AI Unpacked - Transforming Industries and Driving Innovation
For over 80 years, the digital revolution has redefined how we work, learn, and collaborate, reshaping societies and economies worldwide. Today, the rapid advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are accelerating this transformation, pushing the boundaries of what humans and machines can achieve together.
The 2025 MIT AI Conference will analyze the latest AI trends, groundbreaking developments, and their profound implications for the future of knowledge, work, skills, and intelligence. Key themes include:
The conference will also feature transformative startups emerging from MIT’s labs, showcasing cutting-edge technologies poised to redefine industries.
Dr. Srinivasan is a distinguished scientist who received her PhD in Microbiology from The Ohio State University in 2004, where she contributed to the discovery of the 22nd amino acid, Pyrrolysine (2002). She first came to MIT as an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof. Tom Rajbhandary’s lab, where her research focused on understanding protein synthesis mechanisms in Archaea.
Dr. Srinivasan subsequently moved into the business development and technology licensing space, serving in MIT’s Technology Licensing Office, where she helped commercialize technologies in medical devices and alternative energies. She then moved to UMass Medical School’s Office of Technology Management in 2009 and to Emory University in Atlanta in 2014 as the Director of Public and Private Partnerships for the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. In 2019, Dr. Srinivasan joined Emory’s Office of Corporate Relations as Executive Director, and in 2021, she led the Office of Corporate and Foundation Relations.
Dean, MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Professor, MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS)
Daniel Huttenlocher is the inaugural dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and is the Henry Ellis Warren (1894) Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
Previously he helped found Cornell Tech, the digital technology-oriented graduate school created by Cornell University in New York City, and served as its first Dean and Vice Provost.
His research and teaching have been recognized by a number of awards including ACM Fellow and CASE Professor of the Year. He has a mix of academic and industry background, having been a Computer Science faculty member at Cornell, researcher and manager at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and CTO of a fintech startup.
Huttenlocher is an internationally recognized researcher in computer vision and the analysis of social media. His book, “The Age of AI: And Our Human Future,” co-authored with Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt, was published by Little, Brown in November 2021. He served as a member and as the chair of the board of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and currently serves as a member of the boards of Corning Inc. and Amazon.com.
He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, and master’s and doctorate from MIT.
Dean Huttenlocher, an expert in AI, ML, computer vision, human-computer interaction, and the social impact of computing, will examine the evolving role of AI across computing, research, and society. His talk will highlight the latest advancements shaping the field, the ethical and societal implications of AI-driven technologies, and the transformative potential of intelligent systems in redefining industries, decision-making, and human collaboration in the age of AI.
Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow MIT Department of Economics
David Autor is the Daniel (1972) and Gail Rubinfeld Professor in the MIT Department of Economics, co-director of the NBER Labor Studies Program and the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative. His scholarship explores the labor-market impacts of technological change and globalization on job polarization, skill demands, earnings levels and inequality, and electoral outcomes.
Autor has received numerous awards for his scholarship—the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Sherwin Rosen Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of Labor Economics, the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship in 2019, the Society for Progress Medal in 2021—and for his teaching, including the MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellowship. In 2020, Autor received the Heinz 25th Special Recognition Award from the Heinz Family Foundation for his work “transforming our understanding of how globalization and technological change are impacting jobs and earning prospects for American workers.” In 2023, Autor was selected as one of two researchers across all scientific fields a NOMIS Distinguished Scientist. Autor was one of five senior scholars selected by the Schmidt Sciences Foundation as an AI2050 Senior Fellow in 2024.
The Economist magazine labeled Autor in 2019 as “The academic voice of the American worker.” Later that same year, and with equal or greater justification, he was christened “Twerpy MIT Economist” by John Oliver of Last Week Tonight in a segment on automation and employment.
Autor is an elected Fellow of the Econometrics Society, the Society of Labor Economists, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Faculty Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. He is co-director of the NBER Labor Studies Program, Co-Director of the MIT School Effectiveness and Inequality Initiative, and Scientific Advisor to the NBER Disability Research Center.
His teaching awards include the MIT MacVicar Faculty Fellowship for contributions to undergraduate education, the James A. and Ruth Levitan Award for excellence in teaching, the Undergraduate Economic Association Teaching Award, and the Faculty Appreciation Award from the MIT TPP program.
Autor earned a B.A. in Psychology from Tufts University and a Ph.D. in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 1999. Prior to graduate study, he spent three years directing computer skills education for economically disadvantaged children and adults in San Francisco and South Africa. Autor is the captain of the MIT Economics hockey team, which is reputed to be one of the most highly cited teams in the MIT intramural league.
