For nearly a decade, a team of MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers have been seeking to uncover why certain images persist in a people's minds, while many others fade. To do this, they set out to map the spatio-temporal brain dynamics involved in recognizing a visual [...]

A new chip can efficiently accelerate machine-learning workloads on edge devices like smartphones while protecting sensitive user data from two common types of attacks -- side-channel attacks and bus-probing attacks. [...]

Researchers describe the steps they took to manipulate DNA and proteins -- essential building blocks of life -- to create cells that look and act like cells from the body. This accomplishment, a first in the field, has implications for efforts in regenerative medicine, drug delivery systems and diagnostic tools. [...]

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Last week, MIT Technology Review held its inaugural EmTech Digital conference in London. It was a great success! I loved seeing so many of you there asking excellent questions, [...]

Health-monitoring apps can help people manage chronic diseases or stay on track with fitness goals, using nothing more than a smartphone. However, these apps can be slow and energy-inefficient because the vast machine-learning models that power them must be shuttled between a smartphone and a central memory server. Engineers often speed [...]

Researchers have developed a method to use an image generation AI model to create realistic images of single cells, which are then used as 'synthetic data' to train an AI model to better carry out single-cell segmentation. [...]

Researchers are pioneering the use of artificial intelligence to explore how the gut microbiome influences Alzheimer’s disease. Their latest study employs AI to analyze how metabolites produced by gut bacteria interact with cellular receptors, potentially contributing to Alzheimer's development. [...]

Researchers have uncovered a remarkable metal alloy that won t crack at extreme temperatures due to kinking, or bending, of crystals in the alloy at the atomic level. Unlike most materials, the new alloy keeps its shape and resists cracking at both high and low temperature extremes, making it potentially [...]

Researchers have developed high-performance, biodegradable generators that leverage wood's natural properties to convert water evaporation into green electricity. [...]

New method uses density reconstruction for joint analysis of two-point functions to extract primary information from three- and four-point functions. [...]

Researchers have achieved a significant breakthrough in quantum technology, with the successful demonstration of quantum interference among several single photons using a novel resource-efficient platform. [...]

To build AI systems that can collaborate effectively with humans, it helps to have a good model of human behavior to start with. But humans tend to behave suboptimally when making decisions. This irrationality, which is especially difficult to model, often boils down to computational constraints. A human can’t spend decades [...]

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, aquaculture in the United States represents a $1.5 billion industry annually. Like land-based farming, shellfish aquaculture requires healthy seed production in order to maintain a sustainable industry. Aquaculture hatchery production of shellfish larvae — seeds — requires close monitoring to track mortality rates and [...]

Human mini-lungs grown by scientists can mimic the response of animals when exposed to certain nanomaterials. Though not expected to replace animal models completely, human organoids could soon lead to significant reductions in research animal numbers. [...]

Soft skin coverings and touch sensors have emerged as a promising feature for robots that are both safer and more intuitive for human interaction, but they are expensive and difficult to make. A recent study demonstrates that soft skin pads doubling as sensors made from thermoplastic urethane can be efficiently [...]

Researchers developed a method using wearable headcams and AI to analyze teenagers' facial expressions, revealing subtle emotional nuances. This technology has shown potential in identifying emotions such as worry and happiness, even when they are masked. [...]

We’ve all seen videos over the past few years demonstrating how agile humanoid robots have become, running and jumping with ease. We’re no longer surprised by this kind of agility—in fact, we’ve grown to expect it. The problem is, these shiny demos lack real-world applications. When it comes to creating robots [...]

Researchers used AI to discover hundreds of genes linked to tobacco use disorder, alongside potential new treatments. Analyzing extensive health data, the team identified genetic variations that contribute to tobacco addiction, which affects 1.3 billion people globally. [...]

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. The holy grail of robotics since the field’s beginning has been to build a robot that can do our housework. But for a long time, that has [...]

Researchers developed a new machine learning technique to improve red-teaming, a process used to test AI models for safety by identifying prompts that trigger toxic responses. By employing a curiosity-driven exploration method, their approach encourages a red-team model to generate diverse and novel prompts that reveal potential weaknesses in AI [...]

A team of computer scientists working on two different problems -- how to quickly detect damaged buildings in crisis zones and how to accurately estimate the size of bird flocks -- recently announced an AI framework that can do both. The framework, called DISCount, blends the speed and massive data-crunching [...]

Star Trek's Holodeck is no longer just science fiction. Using AI, engineers have created a tool that can generate 3D environments, prompted by everyday language. [...]

Silent. Rigid. Clumsy. Henry and Jane Evans are used to awkward houseguests. For more than a decade, the couple, who live in Los Altos Hills, California, have hosted a slew of robots in their home.  In 2002, at age 40, Henry had a massive stroke, which left him with quadriplegia and [...]

A new technique can more effectively perform a safety check on an AI chatbot. Researchers enabled their model to prompt a chatbot to generate toxic responses, which are used to prevent the chatbot from giving hateful or harmful answers when deployed. [...]