In light of the increased interest in the development of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), MIT President Sally Kornbluth and Provost Cynthia Barnhart issued a call for papers. They sought submissions that could provide effective roadmaps, policy recommendations, and action plans across the broad field of generative AI. The first call for papers received an enthusiastic response, with 75 proposals submitted. Of these, 27 were selected for seed funding.
Given the positive response, a second call for papers was announced. This followed a subsequent groundswell of interest, clearly indicating the need for a second round. A total of 53 submissions were received after the second call. The same faculty committee from the first round evaluated the proposals and selected 16 of them to receive exploratory funding.
The selected proposals were co-authored by interdisciplinary teams of faculty and researchers from all five of MIT’s schools and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. The proposals are rich in insights and perspectives about the potential impact and applications of generative AI across a diverse range of disciplines and topics.
Each of the selected research teams will be given between $50,000 and $70,000 to produce 10-page impact papers. These papers will be shared widely through a publication venue, managed and hosted by the MIT Press and operating under the MIT Open Publishing Services program.
The selected papers cover a variety of topics, including the privacy implications of generative AI, its role in the physical sciences, advancements in visual intelligence, the value of AI-generated art, its potential use in human-to-human interactions, its potential as a new application platform, and implications for civic engagement, textile engineering, biomedical innovation, drug discovery, the creative economy, live music performances, learning strategies, system robustness/reliability, supporting aging populations, language science, visual arts, and more.
Thomas Tull, a member of the MIT School of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Council and a former innovation scholar at the School of Engineering, provided funding support for the project. The call for papers, the selection process, and the planned publication of the resulting research papers signal considerable institutional and individual commitment to harnessing the potentials of generative AI.
