Last summer, MIT President Sally Kornbluth and Provost Cynthia Barnhart issued a call for papers on generative artificial intelligence (AI). They sought effective roadmaps, policy recommendations, and calls for action in the AI field, and received 75 proposals. Out of these, 27 were selected for seed funding.
Due to the robust response to this initial funding campaign, they issued a second call for papers, leading to 53 additional submissions. A faculty committee then selected 16 of these new proposals to receive exploratory funding.
These chosen proposals were created by interdisciplinary teams of faculty and researchers affiliated with all five of MIT’s schools and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. They cover a vast range of topics and disciplines concerning the potential impact and applications of generative AI.
The selected research groups will each receive between $50,000 and $70,000 to create 10-page impact papers. These papers will be published in a venue managed and hosted by the MIT Press, under the auspices of the MIT Open Publishing Services program.
This initiative is supported by Thomas Tull, a member of the MIT School of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and a former innovation scholar at the School of Engineering, who contributed funding to the effort.
The chosen papers cover many different facets of generative AI, from its impact on privacy and the creative economy, to the role it could play in live music performances and civic engagement. Some of the research will focus on the potential of generative AI in improving human-to-human interactions and supporting the aging population. Other papers will explore the use of such AI in the physical sciences, textile engineering, and advanced biomedical processes, including drug discovery.+
This research project is an integral part of MIT’s commitment to the pursuit of advanced knowledge and solutions in the field of generative artificial intelligence. It aims to yield actionable insights, roadmaps, and policy recommendations that could shape the future of AI and its applications across diverse sectors. The resulting papers will be crucial sources of information for scholars, industry leaders, and policymakers interested in artificial intelligence, its potential, and its challenges.
