Six years ago at a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, I asked Sam Altman how OpenAI, with its complicated corporate structure, would make money. He said that someday, he'd ask the AI. When everyone snickered, he added, 'You can laugh. It's all right. But it really is what I actually believe.' Sitting again in front of an audience, this time across from Max Hodak, the co-founder and CEO of Science Corp., I can't help but remember that moment with Altman. Pale-complexioned Hodak, wearing jeans and a black zip-up sweatshirt, looks more like he'd fit in in a mosh pit than pitching a company valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. But he's got a sly sense of humor that keeps the room engaged. Hodak started programming when he was six, and as an undergraduate at Duke, he worked his way into the lab of Miguel Nicolelis, a pioneering neuroscientist who has since become publicly critical of commercial brain-computer interface ventures. In 2016, Hodak co-founded Neuralink with Elon Musk, serving as its president and essentially running day-to-day operations until 2021....
There are some jobs human bodies just weren't meant to do. Unloading trucks and shipping containers is a repetitive, grueling task ' and a big reason warehouse injury rates are more than twice the national average. The Pickle Robot Company wants its machines to do the heavy lifting. The company's one-armed robots autonomously unload trailers, picking up boxes weighing up to 50 pounds and placing them onto onboard conveyor belts for warehouses of all types. The company name, an homage to The Apple Computer Company, hints at the ambitions of founders AJ Meyer '09, Ariana Eisenstein '15, SM '16, and Dan Paluska '97, SM '00. The founders want to make the company the technology leader for supply chain automation. The company's unloading robots combine generative AI and machine-learning algorithms with sensors, cameras, and machine-vision software to navigate new environments on day one and improve performance over time. Much of the company's hardware is adapted from industrial partners. You may recognize the arm, for instance, from car manufacturing lines ' though you may not have seen it in bright pickle-green....
Sometimes these terms are thematically related, particularly in the wake of world-altering events. 'Pandemic,' 'lockdown' and 'coronavirus,' for example, were among the words chosen in 2020. At other times, they are a potpourri of various cultural trends, as with 2022's 'goblin mode,' 'permacrisis' and 'gaslighting.' This year's slate largely centers on digital life. But rather than reflecting the unbridled optimism about the internet of the early aughts ' when words like 'w00t,' 'blog,' 'tweet' and even 'face with tears of joy' emoji (') were chosen ' this year's selections reflect a growing unease over how the internet has become a hotbed of artifice, manipulation and fake relationships. Macquarie defines the term, which was popularized in 2024 by British programmer Simon Willison and tech journalist Casey Newton, as 'low-quality content created by generative AI, often containing errors, and not requested by the user.' AI slop ' which can range from a saccharine image of a young girl clinging to her little dog to career advice on LinkedIn ' often goes viral, as gullible social media users share these computer-generated videos, text and graphics with others....
Paula Hammond '84, PhD '93, an Institute Professor and MIT's executive vice provost, has been named dean of MIT's School of Engineering, effective Jan. 16. She will succeed Anantha Chandrakasan, the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who was appointed MIT's provost in July. Hammond, who was head of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 2015 to 2023, has also served as MIT's vice provost for faculty. She will be the first woman to hold the role of dean of MIT's School of Engineering. 'From the rigor and creativity of her scientific work to her outstanding record of service to the Institute, Paula Hammond represents the very best of MIT,' says MIT President Sally Kornbluth. 'Wise, thoughtful, down-to-earth, deeply curious, and steeped in MIT's culture and values, Paula will be a highly effective leader for the School of Engineering. I'm delighted she accepted this new challenge.' Hammond, who is also a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, has earned many accolades for her work developing polymers and nanomaterials that can be used for applications including drug delivery, regenerative medicine, noninvasive imaging, and battery technology....
