MIT researcher held up as model of how algorithms can benefit humanity

In June, when MIT artificial intelligence researcher Regina Barzilay went to Massachusetts General Hospital for a mammogram, her data were run through a deep learning model designed to assess her risk of developing breast cancer, which she had been diagnosed with once before. The workings of the algorithm, which predicted that her risk was low, were familiar: Barzilay helped build that very model, after being spurred by her 2014 cancer diagnosis to pivot her research to health care. Barzilay's work in AI, which ranges from tools for early cancer detection to platforms to identify new antibiotics, is increasingly garnering recognition: On Wednesday, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence named Barzilay as the inaugural recipient of a new annual award honoring an individual developing or promoting AI for the good of society. The award comes with a $1 million prize sponsored by the Chinese education technology company Squirrel AI Learning. While there are already prizes in the AI field, notably the Turing Award for computer scientists, those existing awards are typically "more focused on scientific, technical contributions and ideas," said Yolanda Gil, a past president of AAAI and an AI researcher at the University of Southern California.