MIT Dean of Digital Learning Cynthia Breazeal SM ’93, ScD ’00, Profs. Regina Barzilay and Priya Donti, and a number of MIT alumni have been named to Time’s TIME 100 AI 2025 list. The list spotlights “innovators, leaders, and thinkers reshaping our world through groundbreaking advances in artificial intelligence.”
Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL and “one of the world’s foremost thinkers on the intersection of machines and artificial intelligence,” shares her views on the promise of embodied intelligence, which would allow machines to adapt in real-time; the development of AI agents; and how the US can lead on the development of AI technologies with Aaron Mak of Politico. “The U.S. government has invested in energy grids, railroads and the internet. In the AI age, it must treat high-performance compute, data stewardship and model evaluation pipelines as public infrastructure as well,” Rus explains.
WBUR reporter Rachell Sanchez-Smith spotlights two health tech devices being developed by Prof. Yoel Fink and Prof. Canan Dağdeviren, respectively, that aim to “give the wearers — and their doctors — a clearer picture of their overall health.” Fink has created “a thread capable of storing data, running artificial intelligence algorithms, sensing motion and sound, and communication through Bluetooth,” while Dağdeviren’s wearable ultrasound scanner can be used to make breast cancer screening “more comfortable and more accurate,” explains Sanchez-Smith.
Writing for The Guardian, Prof. Carlo Ratti highlights his work using “AI to compare footage of public spaces from the 1970s with recent video” from the same locations in Boston, New York and Philadelphia. “The findings are striking: people walk faster, linger less, and are less likely to meet up,” explains Ratti. “By using AI to study urban public spaces, we can gather data, pick out patterns and test new designs that could help us rethink, for our time, our modern versions of the agora– the market and main public gathering place of Athens.”
Prof. Daniela Rus, director of CSAIL, speaks with CBS News reporter Tony Dokoupil about her work developing AI-powered robots. “AI and robots are tools,” says Rus. “They are tools created by the people, for the people. And like any other tools they’re not inherently good or bad; they are what we choose to do with them. And I believe we can choose to do extraordinary things.”
Prof. Philip Isola speaks with Fast Company reporter Victor Dey about the impact and use of agentic AI. “In some domains we truly have automatic verification that we can trust, like theorem proving in formal systems. In other domains, human judgment is still crucial,” says Isola. “If we use an AI as the critic for self-improvement, and if the AI is wrong, the system could go off the rails.”
Writing for Fast Company, Rizwan Virk '92 explains the findings of his new book, “The Simulation Hypothesis.” The book explores the mysteries of quantum weirdness, “the strange nature of time and space, information theory & digital physics, spiritual/religious arguments, and even an information-based way to explain glitches in the matrix,” writes Virk.
Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Prof. Carlo Ratti and CoMotion founder John Rossant explore the concept of a reimagined Los Angeles. “Dismissed as the nemesis of sustainable urbanism, L.A. can, in fact, be well-positioned for the next chapter,” they write. “Technologies like rooftop photovoltaics, vehicle-to-grid systems and AI-optimized resource flows do not depend on compactness. They benefit from space, sunlight and flexibility — qualities that Los Angeles has in abundance across its 1,600 square miles of urbanized area.”
Principal Research Scientist Andrew McAfee speaks with CNBC reporter Robert Frank about the artificial intelligence boom. “It’s astonishing how geographically concentrated this AI wave is,” says McAfee. “The people who know how to found and fund and grow tech companies are there.”
Bloomberg reporter F. D. Flam spotlights postdoctoral associate Pat Pataranutaporn and his research exploring how AI technologies and chatbots can impact human memories. “This latest research should spur more discussion of the effects of technology on our grasp of reality, which can go beyond merely spreading misinformation,” writes Flam. “Social media algorithms also encourage people to embrace fringe ideas and conspiracy theories by creating the false impression of popularity and influence.”
Prof. Regina Barzilay speaks with Newsweek reporter Alexis Kayser about how new AI tools are implemented in health care settings. “You need to know how to safely bring it into the [health care] system," says Barzilay. "There is a new science, which is the science of implementation."
Vijay Gadepally, senior staff member at MIT Lincoln Lab, speaks with New York Times reporter Claire Brown about the impact of AI data centers on the electrical grid. “There’s a lot of things we can do to be better stewards of the power we currently have,” says Gadepally.
A working paper by MIT researchers has found “that the most successful generative AI deployments consistently involve frontline workers from the earliest stages through rollout,” reports Sharon Wu for USA Today. The researchers “demonstrate that when employees help define the problem, co-design workflows, experiment with tools, and shape fair transition policies, not only does adoption improve, but worker productivity and job quality also rise.”
Writing for Physics Today, Prof. Camilla Cattania and her colleagues highlight the impact of big data and AI advancements in improving the reliability of earthquake forecasting and prediction. “Advances in technology and data analysis, particularly the incorporation of AI techniques, are driving the development of more-sophisticated forecasting models,” they write. “Advances in sensor technology and the expansion of dense seismic networks are providing new insight into the dynamics of Earth’s crust. That wealth of data enables the creation of more detailed and nuanced forecasting models that better capture the complexities of earthquake processes.”
A study by researchers at MIT has found that “pedestrians are walking 15 percent faster and stopping to linger 14 percent less than they used to,” reports Rima Sabina Aouf for Dezeen. “Using computer vision and artificial intelligence to analyze videos of four public spaces across three American cities, the study found that walking speeds rose notably between 1980 and 2010, while instances of people lingering or interacting with others fell,” writes Aouf.