New ‘Chain Mail’ Material of Interlocking Molecules is Tough, Flexible and Easy to Make
Chemists have created a new type of material from interlocking molecules that for the first time allows the synthesis of extensive 2D or 3D structures.
ChatGPT Raised Awareness of AI’s Abilities. Experts See an Opportunity.
ChatGPT is changing the ways teachers educate students, scientists trust research and journalists report the news. It passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam and an exam to receive a business master’s degree.
Among Less-Educated Young Workers, Women and Black Men are Paid Far Less
A new study found that young Black men with no college education earn barely half of what their Asian American and white counterparts make. Latinx, Asian and Black women lag even further.
Large-Scale Traffic Experiment Uses AI Against ‘Phantom’ Jam
CEE Professors Maria Laura Delle Monache and Alexandre M. Bayen discuss their research on the impact of AI-equipped vehicles on traffic jams and fuel consumption.
Alexandre Bayen Leads Massive AI Traffic Experiment
An interdisciplinary team of industry and academic researchers led by Professor Alexandre Bayen has completed its most ambitious real-time traffic experiment to date
Massive Traffic Experiment Pits Machine Learning Against ‘Phantom’ Jams
In a massive traffic experiment scientists tested whether introducing just a few AI-equipped vehicles to the road can help ease “phantom” jams and reduce fuel consumption for everyone. The answer seems to be yes.
Step by Step Berkeley Robots Learn to Walk on Their Own in Record Time
Using advances in machine learning, two separate teams have developed approaches to shorten in-the-field training for quadruped robots in record time.
Researchers and Advocates Consider How Data and Computer Science Can Inform Policy
The first annual ACM conference spotlighted work where algorithms and data-driven approaches, alongside social sciences and other fields, can help solve equity and access issues affecting historically disadvantaged and underserved communities.
Aaron Streets Honored by Popular Science's Brilliant 10
Aaron Streets has been named to Popular Science’s Brilliant 10, honoring trailblazing early-career scientists and engineers.
Andrew Reddie Awarded $1.8M to Launch Berkeley Risk and Security Lab
Andrew Reddie has launched the Berkeley Risk and Security Lab (BRSL), thanks to a $1.8M grant from the Founders Pledge Fund
New Institute Brings Together Chemistry and Machine Learning to Tackle Climate Change
A new UC Berkeley institute will bring together top machine learning and chemistry researchers to make this vision a reality, and a Bay Area foundation is providing a substantial gift to launch and enable this work at UC Berkeley over the next five years.
EPIC Data Lab: Harnessing the Power of Computer Science to Help Society
Building data tools that allow people without programming backgrounds to benefit from the latest computer science advances, the EPIC Data Lab – short for Effective Programming, Interaction, and Computation with Data, a new UC Berkeley Lab, is collaborating with end-users like public defenders to understand what important messy data challenges exist in their fields.
AI weapons pose threat to humanity, warns top scientist
The computer scientist Stuart Russell met with officials from the UK’s Ministry of Defence in October to deliver a stark warning: building artificial intelligence into weapons could wipe out humanity.
Why we need to regulate non-state use of arms
An emerging arms race between major powers in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems is attracting a great deal of attention. Negotiations on a potential treaty to ban such weapons have stalled while the technology rapidly advances.
Machine Translation Could Make English-Only Science Accessible to All
Machine learning using artificial intelligence has improved computer translation over the past decade, but scientific articles employing specialized jargon are still a challenge for machine translation. Nevertheless, scientists should prioritize translating articles into multiple languages to provide an equitable landscape for budding scientists worldwide, UC Berkeley researchers argue.
Faster, More Secure Approach to Machine Learning Helps Safeguard Private Information
In a study presented at the 2022 USENIX Security Symposium, Raluca Ada Popa, associate professor, and her Ph.D. student, Jean-Luc Watson, described their innovative privacy-preserving approach to machine learning.
UC Berkeley Researchers Win $5M to Launch Center that Advances Decentralization Technology
UC Berkeley and Imperial College London have won $5 million to create an international, interdisciplinary center aimed at advancing decentralization technology that offers users more control of their data.
Just For You
In a study presented at the 2022 International Conference on Machine Learning, a UC Berkeley-led research team revealed that certain recommender systems try to manipulate user preferences, beliefs, mood and psychological state
UC Berkeley and Tuskegee University Announce Data Science Partnership
Tuskegee University and UC Berkeley recently announced the Berkeley-Tuskegee Data Science Initiative, a multi-year partnership to develop curriculum and collaborative research opportunities for students and faculty at both institutions.
Plenoxels Convert 2D Images into Navigable, Photorealistic 3D Worlds in Minutes
Plenoxels surpass NeRF in every way — from their speed to their image quality — which may broaden their potential for consumer, industry and scientific applications.
New UC Berkeley Initiative Uses AI Research to Solve Climate Problems
For years, UC Berkeley snow hydrologist Manuela Girotto has combined disparate remote sensing datasets from satellites into models to understand snow as a water resource. In an era of extreme drought and climate change, her work is increasingly urgent.
