Professor Daniela Rus: A new voice in the VinFuture Prize Council - Honoring AI and Robotics revolution
HANOI, VIETNAM - Media OutReach Newswire - 7 March 2025 - As Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics have increasingly reshaped industries and societies, promising to be the multibillion-dollar opportunity in the next decade, the VinFuture Prize is committed to recognizing and honoring pioneers who have driven this technological revolution. After the 2024 Grand Prize honored five scientists for their contributions to advancing deep learning, the Prize Council has now welcomed Professor Daniela Rus, Director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT, as its newest member.
Professor Daniela Rus. Photo courtesy of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
On the occasion of International Women's Day, Professor Rus reflects on her journey in a field long perceived as male-dominated and shares how AI plays an important role in shaping the future of robotics.
From the leap of AI to robots
The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence presents significant opportunities for robotics to drive industrial revolution. AI models are surprisingly humanlike in their ability to process text, video, images, and other data when prompted. However, Professor Rus pointed out that so far, these algorithms have largely remained relegated to the digital world, rather than the real world. Meanwhile, robots excel in the physical world but lack inherent intelligence, relying largely on pre-programmed instructions.
This is a decade when AI will finally make the leap from the digital world to the real world. Professor Rus envisions bridging this gap by integrating AI into robotics to make real-world physical machines intelligent. 'They can be robots and also other machines, including power grids, sensors, and satellites; essentially anything you want in the physical world,' she said.
This vision requires what Professor Rus calls 'physical AI.' In other words, it means developing AI models that not only process information but also understand the physics of the real world, she explained. This requires overcoming the limitations of current statistical AI, which lacks a deep understanding of real-world physics.
Ultimately, Professor Rus emphasized the need to develop AI solutions that are physics-aware, causal, error-free, compact and integrated into physical systems. With many researchers and scientists actively pursuing these advancements, she predicts a complete transformation of industries over the next decade.
'In healthcare, AI-driven diagnostic tools can improve monitoring and disease detection. Meanwhile, autonomous systems promise safer roads, reducing fatalities, and making our transportation system much more efficient and effective. One of the most exciting applications is real-time language translation, which can enable seamless global communication.' she clarified.
In general, AI and robotics hand in hand could liberate humans from mundane routine tasks, enabling them to dedicate their efforts to higher-level activities such as strategic thinking and creative problem-solving. However, Professor Rus also emphasized the importance of acknowledging the current limitations of machine learning and cautioned against over-reliance on robotics as a universal solution.
Embrace the AI era
Recognizing the profound impact of AI on industries and societies globally, Professor Rus expressed her appreciation for the VinFuture Prize's recognition of the pioneers driving this transformation, comprehensively acknowledge contributions from all three core pillars of AI revolution: machine-learning (Professors Yoshua Bengio – Geoffrey Hinton – Yann LeCun), datasets (Professor Fei-Fei Li) and hardware (Mr. Jensen Huang).
'The prize highlights how far we've come from the scientific foundations of AI to the point where it can create so much impact in improving our lives and contributing to a better world,' she exclaimed.
As the newest member of the esteemed VinFuture Prize Council, she expressed her anticipation for a productive collaboration, aligned with the Council's objectives: 'The VinFuture Prize is remarkable, and it is wonderful to see AI researchers and advancements receiving this level of recognition. My expectation is that this collaboration will focus on identifying and celebrating groundbreaking achievements and people who have made those contributions that have the potential to transform industries and improve lives.'
Regarding the long-term impact of intelligent robots in the near future, Professor Rus emphasized the necessity of equipping individuals with the knowledge and skills required to navigate this evolving landscape. She highlighted the importance of achieving digital literacy to adapt to the inevitable technological shift, through formal education, corporate training, or community-led initiatives. 'It's important to recognize that these tools are neither inherently good nor bad: their impact depends on how we choose to use them,' she stressed.
With the advocate from the VinFuture Prize to the constant development of AI, Professor Rus was confident that this would serve as a rallying point to inspire more young researchers and developers worldwide to push the boundaries of AI and robots across borders.
