Writing for Forbes, Senior Lecturer Guadalupe Hayes-Mota '08, SM '16, MBA '16 emphasizes the importance of implementing ethical frameworks when developing AI systems designed for use in healthcare. “The future of AI in healthcare not only needs to be intelligent,” writes Hayes-Mota. “It needs to be trusted. And in healthcare, trust is the ultimate competitive edge.”
Writing for The Conversation, Prof. Justin Reich offers insight into the integration of educational technology in schools. “It takes years for educators to develop new practices and norms, for students to adopt new routines, and for families to identify new support mechanisms in order for a novel invention to reliably improve learning,” writes Reich. “But as AI spreads through schools, both historical analysis and new research conducted with K-12 teachers and students offer some guidance on navigating uncertainties and minimizing harm.”
Leah Ellis, a former MIT postdoc and co-founder of MIT startup Sublime Systems, speaks with Nature reporter Jacqui Thornton about the creation of the company. “I felt that the word Sublime encapsulated the spirit of excellence, transcendence and purity that we intend to exemplify as we build a technology and a company that we hope will change the world — and the inherent properties of cement itself.”
New Yorker reporter Julian Lucas spotlights Prof. Emeritus Tim Berners-Lee’s role in the creation of the world wide web and his current focus on online data protection and regulation. The creation of the web “took companies giving up their patent rights, it took individuals giving up their time and energy, it took bright people giving up their ideas for the sake of a common idea,” says Berners-Lee.
Writing for The Guardian, Prof. Emeritus Tim Berners-Lee describes his original concept for the world wide web as a platform for everyone, and his current efforts aimed at online data protection and regulation. “I gave the world wide web away for free because I thought that it would only work if it worked for everyone,” explains Berners-Lee. “Today, I believe that to be truer than ever. Regulation and global governance are technically feasible, but reliant on political willpower. If we are able to muster it, we have the chance to restore the web as a tool for collaboration, creativity and compassion across cultural borders. We can re-empower individuals, and take the web back. It’s not too late.”
Institute Prof. Daron Acemoglu participated in a “global dialogue on artificial intelligence governance” at the United Nations, reports Steve Lohr for The New York Times. “The AI quest is currently focused on automating a lot of things, sidelining and displacing workers,” says Acemoglu.
In an opinion piece for the Financial Times, Prof. Evan Lieberman, director of the MIT Center for International Studies, spotlights how states, cities, corporations, and civil society are working to advance climate action. “Today, over 300 U.S. cities have made climate commitments, action plans, or are participating in co-operative initiatives,” Lieberman writes, “Large cities are connecting with global partners through organizations such as C40 Cities, a group of mayors representing some 700mn people worldwide.”
Richard Locke PhD '89, the newly appointed dean of the Sloan School of Management, speaks with Bloomberg reporter Bill Donahue about his goals for his new role and his desire to help Sloan’s “brilliant, curious students” address urgent global problems. “For me, working at a place like MIT is a completely unexpected gift,” says Locke. “Every single day, I come to work with wonder and happiness. I’m in a world that I never imagined I would ever be in.”
Writing for Nature, Bruce Allen pays tribute to Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, a pioneering physicist who “spearheaded the construction of the LIGO observatory to detect Einstein’s predicted ripples in space-time [and] leaves a legacy of persistence and mentorship.” Allen recalls how, decades earlier, Weiss rejoiced in a moment of discovery with him. “This is why we do science,” Weiss said. “Not for prizes or awards — that’s all nonsense. It’s for the satisfaction when something you’ve struggled with finally works.” Weiss, Allen emphasizes, was “a scientist driven by curiosity, persistence and the joy of understanding how the Universe works.”
David Baltimore, a former Institute Professor at MIT and a Nobel laureate, has passed at the age of 87, reports Gina Kolata for The New York Times. Baltimore’s work rocked “the foundation of the fledging field of molecular biology,” writes Kolata. His “Nobel-winning discovery [upended] what was called the central dogma, which stated that information in cells flowed in only one direction — from DNA to RNA to the synthesis of proteins. Dr. Baltimore showed that information can also flow in the reverse direction, from RNA to DNA.”
Wall Street Journal reporter Jon Mooallem memorializes the life and work of Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, from his time hacking surplus military electronics into sophisticated hi-fi receivers as a teenager to dreaming up the concept for the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO). Mooallem notes that Weiss and his LIGO colleagues’ breakthrough in achieving the first-ever detection of gravitational waves “has provided a new way of looking at the universe, of observing, through the charting of gravity waves emitted by moving objects, what was previously unobservable or unknown—a milestone that is frequently compared with Galileo’s invention of the telescope.”
Prof. David Autor speaks with David Pogue of CBS Sunday Morning about how AI is impacting the labor market, in particular opportunities for entry-level job seekers. “My view is there is great potential and great risk,” Autor explains. “I think that it's not nearly as imminent in either direction as most people think." On the impacts for young job seekers, Autor emphasizes that “this is really a concern. Judgment, expertise, it's acquired slowly. It's possible that we could strip out so much of the supporting work, that people never get the expertise. I don't think it's an insurmountable concern. But we shouldn't take for granted that it will solve itself."
Prof. Andrew Lo speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Cheryl Winokur Munk about how AI tools could be used to help people with financial planning. Winokur Munk writes that Lo recommends providing “just enough information to get relevant answers. And leave out highly personal details like your name, address, salary, employer or specific assets…as such details put people at risk should the AI be compromised.” Lo also advises “trying several AI platforms,” writes Winokur Munk. And “the advice should be run by a professional, trusted family or friends. Be a bit skeptical and double-check with humans.”
Prof. Rainer Weiss, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose research helped “unlock the secrets of the universe,” has died at 92, reports Bryan Marquard for The Boston Globe. “He really is, by a large margin, the most influential person this field has seen. And will see,” said Caltech Prof. Emeritus Kip Thorne. Nergis Mavalvala, dean of the MIT School of Science who conducted her doctoral research with Weiss, shared that Weiss “worked on three different things, and every one of them has changed the way we understand physics and the universe.”
Prof. Emeritus Rainer Weiss, a “renowned experimental physicist” who was “integral in confirming the existence of tiny ripples in spacetime called ‘gravitational waves,’” has died, reports Robert Lea for Space.com. “Remarkably, in confirming the existence of gravitational waves, Weiss both proved Einstein right and wrong at the same time,” writes Lea. “Einstein had been convinced that these ripples in spacetime were so faint that no apparatus on Earth could ever be sensitive enough to detect them, showing just how revolutionary LIGO was.”