Academic Institutions AI

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.

  • The field of artificial intelligence was built on the premise that machines might someday improve themselves. In 1966, the English mathematician I. J. Good wrote that “an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind.” AI researchers have […]
  • When we hear about automation and artificial intelligence replacing jobs, it may seem like a tsunami of technology is going to wipe out workers broadly, in the name of greater efficiency. But a study co-authored by an MIT economist shows markedly different dynamics in the U.S. since 1980. Rather than implement automation in pursuit of maximal […]
  • Millions of people worldwide are turning to chatbots like ChatGPT or Claude, and a proliferating class of specialized AI companionship apps for friendship, therapy or even romance.While some users report psychological benefits from these simulated relationships, research has also shown the relationships can reinforce or amplify delusions, particularly among users already vulnerable to psychosis. AIs […]
  • A guide to ten technological components — from THz communications and AI/ML to reconfigurable intelligent surfaces — poised to define 6G wireless networks.What Attendees will LearnWhich frequencies 6G will use — Understand why THz bands (above 100 GHz) and the7–24 GHz range are under consideration, what challenges CMOS technology faces at sub-THz frequencies, and how […]
  • Gabriele Farina grew up in a small town in a hilly winemaking region of northern Italy. Neither of his parents had college degrees, and although both were convinced they “didn’t understand math,” Farina says, they bought him the technical books he wanted and didn’t discourage him from attending the science-oriented, rather than the classical, high […]
  • By some estimates, more than a trillion dollars have already been invested in artificial intelligence. But large tech companies including Meta and OpenAI are still not content with today’s AI, and say they have set their sights on powerful, versatile AI that by some measure would match or even exceed human performance. A remarkable amount […]
  • Every few centuries, changes in how information moves reshape how societies govern themselves. The printing press spread vernacular literacy, helping give rise to the Reformation and, eventually, representative government. The telegraph made it possible to administer vast nations like the US, accelerating the growth of the modern bureaucratic state. Broadcast media created shared national audiences, […]
  • This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Two of the most powerful people in AI—Sam Altman and Elon Musk—began their face-off in court in Oakland, California, last week. Musk is suing OpenAI, alleging that the millions he spent to […]
  • One of the hardest problems in artificial intelligence is “alignment,” or making sure AI goals match our own, a challenge that may prove especially important if superintelligent AIs that outmatch us intellectually are ever developed. But scientists in England and their colleagues now report in the journal PNAS Nexus that perfect alignment between AI systems […]
  • This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. With the rise of AI-generated content online, it’s becoming more difficult—and more important—to help the public identify whether an image, audio clip or video is real or fake. To combat the problem, a team of researchers from Microsoft, Northwestern […]
  • In the first week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk took the stand in a crisp black suit and tie and argued that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into bankrolling the company. Along the way, he warned that AI could destroy us all and sat through […]
  • Companies are taking control of their own data to tailor AI for their needs. The challenge lies in balancing ownership with the safe, trusted flow of high‑quality data needed to power reliable insights. This conversation from MIT Technology Review’s EmTech AI conference examines how AI factories unlock new levels of scale, sustainability, and governance—positioning data […]
  • Cybersecurity was already under strain before AI entered the stack. Now, as AI expands the attack surface and adds new complexity, the limits of legacy approaches are becoming harder to ignore. This session from MIT Technology Review’s EmTech AI conference explores why security must be rethought with AI at its core, not layered on after […]
  • AI image processing onboard satellites in space has been a goal of the Earth observation industry for years. Now, it has finally been achieved. California-based Planet Labs released an image captured by its Pelican-4 multi-spectral satellite showing an airport in Alice Springs, Australia. On the tarmac, more than a dozen aircraft are scattered, each highlighted […]
  • A new US-wide cell phone network marketed to Christians is set to launch next week. It blocks porn, which experts in network security say marks the first time a US cell plan has used network-level blocking for such content that can’t be turned off even by adult account owners. It’s also rolling out a filter […]
  • The human brain remains one of the most fascinating and perplexing mysteries in medicine. Scientists still struggle to match neurological activity with brain function and detect problems early, slowing efforts to treat neurological disorders and other diseases.Beacon Biosignals is working to make sense of the brain by monitoring its activity while people sleep. The company, […]
  • When she was a child, MIT senior Olivia Honeycutt would spend summers on her grandparents’ farm in rural Alabama outside Birmingham. The practical and cultural differences between farm and city life became more pronounced by comparison. “Life and the way we lived it slowed down on the farm,” she says. “It was a nice change […]
  • The San Francisco–based startup Goodfire just released a new tool, called Silico, that lets researchers and engineers peer inside an AI model and adjust its parameters—the settings that determine a model’s behavior—during training. This could give model makers more fine-grained control over how this technology is built than was once thought possible. Goodfire claims Silico […]
  • “The thing that really struck me when I came to MIT and strikes me every single day is the stuff that’s going on here is amazing. The science, the engineering … every day I hear something that makes my jaw drop,” remarked President Sally Kornbluth during a live discussion with Lizzie O’Leary of Slate’s “What […]
  • This article is brought to you by DAIMON Robotics.This April, Hong Kong-based DAIMON Robotics has released Daimon-Infinity, which it describes as the largest omni-modal robotic dataset for physical AI, featuring high resolution tactile sensing and spanning a wide range of tasks from folding laundry at home to manufacturing on factory assembly lines. The project is […]