In order to combat the growing problem of antibiotic resistance, a group of scientists from MIT are using artificial intelligence to discover new and effective antibiotics. They were able to predict a powerful new antibiotic compound that is effective against many dangerous pathogens. Continue reading Artificial Intelligence – our new MVP against infections?
Electrical recordings from human subjects have revealed the existence of memory-trace cells, which change their response depending on which previous experience is supposed to be recalled, providing a major insight into how the brain remembers specific events. Continue reading Learning to Remember: Memory-Trace Cells
Artificial intelligence can now best professionals at poker, adding a random, multiplayer game to the ever-expanding list of games conquered by AI. Continue reading All bets are off: a new AI beats professional players at poker
For those who lose or lack the ability to speak, communication can be slow and painstaking. For example, towards the end of his life famed cosmologist Stephen Hawking communicated solely through the movement of a single cheek muscle as a result of his motor neuron disease (ASL). With the aim of finding a solution to this problem, a team at University of California have coupled … Continue reading Read My Mind: An Implant That Translates Brain Activity into Speech
by Franklin Wolfe figures by Abagail Burrus Over the past half-century, earthquakes have been the leading cause of death from natural disasters and have imposed dramatic cultural, economic, and political impacts on society. Compounding their inherent physical hazard is how they strike suddenly without obvious warning, and how they possess a ‘fatal attraction‘ for humans—most of the world’s largest cities lie in areas of major … Continue reading Predicting the Next Big Earthquake
A driverless car is speeding down a road and can’t stop. Either it hits an elderly woman crossing the street, or it swerves out of the way and kills its passenger, a young child. Whose life should be spared? As driverless cars become a reality, the answer to the famed “Trolley problem” becomes increasingly pressing. Unlike humans, self-driving cars don’t have an internal moral code; … Continue reading An effort to make moral machines finds cultural differences in human morality
by Aparna Nathan Hospitals are churning out medical data at an unprecedented rate. 153 billion gigabytes of health care data were produced in 2013, and we’re expected to reach 2300 billion gigabytes per year by 2020. That’s almost 9 billion MacBooks’ worth of storage each year, not even counting the hundreds of thousands of genomes sequenced each year. It’s more than a human can process … Continue reading Computational Biomedicine: How data can revolutionize the patient experience
What is the hardest thing you think scientists need to do in a lab? Organic chemistry may not be the first thing that comes to mind, but multi-step organic syntheses are easily ranked a top challenge, even among experienced chemists. Nevertheless, computer scientists surprised us again with artificial intelligence (AI) which, despite having less chemistry experience than the average high-schooler, could prescribe recipes with success. … Continue reading AI advises chemists on how to make complex molecules
by Chamith Fonseka figures by Rebecca Senft The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) tends to evoke images of self-aware computers and robots – Knight Rider, Wall-E, the Terminator – but for the most part, this technology is, for now, restricted to fiction and film. In that time, however, artificial intelligence has already become embedded in everyday life, playing a role in everything from online shopping … Continue reading Hold Artificial Intelligence Accountable
by Katherine Wu I don’t have many fond memories from middle school. The few bright spots that do exist in my memory, though, revolve around the three essential pillars: television, books, and AOL Instant Messenger. There were few things as satisfying as logging on to AIM and finding a Buddy List populated with the dorky screen names of dozens of my friends. Whether they were … Continue reading Dances with Chatbots: Interviews at the forefront of AI technology