School of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences

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Q&A: Hey AI, who should I vote for this year?

People are peppering artificial intelligence chatbots everyday with questions, but when it comes to politics and the looming 2026 U.S. midterm elections, what role are AI platforms playing? Could an AI chatbot sway a voter to switch parties or re-examine their political beliefs? MIT researchers have built a new dashboard, called the LLM Election Observatory, to examine,

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Making machines that can listen

The crack of a bat accompanied by a roar from the crowd can capture a baseball fan’s attention, even if they miss seeing the home run. Humans may be visual creatures, but we also perceive the world around us by listening to it. To improve artificial perception, MIT Professor Paris Smaragdis SM ’97, PhD ’01 seeks

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Reinforcing the value of human understanding at MIT

At the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) 75th Anniversary Symposium, speakers celebrated the school’s value and contributions, while exploring how artificial intelligence is transforming many aspects of teaching, research, and society.The symposium was held Sept. 24-25 in the Linde Music Building’s Thomas Tull Concert Hall. Scholars, students, staff, and alumni from

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Q&A: How AI came to model the “messy” human mind

Generative artificial intelligence models are rooted in ideas of mid-20th century engineers who thought some amount of irrationality was essential for a machine that could think like a human, contends Benjamin Lindquist, an assistant professor in the MIT History Section, who holds an MIT Schwarzman College of Computing shared position with the Department of Electrical

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Discovering the value of humanistic inquiry

Artificial intelligence has become part of the zeitgeist. And while it’s a polarizing topic, Linda Rabieh has a unique take on AI: “It’s good for business. Our business, of humanistic thinking.” As senior lecturer in the Concourse program, one of MIT’s first-year learning communities, Rabieh has been introducing students to the “business” since 2010. “What AI

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Who we become when we talk to machines

Brian, a middle-aged financial consultant, spends his day sitting in front of three screens. Two of them involve his job. The third features a chatbot, which he has given a woman’s name and frequently uses. Brian spent years on the road for work earlier in his career, has never married, and recently broke up with

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The effects of an “algorithmic monoculture” depend on the details

AI tools are increasingly replacing human judgements in some settings. For instance, resume screening algorithms are often used in hiring, where they may improve efficiency and consistency in decision-making.But some scholars have raised concerns that the adoption of automated systems could eventually result in one algorithm being used to make all decisions in a particular

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MIT students gain a humanist lens on technical innovation in Tulsa, Oklahoma

When MIT mechanical engineering student Daphne Wang arrived for her internship at the Muscogee Creek Nation Department of Health in Tulsa, Oklahoma last summer, she expected to be writing code. To her surprise, she found herself analyzing tribal history and the implications for technical innovation. “I learned so much that I think should be required curriculum

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A new chapter for MIT Reads

As it marks its 10-year anniversary, MIT Reads is being reimagined for the age of artificial intelligence. Recognizing the need to foster social connection and a sense of our shared humanity, the popular MIT Libraries’ program will turn its focus to fiction and memoir, and to the particular power of stories to help us understand ourselves and

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Measure by measure, studying society accurately

Let’s agree at the outset the world is a complicated place, and social scientists have exacting jobs when it comes to measuring civic phenomena with precision. After all, even careful studies raise follow-up questions: How much do their findings apply in other settings? Do conclusions about politics in one country apply to other countries? If you’re

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