AI research, papers, and commentary from leading universities and academic institutions. MIT features prominently, alongside IEEE Spectrum, MIT Technology Review, and other research-focused publishers. Updated every 60 minutes.
- This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. For those of you enjoying your summer unaware of Anthropic’s latest feud with the US government, here’s a recap: In April the company said it had built an AI model called Mythos […]
- Companies working at the frontier of aerospace, energy, and computing are constantly looking for new materials to improve performance. But in order to understand how those materials will actually behave once they’re inside rockets or on computer chips, companies first have to make the material and then test it. That’s because even the most powerful […]
- Large language models have moved out of the research lab and into engineers’ daily workflow. LLMs serve as reasoning engines that can orchestrate complex tasks including identifying vulnerabilities in source code and transforming fragmented project discussions into rigorous technical specifications.While the general public uses AI tools to write email and plan vacations, technical professionals use […]
- Miami-based AI startup Subquadratic came out of stealth mode last month with a huge claim. It announced that it had solved a mathematical bottleneck that had been holding back large language models for almost a decade. The details were thin, and many people were unconvinced. But Subquadratic has started to bring the receipts, sharing the […]
- On June 9, The Boston Globe released its 2026 “Tech Power Players” list, recognizing 50 influential local leaders in technology and business across Massachusetts. The list includes eight MIT affiliates including President Sally Kornbluth, Prof. Daniela Rus (director of CSAIL), Prof. Regina Barzilay, Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, Prof. Max Tegmark, Ana Bakshi (executive director of the Martin […]
- By mimicking how the brain operates, neuromorphic computing can use dramatically less energy than conventional electronic AI chips. However, even the most sophisticated neuromorphic devices today are still quite simple, using only a small fraction of the number of connections found in human neurons. Now, a new study suggests that by using sound waves, neuromorphic […]
- Whether you’re playing poker against a single opponent or find yourself in a bidding war over a home purchase with another prospective buyer, you are operating under conditions of imperfect information. You know what cards you’re holding in the poker game, and you also know how much above the home’s asking price you can afford, […]
- Musicians are accustomed to getting paid each time their creative work is used. Across vinyl/CD sales, streams, radio, cover versions, and those numerous niches like karaoke, there are agreements in place about what “use” means. Underlying this is a simple economic principle: The more something is used, the more money it makes.Generative AI has complicated […]
- For decades, automakers enjoyed a luxury that had nothing to do with the softest leather or the smoothest engines. Their luxury was time, with some popular cars and trucks enduring for a decade or longer before they received a full redesign. The clock is ticking faster now, thanks to China. BYD and other automakers there […]
- An auto factory worker can remember the storage bin where she left a partly assembled component the night before, and quickly return to that spot to pick it up. But robots that may work side-by-side with her would struggle to develop and access this same type of “spatiotemporal” memory.Now, MIT researchers have developed a long-term […]
- In May, the Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM) marked its first anniversary with MIT Manufacturing Week, four days of events that attracted more than 800 registrants including students, faculty, industry leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, and government officials to explore topics ranging from how companies are using AI on factory floors to the role of startups in […]
- At the end of a tense and scoreless first half of a soccer match between the English men’s team and rival Germany, millions of Brits let out a collective sigh and did what they so often do in moments of stress: They made tea. That wave of electric kettles clicking on, however, caused a different […]
- This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. When I landed in Seoul after a grueling 12-hour flight from San Francisco, I walked through an unmanned immigration checkpoint, where a machine scanned my face and passport. On the subway home, […]
- This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. As robots advance in terms of dexterity and other physical capabilities, it becomes more likely that humans may find themselves working alongside them. If that happens, how will robots’ emotional capabilities need to advance for them to successfully work […]
- Jinhua Zhao MCP ’04, SM ’04, PhD ’09 has been appointed head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP), effective July 1. Zhao is the Class of 1941 Professor of Cities and Transportation at MIT.In making the announcement, dean of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning Hashim Sarkis noted that Zhao is a renowned […]
- In his 1927 paper, “A law of comparative judgment,” the American psychologist L. L. Thurstone proposed that when people select one option among multiple alternatives, they are picking the one that has the highest value to them, even though they cannot assign a particular number to that choice. Thurstone was a pioneer of “psychometrics” — a […]
- The Hertz Foundation announced that it awarded 2026 fellowships to three current MIT students as well as an incoming graduate student. They are: Annika Marschner, Alvin Q. Meng, Zachary S. Siegel, and Matthew Wanta.The prestigious science and technology award provides each recipient with five years of financial support — a stipend and full tuition equivalent — which gives them […]
- For more than a decade, artificial intelligence has been touted as a way to dramatically accelerate drug discovery. Yet despite billions of dollars in investment, relatively few AI-designed medicines have made it to patients. That’s partially because the timelines for careful drug testing can’t be easily compressed—and partially because drug development is just really hard. […]
- Google DeepMind is funding research into the potential dangers of situations where millions of different AI agents interact with each other online. According to Rohin Shah, who directs the company’s AGI safety and alignment research, the mass-market arrival of agents that can carry out tasks without human oversight and follow instructions given to them by other […]
- OpenAI’s fourth large language model (LLM), GPT-4, took an estimated 50 Gigawatt-hours to train, or the equivalent of 5,000 American homes‘ yearly power consumption. That was in 2023. Since then, the computational resources used to train frontier LLMs have only increased, though direct power usage numbers are hard to come by.Now, a research group at […]
For quantitative analysis of AI sector sentiment and narrative trends, see the Canary 2.0 Project Conclusion and Final Report.