‘Parentese’ chatter improves baby’s language later

Speaking to a baby in "parentese" and responding to babbles with smiles and eye contact is important for the baby's language development.

U. Washington • futurity
April 15, 2024 ~6 min

Last chance to record archaic Greek language ‘heading for extinction’

A new data crowdsourcing platform aims to preserve the sound of Romeyka, an endangered millennia-old variety of Greek. Experts consider the language to be a

Cambridge University News • cambridge
April 3, 2024 ~10 min


Researchers create “The Consensus Game” to elevate AI’s text comprehension and generation skills

MIT CSAIL researchers are using ideas from game theory to improve the reliability of language generation in language models.

Rachel Gordon | MIT CSAIL • mit
March 29, 2024 ~8 min

NASA’s mission to an ice-covered moon will contain a message between water worlds

Europa Clipper will contain a plaque that celebrates humanity’s relationship with water and a decades-old tradition of searching for life outside Earth.

Douglas Vakoch, President, METI International; Professor Emeritus, California Institute of Integral Studies • conversation
March 28, 2024 ~8 min

How AI and a popular card game can help engineers predict catastrophic failure – by finding the absence of a pattern

What mathematicians call ‘disordered collections’ can help engineers explore real-world worst-case scenarios. The simple card game Set illustrates how to predict internet and electrical grid failures.

John Edward McCarthy, Professor of Mathematics, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis • conversation
March 26, 2024 ~7 min

Study of Polyglots Shows How Brain Deals with Language

VOA Learning English • voa
March 24, 2024 ~5 min

Generative AI could leave users holding the bag for copyright violations

With the right prompts, AI users can mimic copyrighted works. There’s no easy technical or legal fix.

Anjana Susarla, Professor of Information Systems, Michigan State University • conversation
March 22, 2024 ~8 min

For people who speak many languages, there’s something special about their native tongue

An MIT study finds the brains of polyglots expend comparatively little effort when processing their native language.

Anne Trafton | MIT News • mit
March 10, 2024 ~7 min


We’ve been here before: AI promised humanlike machines – in 1958

Enthusiasm for the capabilities of artificial intelligence – and claims for the approach of humanlike prowess –has followed a boom-and-bust cycle since the middle of the 20th century.

Danielle Williams, Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy of Science, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis • conversation
Feb. 29, 2024 ~8 min

How cognition changes before dementia hits

Study finds language-processing difficulties are an indicator — more so than memory loss — of amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News • mit
Feb. 29, 2024 ~7 min

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