AI and the Brain
AI is reshaping the world. What is it doing to your brain?
With support from MITHIC’s SHASS+ Connectivity Fund, faculty from Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Comparative Media Studies are designing an ambitious longitudinal study of how AI might reshape human intellect. This will involve working with thousands of people on a continuing basis to discern linkages, whether positive or negative, between AI usage and various aspects of cognitive function. Our work draws inspiration from the Framingham Heart Study - one of the longest running biomedical research efforts in the world that has yielded deep insights about how environmental and lifestyle factors impact cardiovascular health.
We invite you to join MIT leadership, leading researchers, and voices from industry and the nonprofit world for a conversation on what large-scale science can teach us, and what we're already learning about AI's effects on how we think, learn, and work.
Agenda
1:30-1:45: Welcome and background from MIT organizers
Eric Klopfer (Comparative Media Studies) and Pawan Sinha (Brain and Cognitive Sciences)
1:45-2:00: Remarks from MIT leadership
Chancellor Melissa Nobles and Dean Agustín Rayo
2:00-3:00: Lessons from large-scale studies
Moderator: Gemma Picot (Samvid Ventures)
Speakers: Hugh Garavan (University of Vermont), Emily Ho (Northwestern), Donald Lloyd-Jones (Boston University), and Charles Nelson (Harvard)
3:00-3:15: Coffee break
3:15-4:00: Early findings about AI’s effects on cognition
Moderator: Kyla Haimovitz (Advanced Education Research and Development Fund)
Speakers: Ben Lira (University of Pennsylvania), Michael Rich (Boston Children's Hospital), and Rebecca Winthrop (Brookings)
4:00-5:00: Coping with real-world impacts
Moderator: Barbara Peng (Business Insider)
Speakers: Julie Bedard (Boston Consulting Group), Leah Belsky (OpenAI), Tomaso Poggio (MIT), and Alisa Sommer O'Hara (Google)
5:00-5:30: Reception
More details here