Machine learning

Recent articles

Illustration of botanical tree and computer tree growing apart.

Neuroscience gave AI its start. What happens now?

David Sussillo maps the two fields' divergent paths, and where they might still meet.

By Emily Singer
27 October 2026 | 10 min read
Illustration of a bridge shaped like minds.

Commentary: Citation graphs may underestimate neuroscience’s influence on AI

An alternative, albeit less quantitative, way to trace this history is through the people who carried ideas between the fields.

By Anthony Zador
26 October 2026 | 5 min read
Illustration of a person, shown from the torso down, walking over a bridge shaped like minds.

Commentary: The rising absolute number of neuro-inspired AI papers represents a substantial footprint

Many of the design choices present in the current generation of artificial-intelligence tools parallel purported properties of the brain.

By Kim Stachenfeld
26 October 2026 | 2 min read
Illustration of a person walking over a bridge shaped like minds.

Examining the bridge between neuroscience and AI

A citation analysis reveals that the connection between the two fields is real and gaining momentum. But it’s also narrow and tool-heavy; we need to find ways to widen it.

By Renato Duarte
26 October 2026 | 12 min read

How does a control theorist explain cognition?

Maxim Raginsky draws on control theory, engineering and philosophy to explore what makes biological brains intelligent, what artificial intelligence is missing, and what principles underlie biological autonomy.

By Paul Middlebrooks
7 October 2026 | 1 min read
Illustration of a plate with a cherry in front of a computer server.

What AI can learn from hunger

To enhance AI safety, take a lesson from biological brains; a small set of wants maintains durable control over a much larger cognitive system.

By Anthony Zador
5 October 2026 | 6 min read
Hands driving a steering wheel with a computer chip.

How, when and why to use agentic AI in our neuroscience labs

With agentic AI’s rapid infiltration into science, researchers need to develop AI use policies and practices.

By Nicolas Schuck
24 August 2026 | 7 min read
Illustration of scientist in lab coat looking at shelves of computer network models.

Mass-produced science is coming. What happens to scientists?

Artificial intelligence may soon enable researchers to generate high-quality science at a previously unimaginable speed. For science consumers—the public, medical patients, technology users—the likely effects will be positive. For scientists, the effects will be as disruptive as industrial mass production was for artisan manufacturers.

By Kenneth Harris
9 July 2026 | 9 min read
Illustration of needle sewing through multicolor strips.

How to use artificial intelligence to strengthen scientific processes and scholarly output

As AI-driven systems are integrated into all aspects of science, we need to make sure that they read and write to a shared data and knowledge space.

By Satrajit Ghosh
6 July 2026 | 5 min read
A brain shape outlined in cylindrical dials with multi colored wires stretched between them.

Transforming AI models into useful model organisms

These systems were not built to explain the brain. But treating them as model organisms that we can perturb and evolve will move us closer to that goal.

By Mariya Toneva
22 June 2026 | 6 min read

Explore more from The Transmitter

The relationship between structure and function in cortical networks

Michael Reimann explains how the shape of neurons puts strong constraints on how they are wired in a network, and how this affects their structure-function relationships.

By Gaute Einevoll
28 October 2026 | 138 min listen
Stock image of branching dendrites.

How brains prevent ‘catastrophic forgetting’

Dendrite-specific inhibition lets overlapping neuronal assemblies form across brain areas without erasing existing memories, a new modeling study suggests.

By Natalia Mesa
28 October 2026 | 6 min read
Research image of whole-brain 3D visualizations of pixels colored by their corresponding lipizone.

Lipids enter brain mapping limelight

Two new studies, including the first whole-brain lipid atlas in mice, uncover unforeseen complexity and influence during pregnancy and aging.

By Lauren Schenkman
27 October 2026 | 6 min read