Will recent advances in AI complement human expertise, thereby increasing its value, or render it increasingly unnecessary, thus reducing its value (even if jobs are not in net eliminated)? Prof Autor will frame this question through the lens of three technological revolutions of the last two centuries: the Industrial Revolution, the Computer Revolution, and the AI Revolution. In each, the types of expertise rewarded changed substantially, with vastly uneven consequences for workers in different occupations and possessing different education levels. These forces will play out differently in the AI era than in preceding decades. While the future is not a forecasting exercise -- it's a design problem -- Prof Autor will discuss the opportunities that AI opens for the labor market, as well as some of the risks it poses.
Manager, Business Development and Marketing, MIT Professional Education
Michael Schrage is a research fellow with the MIT Sloan School of Management's Initiative on the Digital Economy. His research, writing, and advisory work focuses on the behavioral economics of models, prototypes, and metrics as strategic resources for managing innovation risk and opportunity. He is author of the award-winning book The Innovator’s Hypothesis (MIT Press, 2014), Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become? (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), and Serious Play (Harvard Business Review Press, 2000). His latest book, Recommendation Engines, was published in September 2020 by MIT Press as part of its Essential Knowledge series. He's done consulting and advisory work for Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, British Telecom, BP, Siemens, Embraer, Google, iRise, the Office of Net Assessment, and other organizations
Schrage has run design workshops and executive education programs on innovation, experimentation, and strategic measurement for organizations all over the world and is currently pioneering work in selvesware technologies designed to augment aspects, attributes, and talents of productive individuals. He is particularly interested in the future co-evolution of expertise, advice, and human agency as technologies become smarter than the people using them.
Professor, MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Josh Tenenbaum is a Professor of Computational Cognitive Science in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, a principal investigator at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and a thrust leader in the Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines (CBMM). His research centers on perception, learning, and common-sense reasoning in humans and machines, with the twin goals of better understanding human intelligence in computational terms and building more human-like intelligence in machines. The machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms developed by his group are currently used by hundreds of other science and engineering groups around the world.
Tenenbaum received his PhD from MIT in 1999 and was an Assistant Professor at Stanford University from 1999 to 2002 before returning to MIT. His papers have received awards at the Cognitive Science (CogSci), Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS), and Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (UAI) conferences, the International Conference on Learning and Development (ICDL) and the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI). He has given invited keynote talks at all of the major machine learning and artificial conferences, as well as the main meetings of the Cognitive Science Society, the Cognitive Development Society, and the Society for Mathematical Psychology, and held distinguished lectureships at Stanford University, the University of Amsterdam, McGill University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Arizona. He is the recipient of the Early Investigator Award from the Society of Experimental Psychologists, the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association, and the Troland Research Award from the National Academy of Sciences, and is a fellow of the Society of Experimental Psychologists and the Cognitive Science Society.
Professor, MIT Department of Linguistics and Philosophy
Caspar Hare is a professor of philosophy in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Along with Nikos Trichakis, Hare is the associate dean for Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. Hare and Trichakis work together to create multidisciplinary connections on campus and to weave social, ethical, and policy considerations into the teaching, research, and implementation of computing.
A member of the MIT faculty since 2003, Hare’s main interests are in ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology. The general theme of his recent work has been to bring ideas about practical rationality and metaphysics to bear on issues in normative ethics and epistemology. He is the author of two books: “On Myself, and Other, Less Important Subjects” (Princeton University Press 2009), about the metaphysics of perspective, and “The Limits of Kindness” (Oxford University Press 2013), about normative ethics.
Dean, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Agustin Rayo is Professor of Philosophy and Dean of MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. His research lies at the intersection of the philosophy of logic and the philosophy of language. He is the author of numerous articles and two books: “The Construction of Logical Space” (OUP, 2013) and “On the Brink of Paradox” (MIT Press, 2019), which won the 2020 PROSE Award for best textbook in the humanities.
