In his recent conversation on Building 32, MIT CSAIL Senior Research Scientist David Clark tells a story from 1995 when he got into a conversation with an economist and friend of his. “He said, ‘David, you have to understand the internet is about routing money, and routing packets is a side effect. And you screwed up the money routing protocols.’ And I said, ‘I didn't design any money routing protocols.’ And he said, ‘that's what I said.’”
Join CSAIL Alliances Member Citadel Securities for a tech talk, followed by networking. This session is intended for PhD Students. More info coming soon!
The deployment of automated software systems called AI agents has recently exploded. A November 2025 report by MIT Sloan School of Management and Boston Consulting Group found that 35 percent of surveyed businesses had already deployed AI agents, while another 44 percent planned to implement agentic AI soon.
Agentic workflows are artificial intelligence-powered software systems that chain together multiple models and external tools to tackle complicated tasks, like analyzing a video and answering questions about it.
At the recent AI and Society Forum at MIT, experts from across the Institute discussed the potential benefits and dangers of technological innovation on labor, the nature of work, civil discourse, election administration, and other topics.