Prof. Sinan Aral’s new book, “The Hype Machine,” has been selected as one of the best books of the year about AI by Wired. Gilad Edelman notes that Aral’s book is “an engagingly written shortcut to expertise on what the likes of Facebook and Twitter are doing to our brains and our society.”
Lecturer Malia Lazu speaks with Financial Times reporter Jennifer Williams-Alvarez about how employees are increasingly calling on companies to address environmental, social and governance problems. “Millennials are more interested in not only working for a place that has a ping-pong table, but working for a place that has a set of values, that attempts to live those values,” says Lazu.
Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with New York Times editorial board member Greg Bensinger about how social media platforms can reduce the spread of misinformation. “Human-in-the-loop moderation is the right solution,” says Aral. “It’s not a simple silver bullet, but it would give accountability where these companies have in the past blamed software.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Guardian reporter Lauren Aratani about the impact of automation on inequality. While AI has “tremendous potential for making humans more productive,” Acemoglu notes that it also “has been a major driver in the increase in inequality.”
Axios reporter Bryan Walsh writes that during the virtual AI and the Work of the Future Congress, Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, noted that “education and training are central to helping the current and next generation thrive in the labor market.”
Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, speaks with Annie Nova of CNBC about the Task Force’s new report, which lays out recommendations for ensuring Americans are able to secure good jobs in an era of automation. “We’re suggesting that people have access to affordable education and training,” says Reynolds. “I think there’s a real opportunity to help transition people and educate workers without four-year degrees.”
Prof. Yossi Sheffi speaks with Boston 25 reporter Jason Law about how the Covid-19 pandemic is disrupting supply chains. “I don’t think it’s going to be as bad because we are more prepared for this,” says Sheffi of potential impacts caused by the latest rise in Covid-19 cases. “People now in factories and warehouses have dividers that they can work between. Everybody is wearing a mask. People understand the issue better.”
Axios reporter Bryan Walsh writes that a new report by MIT’s Task Force on the Work of the Future makes policy recommendations for ensuring American workers are able to secure good jobs. “If we deploy automation in the same labor market system we have now," says Prof. David Mindell, "we're going to end up with the same results.”
Three years after President L. Rafael Reif delivered an “intellectual call to arms” to examine the impact of technology on jobs, the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future has published its final set of recommendations. “In an extraordinarily comprehensive effort, they included labor market analysis, field studies and policy suggestions for changes in skills-training programs, the tax code, labor laws and minimum-wage rates,” writes Steve Lohr for The New York Times.
Writing for The Wall Street Journal, Prof. Yossi Sheffi examines the impact of the presidential election on U.S. – China trade relations. Sheffi notes that “business leaders should keep in mind that the trans-Pacific trade war hasn’t curtailed export shipments to the degree many feared.”
Katie Rae, CEO and managing partner of The Engine, speaks with Forbes reporter David Jeans about the second round of funding raised by The Engine and how the venture is looking to help support tough tech ideas. “These are things with often longer [investment] timeframes,” Rae says. “They’ve almost always been backed by government-led research, and now they are ready to translate into companies.”
TechCrunch reporter Danny Crichton writes that The Engine has announced a second round of funding aimed at supporting tough tech startups. Crichton notes that, “with this latest news from The Engine, it seems clear that Boston’s tough tech ecosystem will continue to have a pipeline of interesting and compelling companies.”
Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with Kara Miller of GBH’s Innovation Hub about his research examining the impact of social media on everything from business re-openings during the Covid-19 pandemic to politics.
The MIT Sloan School of Management was ranked as the top Business Analytics MBA program by U.S. News & World Report, writes Ilana Kowarski.
Forbes contributor Peter High spotlights how a study from researchers at MIT’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) examines the digital savviness of companies and their boards. “We found that of all listed companies in the United States with revenues over a billion, only 24% of their boards were digitally savvy, and their companies had much better performance,” explains Peter Weill, senior research scientist and chairman of CISR.