MIT has removed a dataset which leads to misogynistic, racist AI models

MIT has apologised for, and taken offline, a dataset which trains AI models with misogynistic and racist tendencies.

The dataset in question is called 80 Million Tiny Images and was created in 2008. Designed for training AIs to detect objects, the dataset is a huge collection of pictures which are individually labelled based on what they feature.

Machine-learning models are trained using these images and their labels. An image of a street – when fed into an AI trained...

2 July 2020 | Ethics

MIT’s AI paints a dire picture if social distancing is relaxed too soon

According to an AI system built by MIT to predict the spread of COVID-19, relaxing social distancing rules too early would be catastrophic.

Social distancing measures around the world appear to be having the desired effect. In many countries, the "curve" appears to be flattening with fewer deaths and hospital admissions per day.

No healthcare system in the world is prepared to handle a vast number of its population hospitalised at once. Even once relatively trivial...

17 April 2020 | Government

MIT researchers use AI to discover a welcome new antibiotic

antibiotic resistance healthcare ai artificial intelligence mit research

A team of MIT researchers have used AI to discover a welcome new antibiotic to help in the fight against increasing resistance.

Using a machine learning algorithm, the MIT researchers were able to discover a new antibiotic compound which did not develop any resistance during a 30-day treatment period on mice.

The algorithm was trained using around 2,500 molecules – including about 1,700 FDA-approved drugs and a set of 800 natural products – to seek out chemical...

21 February 2020 | Healthcare

MIT software shows how NLP systems are snookered by simple synonyms

Here’s an example of how artificial intelligence can still seriously lack behind some human attributes: tests have shown how natural language processing (NLP) systems can be tricked into misunderstanding text by merely swapping one word for a synonym.

A research team at MIT developed software, called TextFooler, which looked for words which were most crucial to an NLP classifier and replaced them. The team offered an example:

“The characters, cast in impossibly...

12 February 2020 | Education

Deepfake shows Nixon announcing the moon landing failed

nixon deepfake moon landing usa president ai artificial intelligence

In the latest creepy deepfake, former US President Nixon is shown to announce that the first moon landing failed.

Nixon was known to be a divisive figure but certainly recognisable. The video shows Nixon in the Oval Office, surrounded by flags, giving a presidential address to an eagerly awaiting world.

However, unlike the actual first moon landing – unless you’re a subscriber to conspiracy theories – this one failed.

“These brave men, Neil...

6 February 2020 | Deepfakes

Microsoft and MIT develop AI to fix driverless car ‘blind spots’

Microsoft and MIT have partnered on a project to fix so-called virtual ‘blind spots’ which lead driverless cars to make errors.

Roads, especially while shared with human drivers, are unpredictable places. Training a self-driving car for every possible situation is a monumental task.

The AI developed by Microsoft and MIT compares the action taken by humans in a given scenario to what the driverless car’s own AI would do. Where the human decision is more optimal, the...

28 January 2019 | Connected Cars

Researchers get public to decide who to save in a driverless car crash

Researchers have conducted an experiment intending to solve the ethical conundrum of who to save if a fatal driverless car crash is unavoidable. A driverless car AI will need to be programmed with decisions such as who to prioritise if it came down to choices such as between swerving and hitting a child on the left, or an elderly person on the right. It may seem a fairly simple choice for some – children have their whole life in front of them, the elderly have fewer years ahead. However,...

25 October 2018 | Ethics

MIT’s AI uses wireless signals to detect movement through walls

mit csail wall rfpose signals research

Researchers from MIT CSAIL have developed an AI capable of detecting movement through walls using just RF wireless signals. CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) is based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the goal of ‘pioneering new approaches to computing that will bring about positive changes in the way people around the globe live, play, and work.’ The researchers’ latest development, RF-Pose, uses a neural network in combination with simple...

13 June 2018 | Machine Learning

MIT created a psychopathic AI based on Norman Bates

mit ai psychopath norman media lab bias

While many researchers are calling for regulations to ensure safe and ethical AI development, MIT has created one with a psychopathic personality. The scientists, from MIT’s unconventional Media Lab, based their AI’s personality on serial killer Norman Bates from Hitchcock thriller Psycho. AI Norman is designed to caption images. Whereas most neural networks are trained on a range of images to reduce bias, poor Norman was exposed 'to the darkest corners of Reddit.' Anyone who has found...

6 June 2018 | Ethics

AI uses radio waves to diagnose sleep disorders

AI MIT research healthcare

Researchers have developed an AI-based algorithm to improve the diagnosis and monitoring of sleep disorders using radio waves. Good sleep is vital for our mental and physical wellbeing. Diagnosing problems today, however, can be difficult as it requires patients to be fitted with electrodes and various sensors. The researchers from MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital used an AI algorithm to analyse radio signals around a subject. These readings are translated into the stages of sleep:...

7 August 2017 | Healthcare