In what seems an almost inevitable step, MIT is opening a new school to prepare students to develop and consider the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in a wide range of fields. In the next few decades we will likely see other universities making similar adjustments to the ever-accelerating pace of the digital innovation.

AI has been around for decades, but only recently have improvements in processing power enabled radical innovations machine learning. The contributions of AI to fields as diverse as medicine and the humanities will be enormous in decades ahead, and it will be critically important to have organizations that dedicate serious attention to the ethical questions that will inevitably arise as these changes take shape. I am delighted to see MIT taking a serious step in the direction of providing an institutional environment for such questions to be asked and debated.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/technology/mit-college-artificial-intelligence.html

On October 15, The New Your Times published an article by Steve Lohr entitled “M.I.T. Plans College for Artificial Intelligence, Backed by $1 Billion.” The article provides interesting background on the financial backing for MIT’s initiative and the evolving goals of the program. To read more about it, see his article in the Times.

I would like to thank Art Sherwood for bringing this New York Times article to my attention.