'We are at a pivotal moment where AI is beginning to make a profound impact on the world. The Prize will energize the younger generation to participate, learn, and contribute. The more that young scientists and engineers engage with AI and robotics, the faster we will see meaningful advancements that create a more equitable and sustainable future for all,' she remarked.
'The path is never a straight line'
Recognized among the distinguished women leading the global advancement of AI and robotics, Professor Rus traces her passion to an early fascination with science fiction. Her subsequent studies in computer science, mathematics, and astronomy provided a foundation for her academic journey, which was further shaped by the guidance of her future PhD advisor.
Inspired by her advisor, she became deeply intrigued by the potential application of computation to interact with the physical world. 'This realization was a turning point for me, as I saw an opportunity to work on something groundbreaking,' she said.
Reflecting on the state-of-the-art at that time, most robots were characterized by humanoid forms, robotic arms, or box-like wheeled machines, predominantly constructed from metal. Despite their power, these industrial robots proved impractical for factory assistance due to their bulk, weight, and inherent safety risks.
Professor Rus adopted an alternative approach to address this challenge: 'I realized how the natural world was full of diverse forms and materials and explored ways to expand the definition of a robot to include a wider range of these. In my lab, we pioneered early work in soft robotics and investigated using silicone, paper, and even food as the basis for making new robots.'
This research approach led her to pursue the development of machines possessing both physical form and cognitive capabilities, aiming to optimize the synergy between structural design and intelligent control, motivating machines to act with purpose and adaptability. 'By merging smarter AI with innovative materials and designs, we can push the boundaries of what robots can achieve,' she explained.
Throughout her remarkable journey, Professor Rus distinguished herself with unwavering commitment to advancing the science and engineering of intelligence. She demonstrates a persistent dedication to addressing evolving challenges within the field, in pursuit of a future where machines seamlessly integrate into human lives, supporting people in both physical and cognitive tasks.
'Challenges are inevitable, and the path is never a straight line. The key is to stay focused on a big goal.' Professor Rus emphasized, 'You have to adapt to wherever science and engineering can take you. Studying these machines has taught me that we have so much opportunity and more left to learn, not only about the machines but also about ourselves.'
The VinFuture Foundation, established on International Human Solidarity Day on December 20th, 2020, is a non-profit organization co-founded by billionaire Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong and his wife, Mrs. Pham Thu Huong. The Foundation's core activity is awarding the annual VinFuture Prize, which recognizes transformative scientific and technological innovations capable of making significant positive changes in the lives of millions of people worldwide.
The nomination period for the 2025 VinFuture Prize will close at 2:00 PM on April 17, 2025 (Vietnam time, GMT+7). https://vinfutureprize.org/vinfuture-prize-nomination/
The VinFuture Prize consists of four prestigious awards presented each year. The most esteemed is the VinFuture Grand Prize, valued at US$3 million, making it one of the largest annual prizes globally. Additionally, there are three Special Prizes, each valued at US$500,000, specifically dedicated to honoring women innovators, innovators from developing countries, and innovators with outstanding achievements in emerging fields.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Is Nvidia stock a massive bargain — or a massive value trap?
