Latest from MIT Tech Review – AI toys are all the rage in China—and now they’re appearing on shelves in the US too

Kids have always played with and talked to stuffed animals. But now their toys can talk back, thanks to a wave of companies that are fitting children’s playthings with chatbots and voice assistants.  It’s a trend that has particularly taken off in China: A recent report by the Shenzhen Toy Industry Association and JD.com predicts…

Latest from MIT Tech Review – The three big unanswered questions about Sora

Last week OpenAI released Sora, a TikTok-style app that presents an endless feed of exclusively AI-generated videos, each up to 10 seconds long. The app allows you to create a “cameo” of yourself—a hyperrealistic avatar that mimics your appearance and voice—and insert other peoples’ cameos into your own videos (depending on what permissions they set). …

Latest from MIT : New prediction model could improve the reliability of fusion power plants

Tokamaks are machines that are meant to hold and harness the power of the sun. These fusion machines use powerful magnets to contain a plasma hotter than the sun’s core and push the plasma’s atoms to fuse and release energy. If tokamaks can operate safely and efficiently, the machines could one day provide clean and…

Latest from MIT : Printable aluminum alloy sets strength records, may enable lighter aircraft parts

MIT engineers have developed a printable aluminum alloy that can withstand high temperatures and is five times stronger than traditionally manufactured aluminum. The new printable metal is made from a mix of aluminum and other elements that the team identified using a combination of simulations and machine learning, which significantly pruned the number of possible…

O’Reilly Media – From Autocomplete to Agents: Mapping the Design Space of AI Coding Assistants

Just a few years ago, AI coding assistants were little more than autocomplete curiosities—tools that could finish your variable names or suggest a line of boilerplate. Today, they’ve become an everyday part of millions of developers’ workflows, with entire products and startups built around them. Depending on who you ask, they represent either the dawn…

Latest from MIT : AI maps how a new antibiotic targets gut bacteria

For patients with inflammatory bowel disease, antibiotics can be a double-edged sword. The broad-spectrum drugs often prescribed for gut flare-ups can kill helpful microbes alongside harmful ones, sometimes worsening symptoms over time. When fighting gut inflammation, you don’t always want to bring a sledgehammer to a knife fight. Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial…

Latest from MIT : Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship welcomes Ana Bakshi as new executive director

The Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship announced that Ana Bakshi has been named its new executive director. Bakshi stepped into the role at the start of the fall semester and will collaborate closely with the managing director, Ethernet Inventors Professor of the Practice Bill Aulet, to elevate the center to higher levels. “Ana is uniquely…

Latest from MIT : Lincoln Lab unveils the most powerful AI supercomputer at any US university

The new TX-Generative AI Next (TX-GAIN) computing system at the Lincoln Laboratory Supercomputing Center  (LLSC) is the most powerful AI supercomputer at any U.S. university. With its recent ranking from  TOP500, which biannually publishes a list of the top supercomputers in various categories, TX-GAIN joins the ranks of other powerful systems at the LLSC, all supporting…

Latest from MIT Tech Review – Unlocking AI’s full potential requires operational excellence

Talk of AI is inescapable. It’s often the main topic of discussion at board and executive meetings, at corporate retreats, and in the media. A record 58% of S&P 500 companies mentioned AI in their second-quarter earnings calls, according to Goldman Sachs. But it’s difficult to walk the talk. Just 5% of generative AI pilots…