A recent rapid expansion of available observations from space could unlock important insights. But integrating that amount of data into researchers’ existing models is difficult. So when Berkeley computer science doctoral candidate Colorado Reed reached out asking how artificial intelligence could help, she saw an opportunity.
UC Berkeley Launches Sky Computing Lab to Revolutionize the Cloud Industry
UC Berkeley formally launched this week The Sky Computing Lab aimed at establishing a two-sided market mediated by services that identify and harness for users the best combination of compatible clouds for their needs and building a new backbone for interconnected cloud computing, a milestone that would revolutionize the industry.
At a Time When Abortion Access is Threatened, Google Search Data Shows America’s Growing Interest in At-Home Abortions
To find out how much interest there is in at-home medication abortions, researchers from UC Berkeley analyzed Google searches during 2020—the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic—to determine the extent to which people searched for out-of-clinic medication abortions in the U.S. through three initial search terms: home abortion, self abortion, and buy abortion pill online.
New and Corrected Estimates of California Migration Patterns Suggest Slowing of Pandemic-Era Trends
The number of people leaving California for other states appears to have slowed during the last quarter of 2021, while the number of people moving into the state appears to be rebounding, according to new estimates released today by the nonpartisan California Policy Lab (CPL) using credit-bureau data through the end of 2021.
Berkeley Robot Learning Pioneer Pieter Abbeel Wins ACM Prize in Computing
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest scientific and educational computing society, has awarded UC Berkeley professor Pieter Abbeel the 2021 ACM Prize in Computing for his foundational work in robot learning.
New UC Berkeley Center Will Apply Data Science to Solving Environmental Challenges
A new research center at the University of California, Berkeley, funded by alumni Eric and Wendy Schmidt, will tackle major environmental challenges including climate change and biodiversity loss by combining data science and environmental science.
‘Off label’ Use of Imaging Databases Could Lead to Bias in AI Algorithms, Study Finds
Significant advances in artificial intelligence (AI) over the past decade have relied upon extensive training of algorithms using massive, open-source databases. But when such datasets are used “off label” and applied in unintended ways, the results are subject to machine learning bias that compromises the integrity of the AI algorithm, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas at Austin.
Mobile Phone Data and Machine Learning Helped Togo Government Provide Assistance
UC Berkeley-led researchers used mobile phone data and machine learning to quickly and accurately direct the Togolese government’s COVID-19 cash assistance to its poorest residents in a first-of-its-kind study published March 16 in Nature.
HYPPO: Leveraging Prediction Uncertainty to Optimize Deep Learning Models for Science
Leveraging support from the Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a team of researchers in the Computing Sciences Area has developed a new software tool for conducting hyperparameter optimization (HPO) of deep neural networks while taking into account the prediction uncertainty that arises from using stochastic optimizers for training the models.
New Kavli Center at UC Berkeley to Foster Ethics, Engagement in Science
UC Berkeley announced that the campus will be home to a new Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and the Public, which, alongside a second center at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, will connect scientists, ethicists, social scientists, science communicators and the public in necessary and intentional discussions about the potential impacts of scientific discoveries.
Innovative Joint Program in Computational Precision Health at UC Berkeley and UCSF Aims to Improve Quality and Equity of Health Care
The University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California, San Francisco, today (Oct. 20, 2021) jointly launched a new, one-of-a-kind program in computational precision health, a significant step toward advancing this new field and, ultimately, improving the quality and equity of health care.
Leaping squirrels! Parkour is one of their many feats of agility
Videos of squirrels leaping from bendy branches across impossibly large gaps, parkouring off walls, scrambling to recover from tricky landings are not just more YouTube content documenting the antics of squirrels. Researchers at UC Berkeley are capturing video of squirrels as part of their research to understand the split-second decisions squirrels make to elude deadly predators, research that could help with development of robots with better agility and control.
UC Berkeley, Georgia Tech and USC launch new National AI Research Institute
The National Science Foundation has awarded $20 million over five years to the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Southern California to establish the National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Institute for Advances in Optimization. The award is among 11 new National AI Research Institutes announced today by NSF.
A machine learning breakthrough uses satellite images to improve lives
More than 700 imaging satellites are orbiting the earth, and every day they beam vast oceans of information to databases on the ground. There’s just one problem: Only those with considerable wealth and expertise can access it. Now, a UC Berkeley team has devised a machine learning system to tap the problem-solving potential of satellite imaging that could bring access and analytical power to researchers and governments worldwide.
Computing and Data Sciences Improve What We Know About Wildfires and How to Fight Them
Our understanding, planning, and response to wildfires benefit from connections with data and computing sciences. Recent developments in machine learning and simulations can help first responders detect fires earlier, predict fires’ paths and limit blazes quickly. Through collaborations with practitioners in other fields like microbiology and forest management, these tools are answering previously intractable questions about fires that can inform policy and practice.
