Events and guest speakers

Forbes contributor Tracey Follows spotlights how MIT Media Lab researchers are exploring how AI can “support, rather than replace, human flourishing” as part of the Media Lab’s new Advancing Humans with AI (AHA) research program. “We are creating AI and AI in turn will shape us. We don’t want to make the same mistakes we made with social media,” says Prof. Patti Maes. “It is critical that we think of AI as not just a technical problem for engineers and entrepreneurs to solve, but also as a human design problem, requiring the expertise from human-computer interaction designers, psychologists, and social scientists for AI to lead to beneficial impact on the human experience.”

Forbes reporter Tracey Follows spotlights the MIT Media Lab’s Advancing Humans with AI (AHA) project, a “new research program asking how can we design AI to support human flourishing.” At the launch event, Prof. Sherry Turkle “raised a specific and timely concern: what is the human cost of talking to machines that only pretend to care?”

The final round of the Zero Robotics competition at the MIT Media Lab featured high school students from around the country facing off in a programming challenge using the SPHERES satellites aboard the International Space Station, reports Glenn Jones for NBC Boston. The event “welcomed about 70 middle schoolers from diverse backgrounds to participant in the finals of a robotics competition that featured live dialogue with astronauts on the International Space Station.”

The MIT Summer Philharmonic Orchestra is celebrating its 25th anniversary season with a new concert, “Celebrating Milestones of Excellence,” reports Emily Wyrwa for The Boston Globe. The concert will be led by “music director and conductor George Ogata, the performance will feature music from Mexican composer Arturo Márquez, Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, and Italian composer. Ottorino Respighi,” explains Wyrwa. 

New York Times opinion writer Peter Coy spotlights the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative, a new effort aimed at analyzing the forces that are eroding job quality for non-college workers and identifying ways to move the economy onto a more equitable trajectory. Nothing is “inexorable,” said Prof. Daron Acemoglu during the project’s kickoff event. “The answer in most cases is, AI will do whatever we choose it to do.”

On May 20^th, MIT students and community leaders gathered for “Hacking the Archive,” a hackathon aimed at addressing the wealth gap between Black and white residents of Boston, with a particular focus on housing as a generator of wealth, reports Kenneth Cooper for The Bay State Banner. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s no bigger challenge than the racial wealth gap,” explained Prof. Karilyn Crockett.

Boston Globe correspondent Necee Regis spotlights this year’s Cambridge Science Festival, which is being produced by the MIT Museum and hosted at the Kendall/MIT Open Space. “Programming falls into four categories: Science + Climate, Science + Food, Science + Fashion, and The Science Carnival, the latter of which includes a midway, main stage, sideshows and more,” Regis writes.

The MIT Museum is hosting a virtual movie night on April 24, during which participants can join “other Mars and Matt Damon enthusiasts to view The Martian, followed by an online conversation with MIT researchers who’ve worked on real Mars missions,” reports The Boston Globe.

The MIT List Visual Arts Center is hosting the Max Wasserman Forum: Another World, which features “two prerecorded panel discussions that’ll touch upon subjects pertaining to art in the digital realm,” reports Magdiela Matta for WBUR. “This event will leave you thinking more critically about moving toward a future where there’s a world of endless possibilities in how we present media,” Matta writes.

Prof. Nick Montfort speaks with Vice reporter Daniel Oberhaus about Synchrony, a demoparty he founded that allows computer programmers to showcase their artistic inventions. “One of the things I really like about the demoscene is that we don't really have a tradition of it in North America,” says Montfort. “That means we have the opportunity to make something up, something that's inviting, diverse, and different.”