First Travelytics Newsletter: Let the Fun Begin!

Teaching AI models to say “I’m not sure” April 22, 2026
A new training method improves the reliability of AI confidence estimates without sacrificing performance, addressing a root cause of hallucination in reasoning models.
Jacob Andreas and Brett McGuire named Edgerton Award winners April 17, 2026
The associate professors of EECS and chemistry, respectively, are honored for exceptional contributions to teaching, research, and service at MIT.
Bringing AI-driven protein-design tools to biologists everywhere April 17, 2026
Founded by Tristan Bepler PhD ’20 and former MIT professor Tim Lu PhD ’07, OpenProtein.AI offers researchers open-source models and other tools for protein engineering.
Q&A: MIT SHASS and the future of education in the age of AI April 14, 2026
As the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences marks 75 years, Dean Agustín Rayo reflects on how AI is reshaping higher education and why SHASS disciplines continue to be central to MIT’s mission.
Human-machine teaming dives underwater April 14, 2026
Researchers are developing hardware and algorithms to improve collaboration between divers and autonomous underwater vehicles engaged in maritime missions.

Donald Trump’s deportation machine is innovating April 22, 2026
What lies behind the administration’s deals with African countries
US Senate 2026 forecast April 21, 2026
A friendly map may not be enough for Republicans to hold the Senate
US House of Representatives 2026 forecast April 21, 2026
Democrats are heavy favourites to flip the House
Our midterms forecast predicts pain for Donald Trump April 21, 2026
Just how bad could things get for the Republicans?
Checks and Balance newsletter: Of God and MAGA April 18, 2026
Charlotte Howard, our executive editor and New York bureau chief, unpacks the blurring of church and state among Donald Trump’s circle

Genetic origins of language may predate modern humans splitting from Neanderthals, a new study suggests April 22, 2026
A new study links genetic regions that predate the divergence of modern humans and Neanderthals to language
New York City, New Orleans at greatest risk of extreme damage from floods, new analysis reveals April 22, 2026
While New York City leads in terms of the absolute number of people threatened by flood, more than 98 percent of New Orleans’ population is at risk, according to a new study
RFK, Jr., set to overhaul key committee that issues disease screening recommendations April 22, 2026
Lawmakers grilled Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., on cuts and changes to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which focuses on preventive health screening
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch in September April 22, 2026
Ahead of schedule and under budget, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will launch in early September. The mission aims to map the universe in unprecedented detail
The solar system’s first solids had a fast start April 22, 2026
Rather than slowly condensing over millions of years, the first building blocks of Earth and other planets may have formed rapidly in a chaotic disk at the dawn of the solar system