Social sciences

For The New York Times, reporter Jennifer Szalai reviews Prof. Sherry Turkle’s latest book, “Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines,” about “the acceleration of human attempts to seek connection with chatbots.” “We have invited them [AI chatbots] not just into our homes but into some of the most private recesses of our emotional lives,” notes Szalai. “When people talk about how relaxing it is to talk to a chatbot, it’s because the real slips away,” writes Turkle in her book.  

In a video interview, Prof. Turkle speaks to CNN’s Madeline Holcombe about how AI chatbots may contribute to feelings of loneliness and isolation in adults. “Technology offered the possibility of feeling like friendship without the demands of vulnerability,” says Turkle. “It turns out you can’t have intimacy or friendship without vulnerability.” 

In a conversation with Slate’s Nitish Pahwa, Prof. Sherry Turkle discusses how to better bolster human connection and limit AI chatbot dependence, which she explores in her new book, “Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines.” “We’re not going to solve this problem by manipulating the chatbots,” says Turkle. “We’re going to solve this problem by getting back together as us. We have to summon what we think is important about being people, both for ourselves and for our kids.”  

Prof. Sherry Turkle speaks to The San Francisco Chronicle’s Jessica Zack about the risks related to humans developing intimate relationships with AI chatbots, detailed in her book “Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines.” “The experience of being with an object that uses the first person — the ‘I,’ and, even worse, the ‘we’— is problematic. We are evolved to think that if something talks to us that way, it is a person, so you’re fighting against your very deep evolutionary buttons that are being pushed,” says Turkle.  

VICE’s Luis Prada spotlights Prof. Tristan Brown’s discovery that a Chinese tea label on display as a Boston Tea Party artifact at Boston’s Old South Meeting House was actually created during the 19th century. After Brown translated the label from Cantonese, it “revealed an American name, 'Smith, Archer,' as it identified Smith, Archer and Co., a New York trading firm active in East Asia during the 1860s and 1870s,” writes Prada. 

Gizmodo’s Gayoung Lee describes how Prof. Tristan Brown found that a tea chest label, on originally thought to be an artifact of the Boston Tea Party, actually originated from 19th century trade between China and America. “The discovery doesn’t diminish the label; it replaces one story with a richer one,” says Brown. “That broader story, of how revolutionary memory gets made through objects whose own histories stretch across the globe, is what I hope the paper contributes to ongoing conversations about history, material culture, and American identity.” 

Prof. Tristan Brown discovered that a tea label previously thought to be salvaged from the Boston Tea Party in 1773 actually dates back to the 19th century, writes Smithsonian Magazine’s Ryley Graham. “The artifact’s true origin came to light when Brown took a closer look at the Chinese text on the label...When read in Cantonese, Brown found that the phonetic characters yielded the words 'Smith, Archer,' a reference to Smith, Archer & Co, an American import-export company that shipped teas from East Asia to the United States in the 19th century, nearly a century after revolutionaries dumped British tea into Boston Harbor.” 

In an interview with CNN reporter Madeline Holcombe, Prof. Sherry Turkle shares her views on AI tools and companionship, and how AI chatbots can impact social connection and isolation. “Intimacy requires vulnerability — there is no intimacy without vulnerability,” says Turkle. “What AI offers is connection without vulnerability. You are not getting a sustaining form of intimacy and connection. You are getting a non-nourishing combination that may give the sense of a quick fix, but is not sustaining.” 

MIT has been ranked the No. 1 university in “arts and humanities, business and economics, and social sciences” in Times Higher Education’s Rankings by Subject for 2026, reports Patrick Jack for Times Higher Education. 

Prof. Carlo Ratti speaks with Reuters reporter Catherine Early about the growing number of initiatives aimed at creating more walkable neighborhoods in urban cities. “Small, tangible changes – like pedestrianizing a block, repainting a square, or hosting a street festival – help people understand what proximity feels like in practice,” Ratti explains. “When people are involved in shaping their environment, skepticism often turns into ownership.” 

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.”