Regina Barzilay, MIT’s School of Engineering Distinguished Professor of AI and Health, and James Collins, MIT’s Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science, are the recipients of the 2026 Pritzker Prize for AI in Science Research Excellence. 

A user who is frustrated with changes a social media company made to their favorite messaging platform, like the introduction of an annoying AI chatbot, can’t do much to address the situation, short of leaving the platform.

As a theoretical cryptographer, Kalai deals with questions like: how do you prove you know something without revealing what it is? What does it mean to know something at all? How can we verify AI answers are good, not just correct? And, in a world increasingly run by systems we don't fully understand, what do we owe each other in the name of safety? 

Despite millions of years of evolution, the development of the human fetus remains a complex process that is vulnerable to genetic, environmental, and metabolic disruptions. These disruptions could result in developmental abnormalities, starting with one of the first organs to begin developing in the fetus that continues to develop after birth: the brain.

As artificial intelligence becomes more and more powerful, its ability to handle human-like tasks is undeniable. Artificial neural networks can learn to recognize images, use language, or write computer code. Like the brain’s circuits, they reorganize themselves as they learn, adjusting the strengths of their connections to improve their performance.

The global building boom of power-hungry data centers is straining electrical grids, causing greater reliance on energy from polluting fossil fuels.

In the most recent episode of Building 32, Popescu explains how her research sits at the intersection of computational design, digital fabrication, and structural engineering.