The Singapore MIT-Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, has launched a brand new interdisciplinary research group aimed toward tackling key social and institutional challenges round the rise of synthetic intelligence and different new applied sciences. The group, referred to as Mens, Manus and Machina: How AI Empowers People, Institutions and the City in Singapore (M3S), goals to advance information in these fields and foster collaborative research that generates optimistic affect for society in Singapore and the world.
Seeking to redefine the boundaries of AI, automation, and robotics by way of interdisciplinary research, information sharing, and impactful collaborations, SMART M3S endeavors to design inclusive, resilient, and progressive options that empower people, establishments, and cities. By exploring the intricate relationship between human capabilities, rising applied sciences, and societal buildings, it’s envisioned that SMART M3S will drive scientific, societal, and business affect in Singapore and past.
In line with Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative and its National AI Strategy, the challenge will embark on an bold five-year endeavor supported by a multimillion-dollar grant from the National Research Foundation of Singapore below its Campus for Research Excellence And Technological Enterprise program.
Bringing collectively a various staff of 17 professors from MIT and establishments in Singapore, SMART M3S will draw experience from native researchers from Singapore Management University (SMU), Singapore University of Technology and Design, the National University of Singapore, and the National Robotics Program of Singapore. M3S will likely be guided by lead principal investigator Jinhua Zhao of MIT, co-lead principal investigator Daniela Rus of MIT, and co-lead principal investigator Archan Misra of SMU.
Ranked No. 1 in the 2023 Smart City Index, Singapore has facilitated the integration of AI, automation, and robotics by strategic use of knowledge analytics, internet-of-things applied sciences, and good infrastructure. Amid the rise of AI and machine studying, SMART M3S will contribute to Singapore’s AI ecosystem by specializing in the human-machine relationship, enhancing current AI initiatives in the city-state.
Inspired by MIT’s motto of “mens et manus,” Latin for “mind and hand,” the title M3S displays the research group’s beliefs to promote AI and machine use for sensible utility — applied sciences which can be extensions of people and increase their lives. M3S integrates research on robotics and AI with human capital improvement, financial development, and public acceptability — an intersectional method to the ongoing transformation of how we work and dwell.
This interdisciplinary method encompasses tackling key points equivalent to bodily and digital interfaces between people and machines, machine studying fundamentals, and understanding the implications of AI for human and social capital improvement. Other areas of focus embrace work on structuring human-machine groups inside organizations and the creating dynamics between people and machines in useful resource allocation and human labor (in addition to machine energy) administration.
Research performed might considerably advance facets of delicate robotics, mind interfaces, studying algorithms, process allocation, staff formation, mannequin compression, sustainable know-how, know-how acceptability in the office, social acceptability of robotics and AI, and extra. The affect of AI on human welfare and productiveness and how AI know-how can advance each areas are central concerns for the work at SMART M3S, as society navigates the transition towards an AI- and machine-enhanced future.
“As a species, humans have spent eons learning how to work effectively with each other, but at the scale of human history, we are still neophytes to computation and automation,” says Zhao, an MIT professor of city research and planning who can be founding director of the MIT Mobility Initiative. “We focus on two questions at M3S: How will we design AI and robotics technologies and train humans to build the skills and habits necessary for success in a robotics-heavy work environment? How will we adapt our social and business institutions to create the incentives and protections necessary to drive innovation and social welfare?”
“The M3S collaboration between researchers at MIT and in Singapore, through SMART, will break new ground in our understanding of AI’s impact on the future of work,” provides Rus, the Andrew (1956) and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and director of the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. “By harnessing our collective expertise and innovative spirit, we aim to advance the state of the art in AI and turn this technological advancement into an engine for human potential and societal progress.”
“M3S is distinguished by its ambition to address the key challenges of human-AI synergy holistically, from both a scientific and societal perspective,” notes Misra, vice provost for research and the Lee Kong Chian Professor of Computer Science at SMU who can be co-director of the A*STAR-SMU Joint Lab in Social and Human-Centered Computing. “It will focus not just on the technical breakthroughs that will allow human workers and AI-enabled machines and software to work interactively, but also on the training and governance mechanisms that ensure that individuals and organizations adapt to and thrive in this new future of work. I’m especially excited to collaborate with MIT researchers on this important national priority for Singapore, which aligns perfectly with SMU’s strategic multidisciplinary research priority area of digital transformation.”
Through interdisciplinary research, information sharing, and impactful collaborations, SMART M3S will discover the intricate interaction between human capabilities, rising applied sciences, and societal buildings, paving the means for designing inclusive, resilient, and progressive options that empower people, establishments, and cities in Singapore. By participating with Singaporean collaborators, SMART M3S hopes to improve Singapore’s skill to create forward-looking AI insurance policies, invigorate Singapore’s financial standing inside AI, and help native workforce coaching and mentorship on AI matters.
“With our latest interdisciplinary research group, SMART M3S, we further our commitment to bringing scientific, social, and commercial impact to Singapore and beyond,” says Eugene A. Fitzgerald, CEO and director of SMART. “The focus on a human-centric approach to AI advancement should contribute towards Singapore being at the forefront of the future of work.”
Since its inception in Singapore in 2007, SMART has developed improvements which have remodeled and are reworking a large number of fields equivalent to autonomous driving, agriculture, microelectronics, cell remedy, mechanics and microfluidics platforms for biology and medical diagnostics, and antimicrobial resistance.
SMART was established by MIT in coordination with the National Research Foundation of Singapore in 2007 to undertake cutting-edge research in areas of curiosity to each Singapore and MIT. SMART at present includes an Innovation Center and 4 interdisciplinary research teams: Antimicrobial Resistance, Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine, Disruptive and Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision, and M3S.