Technology and policy

Prof. Jinhua Zhao takes a car ride through Boston with GBH “Curiosity Desk” host Edgar B. Herwick II to discuss the concerns and benefits of self-driving technology entering the city. “We pay a lot of attention to how good AV [Autonomous Vehicle] safety needs to be, but it’s important for us to understand how bad we have been—the current system is [bad],” says Zhao. “When human drivers are aggressive, they actually indeed pose a challenge on AV—which is that AV needs to learn how to be assertive. If you’re too conservative, you’ll just be stuck there going nowhere.”

Writing for Bloomberg, Prof. Simon Johnson and Prof. Elisabeth Reynolds describe how the U.S. can maintain its technological leadership by investing in research focused on critical minerals, semiconductors, biotechnology, quantum computing, drones and advanced manufacturing.  “Invention is important, but technological leadership in the 21st century will go to the country that adopts these new ideas rapidly and applies them in clever ways,” Johnson and Reynolds write. “And that will require the U.S. to build vibrant innovation and industrial ecosystems that adopt and diffuse new technologies, including AI.”

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.”

Profs. Elisabeth Reynolds and Simon Johnson joined Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney on Bloomberg Surveillance to discuss their new book, "Priority Technologies: Ensuring U.S. Security and Shared Prosperity," which highlights six key areas where advances in technology can drive the U.S. economy and support national security. “Quantum is the next frontier and opens up billions of dollars of opportunity,” says Reynolds. “Not just for defense and encryption issues, but also across all sorts of applications in financial services and biopharma.” 

President Emeritus L. Rafael Reif writes for The Boston Globe that with the advent of transformative AI, there is an urgent need for “a bilateral conversation between Washington and Beijing, focused on the shared dangers these technologies pose to each nation and to global stability. Both governments must work toward agreed guardrails, defining not just how this technology should be used but where it must never be applied. Red lines need to be defined, established, and agreed upon.” 

Guide Labs, co-founded by Julius Adebayo SM ’15, SM ’16, PhD ’22, has debuted a large language model designed to make “its actions easily interpretable,” reports Tim Fernholz for Tech Crunch. “Every token produced by the model can be traced back to its origins in the LLM’s training data,” explains Fernholz. 

Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, Shreya Dave '09, SM ’12, PhD '16, Bob Mumgaard SM '15, PhD '15 and Sloan alumna Emily Reichert have been named to the 2025 Boston Globe Tech Power Players list for their efforts in the energy sector, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. Chiang emphasizes the importance of federal funding in advancing scientific research. “My entire career has been supported by US taxpayers,” Chiang says. “The ability to give back and develop technologies and create jobs, that’s a big motivator for me.”

A study by MIT researchers finds “using scrubbers to treat exhaust from heavy fuel oil may offer environmental performance on par with, and in some areas superior to, burning low-sulfur fuels in maritime shipping,” reports Hassan Ahmed for Engineeringness. “The research provides data that could help policymakers and industry leaders better assess the comparative costs and benefits of available fuel options,” explains Ahmed. 

Researchers from MIT and elsewhere estimate that “while 36% of U.S. private sector jobs were technically ‘exposed’ to automation through computer vision… it would only make economic sense for firms to pursue automation for 8% of all private sector jobs—just a quarter of those jobs labelled ‘exposed,’” report François Candelon, David Zuluaga Martínez and Etienne Cavin for Fortune. 

Georgina Campbell Flatter SM '11 has been named the chief executive of Greentown Labs, the “nation’s largest clean-tech incubator,” reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. “This is a pretty critical time for energy and climate, and we all need to lean in,” says Flatter. 

Grist reporter Matt Simon spotlights a new study co-authored by MIT researchers that finds “large-scale deployment of long-duration energy storage isn’t just feasible but essential for renewables to reach their full potential, and would even cut utility bills.” Graduate student Martin Staadecker explains: “Battery storage on its own — or what people call short-duration energy storage — is very important. But you can’t just rely on lithium-ion batteries, because it would be very expensive to have enough to actually provide power for an entire week.”

Researchers at MIT have developed a new method for “training home robots in simulation,” reports Brain Heater for TechCrunch. “Simulation has become a bedrock element of robot training in recent decades,” explains Heater. “It allows robots to try and fail at tasks thousands — or even millions — of times in the same amount of time it would take to do it once in the real world.” 

Emily Calandrelli SM '13 speaks with NPR host Adam Bearne about using her science background to encourage children to explore the world of science. Calandrelli has just published a new book of family friendly experiments called, “Stay Curious and Keep Exploring: Next Level.” 

Writing for The Hill, Prof. Christopher Knittel and graduate student Kailin Graham emphasize the importance of ensuring the transition away from fossil fuels is an equitable process that provides support for vulnerable workers. “If we’re serious about achieving a truly just transition, far more federal policy action is needed,” they write.

A more than $40 million investment to add advanced nano-fabrication equipment and capabilities to MIT.nano will significantly expand the center’s nanofabrication capabilities, reports Jon Chesto for The Boston Globe. The new equipment, which will also be available to scientists outside MIT, will allow “startups and students access to wafer-making equipment used by larger companies. These tools will allow its researchers to make prototypes of an array of microelectronic devices.”