AI has transformed demand for computer chips and the most obvious beneficiary of that has been Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). With a stock market capitalization of $3.4trn, Nvidia might not seem like an obvious bargain. But what if it is really worth that much – or potentially a lot more? I have been keen to add some Nvidia stock to my portfolio, but I do not want to overpay. After all, Nvidia has shot up 1,499% in five years! So, here is what I am doing. For some companies in which I have invested in the past, from Reckitt to Burberry, I have benefited as an investor from a market being mature. Sales of detergent or pricy trenchcoats may grow over time, but they are unlikely to shoot up year after year. That is because those firms operate in mature markets. On top of that, as they are large and long-established, it is hard for them to grow by gaining substantial market share. So, market maturity has helped me as an investor because it has made it easier for me to judge what I think the total size of a market for a product or service may be – and how much of it the company in question looks likely to have in future. Chips, by contrast, are different. Even before AI, this was still a fast-growing industry – and AI has added fuel to that fire. On top of that, Nvidia is something of a rarity. It is already a large company and generated $130bn in revenues last year. But it is not mature – rather, it continues to grow at a breathtaking pace. Its first-quarter revenue was 69% higher than in the same three months of last year. Those factors mean that it is hard to tell what Nvidia is worth. Clearly that is not only my opinion: the fact that Nvidia stock is 47% higher than in April suggests that the wider market is wrestling with the same problem. Could it be a value trap? It is possible. For example, chip demand could fall after the surge of recent years and settle down again at a much lower level. A lower cost rival could eat badly into Nvidia's market share. Trade disputes could see sales volumes fall. With a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 46, just a few things like that going wrong could mean today's Nvidia stock price ends up looking like a value trap. On the other hand, think about those first-quarter growth rates. If Nvidia keeps doing as well, let alone better, its earnings could soar. In that case, the prospective P/E ratio based on today's share price could be low and the current share price a long-term bargain. I see multiple possible drivers for such an increase, such as more widespread adoption of AI and Nvidia launching even more advanced proprietary chip designs. So, I reckon the company could turn out to be either a massive bargain at today's price, or a massive value trap. The price does not offer me enough margin of safety for my comfort if the stock is indeed a value trap. So, I will wait for a more attractive valuation before buying. The post Is Nvidia stock a massive bargain — or a massive value trap? appeared first on The Motley Fool UK. More reading 5 Stocks For Trying To Build Wealth After 50 One Top Growth Stock from the Motley Fool C Ruane has no position in any of the shares mentioned. The Motley Fool UK has recommended Burberry Group Plc, Nvidia, and Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. Motley Fool UK 2025
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
We're offloading mental tasks to AI. It could be making us stupid
Koen Van Belle, a test automation engineer who codes for a living, had been using the artificial intelligence large language model Copilot for about six months when one day the internet went down. Forced to return to his traditional means of work using his memory and what he had decades of experience doing, he struggled to remember some of the syntax he coded with. 'I couldn't remember how it works,' Van Belle, who manages a computer programming business in Belgium, told Salon in a video call. 'I became way too reliant on AI … so I had to turn it off and re-learn some skills.' As a manager in his company, Van Belle oversees the work of a handful of interns each year. Because their company has limits on the use of AI, the interns had to curb their use as well, he said. But afterward, the amount and quality of their coding was drastically reduced, Van Belle said. 'They are able to explain to ChatGPT what they want, it generates something and they hope it works,' Van Belle said. 'When they get into the real world and have to build a new project, they will fail.' Since AI models like Copilot and ChatGPT came online in 2022, they have exploded in popularity, with one survey conducted in January estimating that more than half of Americans have used Copilot, ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude. Research examining how these programs affect users is limited because they are so new, but some early studies suggest they are already impacting our brains. 'In some sense, these models are like brain control interfaces or implants — they're that powerful,' said Kanaka Rajan, a computational neuroscientist and founding faculty member at the Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University. 