New AI strategy enables robots to rapidly adapt to real world environments
Delivery services may be able to overcome snow, rain, heat and the gloom of night, but a new class of legged robots is not far behind. Artificial intelligence algorithms developed by a team of researchers from UC Berkeley, Facebook and Carnegie Mellon University are equipping legged robots with an enhanced ability to adapt to and navigate unfamiliar terrain in real time.
‘Eye in the sky’ sensors reduce stress of in-home dementia care
People caring around the clock for a parent, spouse or other loved one with dementia are at a high risk for clinical anxiety, depression, social isolation and even suicidal ideation, according to longitudinal research from UC Berkeley.
But thanks to a blend of artificial intelligence (AI) and behavioral science, relief may be on the horizon.
Envisioning Safer Cities With AI
A team of researchers from the NSF NHERI SimCenter, a computational modeling and simulation center for the natural hazards engineering community based at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a suite of tools called BRAILS Building Recognition using AI at Large-Scale that can automatically identify characteristics of buildings in a city and even detect the risks that a city's structures would face in an earthquake, hurricane, or tsunami. ,b>Charles (Chaofeng) Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and the lead developer of BRAILS, says the project grew out of a need to quickly and reliably characterize the structures in a city.
The Robot Surgeon Will See You Now
UC Berkeley postdoctoral researcher Dr. Danyal Fer and his fellow researchers hope to advance the state of the art of robotic surgery. Automated robots in testing situations can meet or exceed a human in dexterity, precision and speed, according to a new research paper from the Berkeley team. The Berkeley team decided to build a new neural network that analyzed the robot's mistakes and learned how much precision it was losing with each passing day. "It learns how the robot's joints evolve over time," said Brijen Thananjeyan, a doctoral student on the team.
Light unbound: Data limits could vanish with new optical antennas
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a new way to harness properties of light waves that can radically increase the amount of data they carry. They demonstrated the emission of discrete twisting laser beams from antennas made up of concentric rings roughly equal to the diameter of a human hair, small enough to be placed on computer chips.
New Algorithms Could Reduce Racial Disparity
Researchers trying to improve health care with artificial intelligence usually subject their algorithms to a form of machine med school. Software learns from doctors by digesting thousands or millions of x-rays or other data labeled by expert humans until it can accurately flag suspect moles or lungs showing signs of COVID-19 by itself. A study published this month took a different approachtraining algorithms to read knee x-rays for arthritis by using patients as the AI arbiters of truth instead of doctors. The results revealed that radiologists may have literal blind spots when it comes to reading Black patients' x-rays. Ziad Obermeyer, an author of the study and a professor at the University of California Berkeley's School of Public Health, was inspired to use AI to probe what radiologists weren't seeing by a medical puzzle.
Obermeyer Says Government Regulation of AI Wouldn't Stop Creative or Dangerous Uses
In this video piece from the Washington Post, Ziad Obermeyer, professor of health policy and management at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, said government regulation of artificial intelligence can have a positive impact, but it can't get ahead of the "many creative and potentially dangerous uses that people are going to put algorithms toward...In a lot of our work what we've found is there is a substantial amount of racial bias in algorithms that are fairly widespread...that's the kind of thing that certainly suggests a role for regulation."
Investing in AI Boosts Firm Growth—and Increases Market Dominance, Study Finds
AI has helped “superstar” firms such as Amazon, JPMorgan Chase, and UnitedHealth, get even bigger, according to a new paper co-authored by Berkeley Haas Assistant Professor Anastassia Fedyk.
Cal Professors Lead Poverty Study
Three University of California, Berkeley professors will lead the work to create new datasets to better understand poverty and mobility with the help of a $2 million grant. "By constructing these datasets and making them available to a wide array of researchers, we will unlock a generation's worth of new policy research," said professor Jesse Rothstein, co-lead researcher on the project, in a statement. Also leading the project are professors Hilary Hoynes and Steven Raphael. Researchers throughout the University of California system and others will take part in the work.
Spread of Fake News Demands Tough New Rules, Says German AI Leader
The chair of Germany's artificial intelligence committee has called for tougher measures to curb the spread of fake news. Her concern came as the CEP published a report called "The Creation, Weaponization and Detection of Deep Fakes". The report's author, Professor Hany Farid from the University of California, Berkeley, explained that deep fakes, which see famous people such as U.S. President Donald Trump having words placed over official video footage, are growing in sophistication. "I think everyone can see the damage that this type of content can create for misinformation campaigns," he said. "Now we have videos of someone saying whatever you want them to say to bolster that misinformation." For more on this, see our press release at Berkeley News.
Google Brain, Intel, and UC Berkeley Train Robotic Surgery AI With Videos
Researchers at Google Brain, Intel AI Lab, and UC Berkeley have created Motion2Vec, an artificial intelligence model that can learn how to do tasks associated with robotic surgery, such as suturing and needle insertion.
To climb like a gecko, robots need toes
Robots with toes? Experiments suggest that climbing robots could benefit from having flexible, hairy toes, like those of geckos, that can adjust quickly to accommodate shifting weight and slippery surfaces.