Computer Science Head, MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Sam Madden is a professor of EECS and principal investigator in CSAIL at MIT. His research interests are in database systems, focusing on database analytics and query processing, ranging from clouds to sensors to modern high-performance server architectures. A member of the MIT faculty since 2004, he was recognized as the inaugural College of Computing Distinguished Professor of Computing in 2020 and currently serves as the head of Computer Science in the EECS department. He also co-directs the Data Systems for AI Lab initiative and the Data Systems Group, investigating issues related to systems and algorithms for data, focusing on applying new methodologies for processing data, including applying machine learning methods to data systems and engineering data systems for applying machine learning at scale. He was named one of MIT Technology Review's Top 35 Under 35 in 2005 and an ACM Fellow in 2020 and is the recipient of several awards, including an NSF CAREER Award, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the ACM SIGMOD Edgar F. Codd Innovations Award for lifetime accomplishments in the area of data management, and “test of time” awards from VLDB, SIGMOD, CIDR, SIGMOBILE, and SenSys. He is also the co-founder and Chief Scientist at Cambridge Mobile Telematics, which develops technology to make roads safer and drivers better.
Robert N Noyce Career Development Associate Professor of Operations Management MIT Sloan School of Management
Vivek is interested in the development of new methodologies for large scale dynamic optimization and applications in revenue management, finance, marketing and healthcare. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University in 2007 and has been at MIT since, where he is the Robert N. Noyce Professor of Management. Vivek is a recipient of an IEEE Region 6 Undergraduate Student Paper Prize (2002), an INFORMS MSOM Student Paper Prize (2006), an MIT Solomon Buchsbaum Award (2008), an INFORMS JFIG paper prize twice (2009, 2011), the NSF CAREER award (2011), MIT Sloan’s Outstanding Teacher award (2013), and the INFORMS Simulation Society Best Publication Award (2014). Outside of academia, he contributed to the design of the algorithmic trading strategies of GMO's (a USD 100B + money manager) first high frequency venture and in 2014 co-founded a retail technology company.
AI’s rapid progress has been driven by continuous innovation in computing hardware. Professor del Alamo will discuss the latest advancements in semiconductor technology and specialized AI chips, highlighting key trends in efficiency, scalability, and computing power. He will also explore what lies ahead—from novel materials and architectures to the geopolitical forces shaping AI chip development.
AI is not just transforming industries—it’s revolutionizing software development. From AI-assisted coding to automated testing and lifecycle management, new tools are enhancing productivity, quality, and security. Professor Solar-Lezama will explore the impact of AI-driven programming, the evolving role of software engineers, and the challenges of ensuring control, reliability, and trust in AI-generated code.
Vice Provost for Open Learning, MIT Sloan School of Management Associate Dean for Business Analytics, MIT Sloan School of Management
Dimitris Bertsimas is the current Vice Provost for Open Learning, the Associate Dean of Business Analytics, the Boeing Professor of Operations Research, and the faculty director of the Master of Business Analytics program at MIT, where he has been a faculty member since 1988. His research focuses on optimization, machine learning, and applied probability, with applications in healthcare, finance, operations management, and transportation. He has authored over 300 scientific papers and seven graduate-level textbooks.
As AI reshapes industries and job markets, how can we ensure that individuals—from professionals in developed economies to workers in emerging markets—are equipped for an AI-powered future? Dr. Bertsimas, Vice Provost for MIT Open Learning, will outline MIT’s vision for large-scale AI education, exploring new models of upskilling and the strategies needed to prepare one billion people for the AI-driven workforce.
Associate Professor, MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (IMES)
Dr. Marzyeh Ghassemi is an Associate Professor at MIT in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (IMES), and a Vector Institute faculty member holding a Canadian CIFAR AI Chair and Canada Research Chair. She holds MIT affiliations with the Jameel Clinic and CSAIL.
Professor Ghassemi holds a Herman L. F. von Helmholtz Career Development Professorship and was named a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar and one of MIT Tech Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35. Previously, she was a Visiting Researcher with Alphabet’s Verily and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. Prior to her PhD in Computer Science at MIT, she received an MSc. degree in biomedical engineering from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar and B.S. degrees in computer science and electrical engineering as a Goldwater Scholar at New Mexico State University.
Professor Ghassemi has previously served as a NeurIPS Workshop Co-Chair and General Chair for the ACM Conference on Health, Inference and Learning (CHIL). She also founded the non-profit Association for Health Learning and Inference. Professor Ghassemi has published across computer science and clinical venues, including NeurIPS, KDD, AAAI, MLHC, JAMIA, JMIR, JMLR, AMIA-CRI, Nature Medicine, Nature Translational Psychiatry, and Critical Care.
Prof. Ghassemi, a leading expert in machine learning for healthcare, will discuss how AI is being deployed to enhance medical decision-making, improve patient outcomes, and ensure the ethical application of AI in healthcare.