'In some sense, they're changing the input streams to the networks that live in our brains.' In a February study conducted by researchers from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University, groups of people working with data worked more efficiently with the use of generative AI tools like ChatGPT — but used less critical thinking than a comparator group of workers who didn't use these tools. In fact, the more that workers reported trusting AI's ability to perform tasks for them, the more their critical thinking was reduced. Another 2024 study published last year reported that the reduction in critical thinking stemmed from relying on AI to perform a greater proportion of the brain work necessary to perform tasks in a process called cognitive offloading. Cognitive offloading is something we do everyday when we write our shopping list, make an event on the calendar or use a calculator. To reduce our brain's workload, we can 'offload' some of its tasks to technology, which can help us perform more complex tasks. However, it has also been linked in other research to things like having a worse memory. As a review published in March concluded: 'Although laboratory studies have demonstrated that cognitive offloading has benefits for task performance, it is not without costs.' It's handy, for example, to be able to rely on your brain to remember the grocery list in case it gets lost. So how much cognitive offloading is good for us — and how is AI accelerating those costs? This concept is not new: The Greek philosopher Socrates was afraid that the invention of writing would make humans dumber because we wouldn't exercise our memory as much. He famously never wrote anything down, though his student, Plato, did. Some argue Socrates was right and the trend is escalating: with each major technological advancement, we increasingly rely on tools outside of ourselves to perform tasks we once accomplished in-house. Many people may not perform routine calculations in their head anymore due to the invention of the calculator, and most people use a GPS instead of pulling out a physical map or going off physical markers to guide them to their is no doubt these inventions have made us more efficient, but the concern lies in what happens when we stop flexing the parts of the brain that are responsible for these tasks. And over time, some argue we might lose those abilities. There is an old ethos of "use it or lose it" that may apply to cognitive tasks as well. Despite concerns that calculators would destroy our ability to do math, research has generally shown that there is little difference in performance when calculators are used and when they are not. Some have even been critical that the school system still generally spends so much time teaching students foundational techniques like learning the multiplication tables when they can now solve those sorts of problems at the touch of a button, said Matthew Fisher, a researcher at Southern Methodist University. On the other hand, others argue that this part of the curriculum is important because it provides the foundational mathematical building blocks from which students learn other parts of math and science, he explained. As Fisher told Salon in a phone interview: "If we just totally get rid of that mathematical foundation, our intuition for later mathematical study, as well as just for living in the world and understanding basic relationships, is going to be off.' Other studies suggest relying on newer forms of technology does influence our brain activity. Research, for example, has found that students' brains were more active when they handwrote information rather than typing it on a keyboard and when using a pen and paper versus a stylus and a tablet. Research also shows that 'use it or lose it' is somewhat true in the context of the skills we learn. New neurons are produced in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning. However, most of these new cells will die off unless the brain puts effort and focus into learning over a period of time. People can certainly learn from artificial intelligence, but the danger lies in forgoing the learning process to simply regurgitate information that it feeds us. In 2008, after about two decades of the public internet, The Atlantic published a cover story asking "Is Google making us stupid?" Since then, and with the emergence of smart phones and social media, research has shown that too much time on the internet can lower our ability to concentrate, make us feel isolated and lower our self-esteem. One 2011 review found that people increasingly turn to the internet for difficult questions and are less able to recall the information that they found on the internet when using it to answer those questions. Instead, participants had an enhanced ability to recall where they found it. 'The internet has become a primary form of external or transactive memory, where information is stored collectively outside ourselves,' the authors concluded. In 2021, Fisher co-authored research that also found people who used internet searches more had an inflated sense of their own knowledge, reporting exaggerated claims about things they read on the internet compared to a control group who learned things without it. He termed this phenomenon the 'Google effect.' 'What we seem to have a hard time doing is differentiating where our internally mastered knowledge stops and where the knowledge we can just look up but feels a lot like our knowledge begins,' Fisher said. Many argue that AI takes this even further and cuts out a critical part of our imaginative process. In an opinion piece for Inside Higher Education, John Warner wrote that overrelying on ChatGPT for written tasks 'risks derailing the important exploration of an idea that happens when we write.' 'This is particularly true in school contexts, when the learning that happens inside the student is far more important than the finished product they produce on a given assignment,' Warner wrote. Much of the energy dedicated to understanding how AI affects our brains has been focused on adolescents because younger generations use these tools more and may also be more vulnerable to changes that occur because their brains are still developing. One 2023 study, for example, found junior high school students who used AI more had less of an ability to adapt to new social situations. Another 2023 paper also found that students who more heavily relied on AI to answer multiple choice questions summarizing a reading excerpt scored lower than those who relied on their memory alone, said study author Qirui Ju, a researcher at Duke University. 