Advancing Humans with AI: A Research Program at MIT Media Lab

Joined March 2025
132 Photos and videos
We optimize AI decision support for accuracy and speed. But what if those aren't the right goals? THIS THURSDAY: Krzysztof Gajos (Harvard) on expanding the success criteria for AI-powered decision support 🔗 Join us: zoom.us/j/91647096870 #AHA #MITMediaLab #AI #HCI
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From early algorithms to generative AI to autonomous agents — each shapes us differently. Under what conditions does media actually support human flourishing? THIS THURSDAY: AHA Seminar Series featuring Sunny Xun Liu (Stanford Social Media Lab) Link in comments!
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🌐 AI is now more persuasive than political ads — for controversial sociopolitical questions. So what does that mean for our shared reality? THIS THURSDAY: AHA Seminar Series with Thomas Costello on AI & the future of belief. April 2 | 4–5pm ET | Join us: zoom.us/j/91647096870
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Save the date 📅 "Raised by AI?" — MIT Media Lab's AHA Symposium — April 28, 2026. For the first time, a generation is growing up with AI in their classrooms, homes, and pockets. How do we ensure they thrive? Streaming live for all → sign up for the link: eepurl.com/jvfw8o
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"I think we may have a crisis on our hands." AHA's Rosalind Picard — who founded the field of affective computing — on the unregulated rise of emotionally intelligent AI, in @TIME. Link: time.com/7379564/ai-emotiona…
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Congratulations to Dreaming Objects — winners of HARD MODE! 🏆 They imagine a future where AI lives in the things around us. Objects everyone can interact with, have fun with, and grow alongside in real life. They take home a $50K SAFE investment. Watch this space. 🚀 #HARDMODE
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HARD MODE: what a weekend. 🔧🤘 200 builders. 40 teams. 48 hours. One mission: prototype the future. The challenge: rethink how AI helps humans connect, learn, reflect, work, play, and thrive. Demo day was something else. 🥹 #HARDMODEhackathon #AdvancingHumansWithAI
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Huge thanks to platinum sponsors @AnthropicAI , @Akamai , and @Qualcomm — and to @MarcRaibert from @BostonDynamics for bringing Spot and showing us where intelligent hardware is headed. This is what advancing humans with AI looks like. 🤖
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We analyzed aggregated insights from people's 2025 AI chat histories — here's what we're seeing (exploratory findings, small sample): Emotional support themes showed up across nearly all users, regardless of how they used AI.
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🧠 Is AI making us better thinkers — or doing our thinking for us? TOMORROW: AHA Seminar Series featuring Valdemar Danry on AI & the future of critical thinking. 📅 Thurs, March 5 | 4–5pm ET | Free & virtual 🔗 Zoom link: zoom.us/j/91647096870 #AI #CriticalThinking #HumanAI
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Built a benchmark measuring AI's impact on human wellbeing? Submit it to AHA's Open Benchmark for the Human Impact of AI — a collaboration between researchers at @MIT, USC, and UC Berkeley. We'll run it on datasets you can't access elsewhere. Link in comments.
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Most AI benchmarks measure performance. We measure impact on people. New from AHA @MITMediaLab: a framework for benchmarking AI's effect on human flourishing. 80 experts. 40 institutions. One question: does it help humans thrive? Read the report - Link in comments.
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AI can now apologize, advise, and persuade — fluently, convincingly, at scale. But no one stands behind the words. AHA's Deb Roy on what this means for language, dignity, and the social contract → link in comments via @TheAtlantic
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Volunteer at HARD MODE — MIT's hardware × AI hackathon, March 6–8. 200 builders. 48 hours. One design brief: hardware for human flourishing. Wanna join? apply here: forms.gle/DUDAvunyihmgbS3C8
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Proud AHA moment 🌍 Our co-director Pat spoke at the UN ECOSOC Chamber for Women and Girls in Science Day on "AI and the Future of Human Flourishing", joined by an all-women MIT delegation. He honored the women who shaped his work: Dr. Pattie Maes, Dr. Sherry Turkle, and his mom!
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