Understanding how molecules interact is central to biology: from decoding how living organisms function to uncovering disease mechanisms and developing life-saving drugs. In recent years, models like AlphaFold changed our ability to predict the 3D structure of proteins, offering crucial insights into molecular shape and interaction. But while AlphaFold could show how molecules fit together, it couldn’t measure how strongly they bind — a key factor in understanding all aforementioned. That missing piece is where MIT’s new AI model, Boltz-2, comes in. 

Artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT provide plausible-sounding answers to any question you might ask. But they don’t always reveal the gaps in their knowledge or areas where they’re uncertain. That problem can have huge consequences as AI systems are increasingly used to do things like develop drugs, synthesize information, and drive autonomous cars.

The Hertz Foundation announced that it has awarded fellowships to eight MIT affiliates. The prestigious award provides each recipient with five years of doctoral-level research funding (up to a total of $250,000), which gives them an unusual measure of independence in their graduate work to pursue groundbreaking research.

Humans naturally learn by making connections between sight and sound. For instance, we can watch someone playing the cello and recognize that the cellist’s movements are generating the music we hear.

The ocean is teeming with life. But unless you get up close, much of the marine world can easily remain unseen. That’s because water itself can act as an effective cloak: Light that shines through the ocean can bend, scatter, and quickly fade as it travels through the dense medium of water and reflects off the persistent haze of ocean particles. This makes it extremely challenging to capture the true color of objects in the ocean without imaging them at close range.

MIT researchers have created a periodic table that shows how more than 20 classical machine-learning algorithms are connected. The new framework sheds light on how scientists could fuse strategies from different methods to improve existing AI models or come up with new ones.

Data privacy comes with a cost. There are security techniques that protect sensitive user data, like customer addresses, from attackers who may attempt to extract them from AI models — but they often make those models less accurate.

Agentic AI systems are “designed to pursue complex goals with autonomy and predictability” (MIT Technology Review). Agentic AI models enable productivity by taking goal-directed actions, making contextual decisions, and adjusting plans based on changing conditions with minimal human oversight.

More than seven years ago, cybersecurity researchers were thoroughly rattled by the discovery of Meltdown and Spectre, two major security vulnerabilities uncovered in the microprocessors found in virtually every computer on the planet.