'Writing things down is helping you to really understand the material,' Ju told Salon in a phone interview. 'But if you replace that process with AI, even if you write higher quality stuff with less typos and more coherent sentences, it replaces the learning process so that the learning quality is lower.' To get a better idea of what is happening with people's brains when using large language models, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology connected 32-channel electroencephalograms to three groups of college-age students who were all answering the same writing prompts: One group used ChatGPT, another used Google and the third group simply used their own brains. Although the study was small, with just 55 participants, its results suggest large language models could affect our memory, attention and creativity, said Nataliya Kos'myna, the leader of the 'Your Brain on LLM' project, and a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab. After writing the essay, 85% of the group using Google and the group using their brains could recall a quote from their writing, compared to only 20% of those who used large language models, Kos'myna said. Furthermore, 16% of people using AI said they didn't even recognize their essay as their own after completing it, compared to 0% of students in the other group, she added. Overall, there was less brain activity and interconnectivity in the group that used ChatGPT compared to the groups that used Google or their brains only. Specifically, activity in the regions of the brain corresponding to language processing, imagination and creative writing in students using large language models were reduced compared to students in other groups, Kos'myna said. The research team also performed another analysis in which students first used their brains for the tasks before switching to performing the same task with the large language models, and vice versa. Those who used their brains first and then went on to try their hand at the task with the assistance of AI appeared to perform better and had the aforementioned areas of their brains activated. But the same was not true for the group that used AI first and then went on to try it with just their brains, Kos'myna said. 'It looks like the large language models did not necessarily help you and provide any additional interconnectivity in the brain,' Kos'myna told Salon in a video call. 'However, there is potential … that if you actually use your brain and then rework the task when being exposed to the tool, it might be beneficial.' Whether AI hinders or promotes our capacity for learning may depend more on how we use it than whether we use it. In other words, it is not AI that is the problem, but our overreliance on it. Van Belle, in Belgium, now uses large language models to write social media posts for his company because he doesn't feel like that is where his skills are most refined and the process can be very time-consuming otherwise. 'I would like to think that I would be able to make a fairly decent LinkedIn post by myself, but it would take me an extra amount of time,' he said. 'That is time that I don't want to waste on something I don't really care about.' These days, he sees AI as a tool, which it can be — as long as we don't offload too much of our brain power on it. 'We've been on this steady march now for thousands of years and it feels like we are at the culmination of deciding what is left for us to know and for us to do,' Fisher said. 'It raises real questions about how best to balance technology and get the most out of it without sacrificing these essentially human things.'
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
One AI image generator lets you create NSFW art — and it's only A$62 for life
The following content is brought to you by Mashable partners. If you buy a product featured here, we may earn an affiliate commission or other compensation. TL;DR: Create anything, even NSFW art, with a lifetime subscription to Imagiyo for only A$62. Opens in a new window Credit: Imagiyo Imagiyo AI Image Generator: Lifetime Subscription (Standard Plan) AU$62 AU$767 Save AU$705 Get Deal Digital creativity has never been more accessible, yet many of us remember the days when crafting a single image meant wrestling with layers and plugins for hours on end. Now there's a way to generate stunning visuals in seconds, simply by typing a description of what you have in mind. Get an Imagiyo AI Image Generator lifetime subscription for just A$62 (reg. A$767) through 20 July. Imagiyo uses Stable Diffusion AI alongside FLUX AI to turn text prompts into high-quality images ready for commercial use, and there aren't many limits to what you can create. Here's what that means. What do you want to make first? It only takes a brief description to put Imagiyo's advanced algorithms to work, and unlike other image generators, Imagiyo actually lets you really follow your creativity. Craft stunning landscapes, visualize characters from books, or go for something a little more daring. Imagiyo supports NSFW content creation. Just set your prompts to private and let your mind run wild. Imagiyo's commercial-use license means you can take some of the images you generate and incorporate them into client projects, social media campaigns, or personal portfolios without fear of copyright issues. Each month, you receive 500 image-generation credits and can submit up to two prompts at once. Unused credits roll over, so you never lose access to your creative potential. Best of all, Imagiyo delivers your purchased engine updates and feature improvements automatically, ensuring you always work with the latest AI models. You have until 20 July 20 at 11:59 p.m. PT to get an Imagiyo AI Image Generator lifetime subscription for A$62 (reg. A$767). StackSocial prices subject to change.
