Portrait of Regina Barzialy

NOVA ‘A.I. REVOLUTION’ Dives Into the Past, Present, and Future of One of the Most Consequential Technological Advancements of Our Time

BOSTON, MA; Feb.12, 2024 — The award-winning PBS science series, NOVA, a production of GBH, will premiere the one-hour film “A.I. REVOLUTION” Wednesday, March 27 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on PBS. Can we harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve some of the world’s most challenging problems without creating an uncontrollable force that ultimately destroys us? New A.I. tools like ChatGPT can now answer complex questions, write essays, and generate realistic-looking images in a matter of seconds. In “A.I. REVOLUTION,” which will also be available for streaming at pbs.org/nova, NOVA on YouTube, and the PBS App, correspondent Miles O’Brien meets some of the scientists who are at the forefront of A.I. advancement and explores the promise, perils, and possible future of this unprecedented technology taking the world by storm.

Beyond drug discovery and prosthetics, the film explores several other ways that A.I. is transforming science. Computer scientist Regina Barzilay at Massachusetts General Hospital has trained a neural network to detect breast cancer from mammograms years before they are detectable by human eyes with over 85% accuracy. A.I. is also being used to help detect lung cancer. Lives are even being saved from natural disasters, as A.I. is now being deployed in California to detect wildfires early before they rage out of control. Learn more
Screenshot of Zoom interview between Eric Topol (left) and Jim Collins (right)

Jim Collins: Discovery of the First New Structural Class of Antibiotics in Decades, Using A.I.

Jim Collins is one of the leading biomedical engineers in the world. He’s been elected to all 3 National Academies (Engineering, Science, and Medicine) and is one of the founders of the field of synthetic biology. In this conversation, we reviewed the seminal discoveries that he and his colleagues are making at the Antibiotics-AI Project at MIT. Learn more
Illustration of apple falling onto a pie

What Am I Thankful for This Year? Amazing Scientific Discoveries.

I’ll wager that the event of 2023 that will change our lives the most in coming years is not the sighting of a Chinese spy balloon, the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, the fall of Kevin McCarthy’s speakership or any of the other eruptions that transfixed us this year.

More likely, the event that’s judged most transformative will be some scientific or technological advance that only a handful of people know about right now — because that’s how things almost always go. The first time the word “transistor” appeared in print was in an article in The New York Times in 1948, on Page 46, following a report on two new radio shows, “Mr. Tutt” and “Our Miss Brooks.” I think we can agree that the transistor has had more impact on our daily lives in the 75 years since than either of those bits of entertainment. Learn more
Person wearing a lab coat, goggles, and gloves looking at a screen atop a microscope.

9 new breakthroughs in the fight against cancer

Lung cancer kills more people in the US yearly than the next three deadliest cancers combined. It's notoriously hard to detect the early stages of the disease with X-rays and scans alone. However, MIT scientists have developed an AI learning model to predict a person's likelihood of developing lung cancer up to six years in advance via a low-dose CT scan. Learn more
Image of Regina Barzilay typing on a laptop at a desk
Diagram of AI-driven antibiotic discovery

Antibiotic identified by AI

Computational approaches are emerging as powerful tools for the discovery of antibiotics. A study now uses machine learning to discover abaucin, a potent antibiotic that targets the bacterial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii. Learn more
Five MIT faculty members are among the 12 MIT affiliates and 100 total new members of the National Academy of Medicine. Clockwise from top left: Daniel Anderson, Regina Barzilay, Guoping Feng, Morgan Sheng, and Darrell Irvine.
Image of acinetobacter baumannii

Using AI, scientists find a drug that could combat drug-resistant infections

The machine-learning algorithm identified a compound that kills Acinetobacter baumannii, a bacterium that lurks in many hospital settings. Learn more
Group of high school students posing for a group photo with MIT President Emerita Susan Hockfield

How to help high schoolers prepare for the rise of artificial intelligence

A one-week summer program aims to foster a deeper understanding of machine-learning approaches in health among curious young minds. Learn more

Generative AI Imagines New Protein Structures

“FrameDiff” is a computational tool that uses generative AI to craft new protein structures, with the aim of accelerating drug development and improving gene therapy. Learn more
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