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January 18, 2025
Greetings! Here’s a roundup of the latest from the MIT community.
 
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Art for All
Multiple mobile devices showing art for sale
         
The startup NALA, which began as an MIT class project, uses AI to directly match art buyers with artists. “There’s so much talent out there that has never had the opportunity to be seen outside of the artists’ local market,” Benjamin Gulak ’22 says. “We’re opening the art world to all artists.”
Top Headlines
New research debunks four myths about “impostor syndrome”
Impostor thoughts reflect the belief that others overestimate your abilities. New research shows they’re not all bad, and they don’t last forever.
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Physicists measure quantum geometry for the first time
The work opens new avenues for understanding and manipulating electrons in materials.
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Teaching AI to communicate sounds like humans do
Inspired by the human vocal tract, a new AI model can produce and understand vocal imitations of everyday sounds. The method could help build new sonic interfaces for entertainment and education.
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Study shows how households can cut energy costs
An experiment in Amsterdam suggests providing better information to people can help move them out of “energy poverty.”
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Q&A: The climate impact of generative AI
As the use of generative AI continues to grow, Lincoln Laboratory’s Vijay Gadepally describes what researchers and consumers can do to help mitigate its environmental impact.
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More puzzles, less sleep
The annual three-day Mystery Hunt returns this weekend. Here’s how last year’s puzzle marathon played out.
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#ThisisMIT
An MIT Executive Degree Programs team member sits at workspace with laptop while shouting upwards. Elphaba from the movie “Wicked” is superimposed next to them. Text via @‌mit-executive-mba-program: What fictional character does the MIT Executive Degree Programs team want as a student in the new year? Here's their answers. We want to wish you and yours a happy new year. We look forward to seeing you in 2025!
In the Media
Interview with MIT’s President: What is expected of a world-leading university? // NHK  
President Sally Kornbluth joins NHK to discuss MIT’s innovation ecosystem, the MIT Climate Project, and how MIT faculty work to help nurture their students’ creativity.
Getting an all-optical AI to handle non-linear math // Ars Technica  
MIT researchers developed a photonic chip that that can “compute the entire deep neural net, including both linear and non-linear operations, using photons.”
The scientist vs. the machine // The Atlantic 
Graduate student Aidan Toner-Rodgers discusses his research examining the productivity of scientists at an R&D lab following the introduction of AI tools to aid in the discovery of new materials.
Explainer: Wildfires
At night, a large fire glows orange above the seashore skyline of the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles
Devastating images and video emerging from Los Angeles over the past week have reminded the nation and the world about the drastic effects wildfires can have on communities. But what do scientists know about wildfire trends and how they’re related to climate change? The MIT Climate Portal: Wildfires explainer serves as a primer on wildfire science, including the growing incidence of wildfires; impacts of policies on wildfire mitigation and response; and lessons from certain counties on how we can learn to coexist with wildfires.
Digit
4,095
Number of participants from last year’s getfit, MIT Health’s 12-week winter fitness challenge, across 595 teams
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