10 top AI and machine learning trends for 2024

MIT Technology Review

In early 2021, Mark Horowitz '71 received a call from the props master for a Leonard Bernstein biopic called Maestro. "He wanted to know if I could make a few batons for Bradley Cooper, the star and director," says Horowitz, a retired software developer and actuary who moonlights as a crafter of conductor's batons.

Horowitz was not entirely surprised. His father, Dick Horowitz, a Juilliard-trained percussionist, had made several batons for Bernstein—and other famous classical and operatic conductors. It is even rumored that Bernstein was buried with one of the elder Horowitz's batons. The props master "probably expected me to fall off my chair," says Horowitz, who learned to fashion batons working alongside his father in their home workshop in the 1960s. "I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd never heard of Bradley Cooper."

Born to New York City musicians, Horowitz and his brother, Robert '73, grew up immersed in music and museums. Their mother, Bernice, was a harpist who played in the pit at musicals including A Chorus Line. Their father played in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for 66 years—including decades as principal timpanist. Called "a Stradivari of Sticks" by the New York Times for his baton-making prowess, Dick Horowitz was also the resident orchestra handyman. He made his first baton for Bernstein, who'd broken his while rehearsing Candide. "My father looked at life as an opportunity to solve problems," Horowitz says. 

Horowitz came to MIT in 1967 with sky-high expectations. He says the Institute exceeded them: "I discovered and took courses on subjects I didn't even know existed." While earning degrees in both math and electrical engineering and computer science, he sang with the MIT Glee Club under John Oliver and was among Oliver's recruits for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Festival Chorus. "We sang Mahler's Second Symphony there," says Horowitz. "Under the direction of Leonard Bernstein."

Horowitz took over the trade after his father died in 2015, retired from his other jobs in 2017, and now makes about 50 batons a year. The slender, elegant birchwood sticks weigh seven grams and sell for $100 apiece. Each one is custom made. While demand has surged since reports of his work on Maestro hit the media, Horowitz has no plans to ramp up production. "I love making batons," he explains. "And I'm proud to have contributed, in a small way, to the film. But I have too many other things I want to do right now. Travel. Sing. Finalize a few inventions I'm working on. I don't want this to become a full-time job." 

IBM's Leading Scientist, Ukrainian Lyubomyr Romankiv, Dies In The US — What He Invented And How He Helped Create Apple

At the age of 93, Ukrainian scientist and engineer Lubomyr Romankiv, who worked at IBM for more than 50 years, has passed away in the United States. During his life, he wrote more than 150 scientific articles and patented 67 inventions.

Among Romankiv's inventions, the most famous are thin-film magnetic recording heads. Their creation made hard disks and computers possible. He did not emphasize his inventions; people simply learned about them from information about the world around them.

In the 1970s, Liubomyr Romankiv, together with David Thompson, created the first magnetic thin-film heads. They made it possible to increase the density of data on magnetic drives, reduce their size and cost of maintenance. This was an industrial breakthrough, and now they are used in every HDD.

«Apple started when Steve Wozniak bought these drives from us and built the first personal computer in his garage, — Romankiv told Voice of America in 2017.

Other achievements of the inventor include technologies for forming multi-level connections and soldering microcontacts on the processor. Thanks to their development, modern chips can have up to 12 layers of metal connections.

Liubomyr Romankiv's achievement is the technology of copper interconnects, which was introduced into mass production of processors by IBM in 1997. The technology is now a standard in semiconductor production and at one time doubled the performance of processors. Previously, less efficient aluminum contacts were used.

«Copper was considered a killer of semiconductor devices. The general consensus was to stay away from copper as much as possible," Romankiv quotes IBM's website.

In 1998, IBM began building PowerPC processors with this technology, and in 1999, it introduced a server with copper chips that increased performance by 50%. In recent years, Romankiv has worked on improving the efficiency of solar panels and holds several patents related to this.

Born in Lviv, Ukraine, Liubomyr Romankiv emigrated with his parents to Canada at the age of 13, crossing Europe. There he studied at the University of Alberta and received his Ph.D. In metallurgy and materials science from MIT. He recalls with horror the beginning of the Soviet repressions that his father may have suffered from:

«When the Soviet troops came to Zhovkva in the evening, the lists of those who were to be shot the next morning appeared at night… If I had stayed in Ukraine, I would have been in Siberia or shot,» Romankiv told Radio Liberty in 2021.

Source: Forbes

USPTO Wants Input On Scope Of Possible Statutory Experimental Use Exception

"While the RFC is interested in how the experimental use exception applies to all technology areas, it provided the example of agriculture as one area that could benefit from greater clarity on experimental use."

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued a draft Request for Comments (RFC) today seeking public feedback "on the current state of the experimental use exception jurisprudence and whether legislative action should be considered to enact a statutory experimental use exception."

The experimental use defense to patent infringement arises out of jurisprudence dating back to 1813 that allows some non-commercial experimentation with patented subject matter for limited purposes. According to the RFC, since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's 2002 decision in Madey v. Duke University, which clarified the court's view that the experimental use defense should be "very narrow and strictly limited," many have weighed in on whether or not the exception should be expanded. While the RFC notes that the questions it is posing for comment "should not be interpreted as an indication that the USPTO has taken a position on or is predisposed to any particular views," it spends some time detailing how other countries have approached experimental use, particularly that seven European countries have statutory exceptions that are broader than the U.S. Common law exception.

It also notes that many jurisdictions in Asia, Canada and Latin America have codified experimental use exceptions.

While the RFC is interested in how the experimental use exception applies to all technology areas, it provided the example of agriculture as one area that could benefit from greater clarity on experimental use. It cited the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2023 report, More and Better Choices for Farmers: Promotion Fair Competition and Innovation in Seeds and Other Agricultural Inputs, which implied that the narrow exception may be a hindrance in this field. The report said:

"The patent system does not provide a breeding exemption and allows a research exception that encompasses only 'very narrow' experimental uses 'solely for amusement, to satisfy idle curiosity, or for strictly philosophical inquiry.' It does not include uses that have the 'slightest commercial implication' and has been interpreted to exclude academic research."

The report was prepared in consultation with the USPTO, and the two agencies "committed to evaluating 'new proposals for incentivizing and protecting innovation in the seed and agricultural-related space, including the addition of research or breeders' exemptions for U.S. Utility patents,'" said the RFC. The report was also directed by President Biden's 2021 Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.

The RFC poses eight questions for commenters, including:

1) how the exception impacts technologies such as (a) quantum computing; (b) artificial intelligence; (c) other computer-related inventions; (d) agriculture; (e) life sciences (including prescription drugs and medical devices); and (f) climate-mitigation technologies in particular;

2) whether there are any technologies that are negatively impacted by the narrow nature of the U.S. Common law exception;

How a statutory exception would impact "the innovation and commercialization of new technologies";

4) how the current state of the law on experimental use has impacted business decisions to pursue or maintain patent applications or to purchase, license or sell patents;

5) whether a statutory exception should be adopted;

6) how such a statutory exception should be defined;

7) public policy reasons for either maintaining the status quo or changing the exception; and

8) any additional general recommendations.

 "Clarifying the contours of the USPTO's experimental use exception, especially in view of researchers' needs today, will help us continue to address emerging challenges and unlock new opportunities in key technology sectors," USPTO Director Kathi Vidal said in a press release about the RFC. "This RFC will help the USPTO better understand what additional clarity, if any, researchers and other innovators need."

Comments are due by September 26, 2024.

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