On April 30, the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing’s Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) initiative hosted a full-day research symposium examining how artificial intelligence is shaping the world and its implications for society. The symposium included research talks by SERC’s latest seed grant recipients on topics such as air pollution forecasting and responsible computer vision deployment, panels on AI […]
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MIT Research Scientist Afreen Siddiqi ’99, SM ’01, PhD ’06; MIT professors Kathleen Thelen and Vinod Vaikuntanathan SM ’05, PhD ’09; as well as Kate Manne PhD ’11 are among 223 scientists, artists, and scholars awarded 2026 fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Working across 55 disciplines, the fellows were selected from almost 5,000 applicants […]
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Picture this scenario in a business: An employee, Brad, disclosed some information that wound up in the hands of a competitor. He may not have meant to, but he did, and a few people at the firm know this. So, at the next company meeting, another employee, Linda, looks pointedly at Brad and says, “I […]
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What makes work valuable? Michal Masny, the NC Ethics of Technology Postdoctoral Fellow in the MIT Department of Philosophy, investigates the role work plays in our lives and its impact on our well-being. Masny sees numerous benefits to work, beyond a paycheck. It’s a space for people to develop excellence at something, make a social contribution, […]
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The MIT James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Inequality and Shaping the Future of Work recently hosted a half-day symposium at the Institute on “Why Wealth Inequality Matters.” Three panel discussions convened experts from economics, philosophy, sociology, and political science to explore the origins, mechanisms, and political consequences of wealth inequality. Richard Locke, John C […]
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Habermas’s second great work, at least judged by the number of critiques and graduate-school syllabi it inspired, was 1981’s Theory of Communicative Action, in which he once again sought to find the appropriate conditions for a truly democratic public sphere. He did so through the notion of what became known as “deliberative democracy,” which he posited […]
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The 2026 Times Higher Education World University Ranking has ranked MIT first in three subject categories: Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, and Social Sciences, repeating the Institute’s top spot in the same subjects in 2025. The Times Higher Education World University Ranking is an annual publication of university rankings by Times Higher Education, a leading British […]
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Brian Hedden PhD ’12 has been appointed co-associate dean of the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) at MIT, a cross-cutting initiative in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, effective Jan. 16. Hedden is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, holding an MIT Schwarzman College of Computing shared position with the […]
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