Prof. Thomas Kochan speaks with GBH reporter Craig LeMoult about the recent Market Basket’s leadership dispute. “The reality is Market Basket is a community asset,” says Kochan. “People value it because it provides good service, good prices, good jobs. And the public is hungry for a company like that. And they demonstrated that in 2014 when the first episode occurred and everyone rallied around the employees who rallied their CEO.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with WBUR’s Here & Now co-host Scott Tong about the role of institutions in the overall prosperity of nations and some of the current challenges facing the US. “It’s a very important part of rebuilding democracy that we have to make experts trusted again. And that has to start with us,” says Acemoglu. “We have to be much more down to Earth. We have to be honest about when we are certain of something and when we are uncertain. And, I think we have to make certain that it’s not our political views that drive our advice or our analysis.”
Postdoctoral Associate Pat Pataranutaporn speaks with Wall Street Journal reporter Heidi Mitchell about his work developing Future You, an online interactive AI platform that “allows users to create a virtual older self—a chatbot that looks like an aged version of the person and is based on an AI text system known as a large language model, then personalized with information that the user puts in.” Pataranutaporn explains: “I want to encourage people to think in the long term, to be less anxious about an unknown future so they can live more authentically today.”
Knowable Magazine reporter Katherine Ellison spotlights Future You, a new program developed by researchers at MIT that “offers young people a chance to chat with an online, AI-generated simulation of themselves at age 60.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu speaks with Times Higher Ed’s Jack Grove about the importance of maintaining economic and political discussions in higher ed. “It is fine for academics to speak on such issues as long as you can keep that separate from your classrooms and for what constitutes high-quality research,” says Acemoglu. “There are special times when academics should speak out.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu, one of the recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, speaks with NPR Planet Money hosts Jeff Guo and Greg Rosalsky about the academic inspirations that led to his award-winning research studying the role of institutions in shaping economies. “In 1980, as I was in middle school, just the beginning of my seventh grade, Turkey suffered a big military coup,” explains Acemoglu. “There were soldiers everywhere, including in our school. Turkey was definitely not a democratic country at the time, and it was also suffering via a series of economic problems. I got interested in exactly these sets of issues.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu and Prof. Simon Johnson, recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, join Boston Public Radio to discuss their research examining the role of institutions in creating shared prosperity. “For the longer-term health of the U.S. economy,” says Acemoglu, “there’s probably nothing more important than its institutions. If any president, any politician, any party damages those institutions, that’s the first thing we should focus on.” Johnson adds: “Democracy has to deliver on shared prosperity. Otherwise people get very annoyed and they question the system.”
Prof. Simon Johnson, one of the recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics, speaks with Times Higher Education reporter Jack Grove about his journey from a childhood in Sheffield as the son of a screw manufacturer to studying for his PhD at MIT and serving as chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Speaking about how to help ensure AI is used to benefit society and workers, Johnson explains: “Big tech doesn’t like us, but we need a plan for this, and the role of economists like us is to get ideas like this out there so they can be hammered out in the policy world.”
Prof. Daron Acemoglu, a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, speaks with CNBC about the challenges facing the American economy. Acemoglu notes that in his view the coming economic storm is really “both a challenge and an opportunity,” explains Acemoglu. “I talk about AI, I talk about aging, I talk about the remaking of globalization. All of these things are threats because they are big changes, but they’re also opportunities that we could use in order to make ourselves more productive, workers more productive, workers earn more. In fact, even reduce inequality, but the problem is that we’re not prepared for it.”
Prof. Simon Johnson, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in economic sciences with Prof. Daron Acemoglu, speaks with CNBC “Squawk Box” about his reaction to hearing the news that he was a Nobel laureate and his research on the role of strong institutions in shaping economies. “I think going forward we need to strengthen the resilience of our democracy in the United States,” says Johnson. He adds that having a “resilient democracy, a legitimate democracy, a democracy that everyone believes in and adheres to the results of elections, is absolutely fundamental to everything that we’ve been able to build.”
Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed “Future You” – an AI platform that uses generative AI to allow users to talk with an AI-generated simulation of a potential future you, reports Sammi Caramela for Vice. The research team hopes “talking to a relatable, virtual version of your future self about your current stressors, future goals, and your beliefs can improve anxiety, quell any obsessive thoughts, and help you make better decisions,” writes Caramela.
Prof. Simon Johnson, a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, joins Planet Money’s The Indicator podcast to discuss his research that demonstrates the importance of strong institutions for a country’s economic growth and prosperity. “Rejecting the result of a free and fair election, encouraging people to attack Congress when it's the process of formally validating that vote - that's not acceptable,” says Johnson. “Those moves - that kinds of actions can absolutely undermine, destroy any democracy. We've seen that many times around the world. It takes a long time to build strong institutions. It doesn't take long to overthrow them if you really put your mind to it.”
Prof. Simon Johnson, a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, speaks with Marketplace host David Brancaccio about his research exploring how institutions shape economies and AI’s potential influence on the workforce. “I think there’s a lot we can do on redirecting technological progress and pushing AI and the innovators around that space towards inventing things that are more useful to people and boost the productivity of particularly people with less education.”
Prof. Simon Johnson, who along with Prof. Daron Acemoglu has received the 2024 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, speaks with Lynn Jolicoeur, host of WBUR’s All Things Considered, about his Nobel Prize winning research and how new technologies could play into the future of democracy. “My bumper sticker for this whole moment is, ‘more good jobs,’” says Johnson. He notes that along with his colleagues Profs. Daron Acemoglu and David Autor, he is “pushing for ways that we can tap into new technology, the latest technology, including artificial intelligence, to push the development and deployment of technology towards more good jobs. If you can do that, I think you can right the ship of democracy and more people will feel confident in their future.”
Prof. Simon Johnson, a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in economic sciences, speaks with Bloomberg about his research on the impacts of technology on inequality and the future of democracy. “We have not generated enough new good jobs, jobs where you actually get paid good money and you can live well, and we have got to do better on that,” says Johnson. “Automation is going to happen, like it or not, so you have really got to work harder to generate more science, more technology, deploy that, commercialize that, scale it up and generate more good jobs across the country.”