ideas, words don’t always do the trick. Sometimes the more efficient approach is to do a simple sketch of that concept — for example, diagramming a circuit might help make sense of how…

Every year, thousands of students take courses that teach them how to deploy artificial intelligence models that can help doctors diagnose disease and determine appropriate treatments. However, many of these courses omit a key element: training students to detect flaws…

Scientists at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have re-engineered a compact RNA-guided enzyme they found in bacteria into an efficient, programmable editor of human DNA.  The protein they created,…

Sarah Alnegheimish’s research interests reside at the intersection of machine learning and systems engineering. Her objective: to make machine learning systems more accessible, transparent, and trustworthy. Alnegheimish is a PhD student in Principal Research Scientist Kalyan Veeramachaneni’s Data-to-AI group in…

The rise of artificial intelligence resurfaces a question older than the abacus: If we have a tool to do it for us, why learn to do it ourselves?  The answer, argues MIT electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) Professor Devavrat…

MIT today launched its Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM), an Institute-wide effort to reinfuse U.S. industrial production with leading-edge technologies, bolster crucial U.S. economic sectors, and ignite job creation. The initiative will encompass advanced research, innovative education programs, and partnership…

Humans naturally learn by making connections between sight and sound. For instance, we can watch someone playing the cello and recognize that the cellist’s movements are generating the music we hear. A new approach developed by researchers from MIT and…

On Dec. 21, 2022, just as peak holiday season travel was getting underway, Southwest Airlines went through a cascading series of failures in their scheduling, initially triggered by severe winter weather in the Denver area. But the problems spread through…

Behavioral economist Sendhil Mullainathan has never forgotten the pleasure he felt the first time he tasted a delicious crisp, yet gooey Levain cookie. He compares the experience to when he encounters new ideas. “That hedonic pleasure is pretty much the…

A protein located in the wrong part of a cell can contribute to several diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, cystic fibrosis, and cancer. But there are about 70,000 different proteins and protein variants in a single human cell, and since scientists…

We all leave traces behind: emails, text messages, photos, voice notes. But what if you could go one step further? What if your loved ones could still talk to you after you’re gone? Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, digital immortality is…

Imagine a radiologist examining a chest X-ray from a new patient. She notices the patient has swelling in the tissue but does not have an enlarged heart. Looking to speed up diagnosis, she might use a vision-language machine-learning model to…

Imagine a radiologist examining a chest X-ray from a new patient. She notices the patient has swelling in the tissue but does not have an enlarged heart. Looking to speed up diagnosis, she might use a vision-language machine-learning model to…

TL;DR A conversation with 4o about the potential demise of companies like Anthropic. As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to advance, the landscape is becoming increasingly competitive and ethically fraught. Companies like Anthropic, which have missions centered on developing “safe AI,”…

TL;DR We asked o1 to share its thoughts on our recent LNM/LMM post. What is your take on blog post “Why AI Needs Large Numerical Models (LNMs) for Mathematical Mastery“? Thought about large numerical and mathematics models for a…

TL;DR We explored the concept of LNMs (Large Numerical Models) with ChatGPT Like with LLMs (large language models – designed for natural language processing tasks such as language generation) being focused on text, would it make sense to create…

Get Your “My First Robot” Kit In today’s world, artificial intelligence and robotics are no longer just the stuff of science fiction. These technologies are shaping industries, education, and even how children learn and engage with technology. The “My First…