PHOTO: JARED CHARNEY
Can you talk about the impact the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) has at MIT, which is primarily known for its focus on STEM?
To implement emerging technologies, like AI, in thoughtful and meaningful ways, we need knowledge of policy, economics, and ethics. More generally, if you want to make the world a better place, you need to understand how it works. And that requires understanding the full social, economic, political, ethical, human implications of the challenges of our day.
These are human challenges. And that’s what SHASS is all about.
At MIT, we also value human-centered research for its own sake. We want our students to become citizens of the world. We want them to think about the best way to live, to experience the agency of artistic creativity, to gain an understanding of shared human history. We want them to discover the profound beauty of poetry and be inspired by philosophy. We want them to be their whole selves.
This is an exciting time for the humanities, arts, and social sciences on MIT’s campus, with the launch of the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC). How was the initiative conceived, and what did it take to make it a reality?
MITHIC is a way of supercharging human-centered thinking at MIT. It is meant to elevate human-centered research at MIT and is premised on the idea that our ability to impact the world’s greatest challenges depends not only on the development of extraordinary new technologies but also on the ability to implement those technologies successfully—and that successful implementation requires a moral compass and an understanding of societal issues. Something that’s important to me is that MITHIC is not a SHASS initiative. Instead, it’s a collaboration between SHASS and School of Engineering Dean Anantha Chandrakasan, in his role as MIT’s chief innovation and strategy officer. That makes all the difference, not only because Anantha is a great person to work with, but also because it sends the message that all of MIT, not just SHASS, cares about human-centered thinking.
How can alumni and friends of the Institute support MITHIC?
We were able to launch the pilot phase of MITHIC thanks to support from all five MIT schools, the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, and the Office of the Provost, as well as the generosity of alumni and friends who share a belief in the importance of human-centered thinking at the Institute, in terms of both research and education. Philanthropy will be critical to the program’s success. With seed funding in place, we are now striving to secure additional support, including building an endowment to ensure the program can thrive and grow in years to come. We’re happy to meet with alumni and friends who might want to learn more and explore how they can support this exciting effort.
Can you share your thoughts about the importance of input from the humanities, arts, and social sciences on evolving, transformational technologies such as AI?
In their new book, Power and Progress: Our 1,000-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity (Penguin Press), Nobel-prize winning MIT economists Daron Acemoglu, Institute Professor, and Simon Johnson, the Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship, argue that the impact of AI on society is largely up to us. We can shape the development of AI so as to enhance human jobs, making AI a tool for social good, or we can shape it in a way that replaces human jobs, making AI a cause of inequality.
I think Daron and Simon are right about this, and it’s important to me that MIT be not just at the forefront of AI technology, but also at the forefront of understanding what it takes to make AI a tool for societal good.
What do SHASS faculty find to be unique about teaching at a leading STEM university? Some have mentioned in interviews with us that they find the approach of MIT students to course material to be fascinating because they tend to analyze things differently than students who are more steeped in the social sciences.
Teaching at MIT creates extraordinary opportunities for collaboration. Consider my anthropology colleague Manduhai Buyandelger, who teamed up with nuclear scientist and MacVicar Faulty Fellow Mike Short ’05, PhD ’10, SM ’10 on a student experience aimed at addressing coal pollution in Mongolian households. Mike and his students are testing molten salt thermal batteries that can replace coal-burning stoves as a heat source for dwellings in Ulaanbaatar. In parallel, Manduhai and her students are working on understanding the social context that will determine whether the new technology is likely to be adopted by the relevant population.
Tell us about the new Edward and Joyce Linde Music Building.
The Linde Music Building is nothing short of extraordinary! It’s located in the heart of campus—right next to Kresge Auditorium—and its opening in February 2025 marked the beginning of a new era for music at MIT.
It will house our new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program, and it has a rehearsal venue designed specifically for our World Music ensembles. It also has a state-of-the art concert hall, which seats 390 people—I believe it will have the best acoustics of any concert hall of its size in the United States.
Oh, and the building is absolutely gorgeous. I hope you have a chance to visit next time you’re on campus!
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