Prof. Daron Acemoglu discusses the impact of AI models on jobs in an article by CNBC’s Trevor Laurence Jockims. “If AI continues to be developed as an automation technology, there will be more impacts. Right now, we don’t have many easy-to-use applications relevant for a large number of tasks/industries,” says Acemoglu. “Once these are developed, the labor market effects will be multiplied.”
Akamai will honor their late cofounder Danny Lewin SM ’98, a victim of the American Airlines Flight 11 on 9/11, by illuminating their headquarters in blue the evening of Sept. 11, write Jon Chesto and Shirley Leung for The Boston Globe. “Lewin remains revered at Akamai; its highest employee award is given out each year in his honor,” Chesto and Leung write.
Sloan Senior Lecturer Jonathan Ruane joins Carmel Crimmins, host of Reuters’ “Econ World,” to discuss the future of quantum computing. “By 2035 I would not be surprised if you’re seeing some elements of the economy—whether that be firms within drug research for example, using, for certain applications, quantum computers as part of their overall process,” says Ruane.
For The Next Big Idea Club, Prof. Paul Osterman outlines the pillars of his new book, “Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment.” “The rise of disposable work is allowing companies to gain flexibility and cut costs while shedding responsibility for their workers,” writes Osterman. “We need guardrails to keep that flexibility from coming at the expense of workers and the public.”
Prof. Paul Osterman speaks to Fortune’s Nick Lichtenberg about how his new book “Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment” explores how a perceived lack of ambition among Gen Z reflects the decreased amount of job security and opportunity available to young workers. “No one has job security anymore, but these folks [disposable workers] are hired with that expectation and are not going to be around for long,” says Osterman.
The Financial Times’ Anjana Ahuja spotlights research led by Prof. Dennis Whyte on the economics of fusion energy. “Economic Q, the metric devised by Whyte and others and which must exceed one to represent net economic gain, compares the capital gained over a fusion energy plant’s lifetime to that expended,” writes Ahuja. “Factors reflect the extreme engineering involved and include construction costs, component durability and the efficiency of converting fusion power into a commodity.”
MIT researchers have developed a framework to determine what is needed to make fusion energy commercially viable, writes World Nuclear News (WNN). “The parameters in the framework describe engineering features of the fusion power plant such as power density, the efficiency of converting fusion power into an economic product, and the durability of components used in the energy conversion, in addition to costing and market parameters that assess the expenses and returns from invested capital,” explains WNN.
Prof. Dennis Whyte and Prof. Andrew Lo have built a framework to mitigate the economic challenges of fusion power, writes Interesting Engineering’s Ameya Paleja. “While there are multiple approaches to building a nuclear fusion facility, Whyte and colleagues believe that at the end of the day, the facility should be in a position to generate more money that has gone in to building and operating it, otherwise it won’t last for long,” writes Paleja.
Principal Research Scientist John Liu speaks to Manufacturing Dive’s Nathan Owens about MIT’s Technologist Advanced Manufacturing Program (TechAMP), a 12-month-long certificate program designed to "bring experienced technicians into leadership roles with a focus on advanced manufacturing needs.” Says Liu: "We’re looking at developing this elite workforce who bridges the gap. What we’re trying to do is upskill the technician.”
Bloomberg’s Daniel Moss features a paper by Prof. Daron Acemoglu and Prof. David Autor that finds lower birthrates and aging populations between 1970 and 2020 have increased the average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per worker. “Our findings challenge the prevailing pessimism: lower birth rates, and the aging and shrinking populations they have produced, have raised rather than lowered GDP per worker during these decades,” says Acemoglu.
Bloomberg’s Catarina Saraiva reports on a new study by Profs. Daron Acemoglu and David Autor and graduate student Keelan Beirne, which finds that aging and shrinking populations raise, rather than lower, the country’s Gross Domestic Product per worker. “In cross-country data, declining birth rates lead to higher total factor productivity, larger capital stocks, a shift toward exports in high-tech industries, and more labor-saving patenting,” the authors write.
Manufacturing Dive reporter Cole Rosengren notes that a year after its launch, the MIT Initiative for New Manufacturing (INM) is “gaining traction toward its goal of helping modernize U.S. industrial systems.” Speaking at a Boston Tech Week event, Prof. John Hart, co-director of the INM, shared that at MIT, “we believe that there are important things we can do to help grow domestic manufacturing productivity, impart more sustainability in supply chains and industries, and also contribute to the creation of high-quality manufacturing jobs.”
Brian Bergstein at The Boston Globe speaks with Bob Mumgaard SM '15, PhD '15, CEO of MIT spinout Commonwealth Fusion Systems, about the company’s efforts to advance fusion technologies. “When the federal government said in 2012 that it would cut funding for the experimental fusion reactor on campus, the MIT researchers took that as an opportunity to develop new fusion techniques — which eventually formed the basis of CFS’s plans,” writes Bergstein.
Fortune contributor Andrew Winston highlights an analysis from the MIT Sustainable Supply Chain Lab, part of MIT’s Center for Transportation and Logistics, examining the role of sustainability in supply chains. The researchers found that “85% of companies were maintaining or accelerating sustainable supply chain practices.”
MIT is “taking a quantum leap with the launch of the new MIT Quantum Initiative (QMIT), reports State House News reporter Katie Castellani. “There isn't a more important technological field right now than quantum with its enormous potential for impact on both fundamental research and practical problems,” said President Sally Kornbluth during the launch event. “QMIT will help us to ask the right questions, identify the most critical problems and create a roadmap for developing quantum solutions that are both transformative and accessible.”