Germeshausen Professor and Professor of Media Technology, MIT Media Lab Head, Fluid Interfaces Research Group
Pattie Maes is the Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Lab. She runs the Fluid Interfaces research group, which does research at the intersection of Human Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence with a focus on applications in health, wellbeing and learning. Maes is also a faculty member in MIT's center for Neuro-Biological Engineering. She is particularly interested in the topic of cognitive enhancement, or how wearable, immersive and brain-computer interface systems can actively assist people with issues such as memory, attention, learning, decision making, communication, wellbeing, and sleep.
Maes is the editor of four books, and is an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous professional journals and conferences. She has received several awards: Netguru selected her for "Hidden Heroes: the people who shaped technology (2022), Time Magazine has included several of her designs in its annual list of inventions of the year; AAAI gave her the "classic paper 2012" prize, awarded to the most influential AI paper of the year, Fast Company named her one of 50 most influential designers (2011); Newsweek picked her as one of the "100 Americans to watch for" in the year 2000; TIME Digital selected her as a member of the “Cyber Elite,” the top 50 technological pioneers of the high-tech world; the World Economic Forum honored her with the title "Global Leader for Tomorrow"; Ars Electronica awarded her the 1995 World Wide Web category prize; and in 2000 she was recognized with the "Lifetime Achievement Award" by the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council. She also received honorary doctorates from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium and Open Universiteit, Netherlands, and has given several TED talks.
In addition to her academic endeavors, Maes has been an active entrepreneur as co-founder of several venture-backed companies, including Firefly Networks (sold to Microsoft), Open Ratings (sold to Dun & Bradstreet) and Tulip Co (privately held). She is an advisor to several early stage companies, including Earable, Inc, and Spatial, Inc. Prior to joining the Media Lab, Maes was a visiting professor and a research scientist at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. She holds a bachelor's degree in computer science and a PhD in artificial intelligence from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium.
Prof. Maes, a pioneer in human-computer interaction, will explore AI’s role in augmenting human capabilities, from adaptive interfaces to personalized assistants that enhance productivity and well-being. Through real-world case studies and research-driven insights, this session will highlight the opportunities, challenges, and impact of AI deployment.
Associate Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management
John Horton is an Associate Professor of Information Technologies at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Horton's research focuses on the intersection of labor economics, market design, and information systems. He is particularly interested in improving the efficiency and equity of matching markets.
After completing his PhD and prior to joining NYU Stern School of Business in 2013, he served for two years as the staff economist for oDesk, an online labor market.
Horton received a BS in mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a PhD in public policy from Harvard University.
Jerry McAfee Professor of Engineering, MIT Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering
Dr. Markus J. Buehler, Jerry McAfee Professor of Engineering at MIT, is a leading researcher in computational modeling across domains, from materials to biology to physics. Markus' expertise bridges AI to multi scale materials modeling. He recently co-developed a method that uses artificial intelligence to generate new protein designs with specific strengths, mimicking natural materials like silk. This approach, which uses computer simulations for testing, allows the creation of proteins with desired mechanical properties, such as strength and flexibility, beyond what is naturally available. Markus earned a Ph.D. at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research at the University of Stuttgart and held post-doctoral appointments at both Caltech and MIT. Buehler has received many awards, including the Feynman Prize, the Drucker Medal, and the Washington Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
AI is evolving beyond pattern recognition into a tool for reasoning, discovery, and scientific insight. This talk explores how new AI architectures, including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Graph Isomorphism Networks (GIN), enabling us to build powerful expressive AI models that move beyond memorization and into structural reasoning. By blending physics-driven models with generative AI, integrating biologically-inspired neural structures, and leveraging multi-agent systems that mirror collective intelligence in nature, we unlock new frontiers in scientific discovery. Case studies will highlight breakthroughs in materials science, demonstrating AI-driven advances with real-world applications in medicine, food, and agriculture. These developments showcase AI's potential not just as a tool for analysis but as an engine for reasoning, adaptation, and discovery, fundamentally reshaping our understanding of complex systems.
Drew Houston (2005) Career Development Professor and Assistant Professor of Information Technology, MIT Sloan School of Management
Manish Raghavan is the Drew Houston (2005) Career Development Professor and an Assistant Professor of Information Technology at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Manish was most recently a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Center for Research on Computation and Society (CRCS), working with Cynthia Dwork.
He completed his PhD at the computer science department at Cornell University, advised by Jon Kleinberg. His research studies the impacts of computational tools on society with a focus on decision-making, behavioral economics, and hiring algorithms.