SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY AI Won’t Take No for an Answer


When used to read medical imaging, it could produce wrong diagnosis. ::


S BY ANNA SPIEWAK


ometimes, even the most powerful artificial intelligence systems struggle to recognize the simplest of words — such as


“no,” “not,” or “doesn’t.” In a recent study, MIT researchers


found that vision-language models — widely used in medical imaging, manufacturing, and media search — often fail to correctly process negation words. And the consequences can be serious. Take healthcare, for example. If a


radiologist uses an AI model to speed up the diagnosis of chest X-rays and the patient shows swelling in the tissue but no enlarged heart, the AI’s failure to correctly interpret the word “no” could completely change the diagnosis. “There’s a lot of justified excitement


around large language models (LLMs) and vision language models (VLMs),” Kumail Alhamoud, an MIT graduate student and lead author of the study, told Newsmax. “But this excitement can sometimes


obscure the limitations of these systems, especially for professionals outside of AI. What seems like a simple or intuitive query to a human may be completely misunderstood by the model.” Vision-language models used in AI


chatbots are based on the transformer model originally developed by Google researchers. Transformer models excel at “capturing how a word can mean different things in different contexts.” “What they effectively do is build a


representation of all the words in a given sentence or paragraph together, rather than word by word,” Karin Verspoor, dean of the School of Computing Technologies at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technologies, Australia, told Newsmax. Verspoor, who specializes in AI-


driven natural language processing for


biomedical data and scientific literature, explained that some words carry different meanings depending on context. For example, the word “orange” is


represented differently by transformer models in the sentences: “She wore an orange sweater” versus “She had an orange for a snack.” The model assigns unique mathematical representations based on the word’s meaning in each sentence. However, negation words like not,


no, and un- don’t have distinct, context- specific meanings in the same way, making them harder for these models to accurately process and represent. In medicine, capturing negative


information is essential — it’s just as important to know what conditions a patient does not have as it is to know what they do. Accurately identifying what has been ruled out is critical for reaching the right diagnosis. As Verspoor explains, medical records are filled with negation phrases such as


can be following a hack. The dark web requires special software to


Protect Your Data


BY NICOLE NGUYEN H


ow much does your data fetch on the dark web?


Credit card number: $6 PayPal account credentials: $100 Crypto wallet login: $350 The so-called dark web is the hidden


74 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE | AUGUST 2025 From Dark Web


What to do when a security breach spreads your information to hackers. ::


part of the internet where criminals exchange illegally obtained data, such as passport details, passwords, and Social Security numbers. The above pricing, provided by cybersecurity company NordVPN, gives you a sense of how marketable your data


access, but you don’t have to venture there to search for your data. Password managers, security websites, and other services can scan databases of previously leaked information for your passwords or other info. While it isn’t the full picture, it will give you a sense of your exposure, so you can take steps to prevent identity theft. Here’s how to look for your leaked records: Google: You need a personal Google


account (not afiliated with work or school) to get started. Go to myaccount.google. com/security > Dark web report > Start monitoring. When you get there, fill out a profile of personal information Google can scan for. The company promises not to use that info for other purposes. Apple Passwords: The free password manager app can identify passwords found in data breaches. In the iPhone, iPad, or Mac app, go to settings and select Detect Compromised Passwords. Have I Been Pwned: This website by security researcher Troy Hunt has


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