In the most recent episode of Building 32, Popescu explains how her research sits at the intersection of computational design, digital fabrication, and structural engineering.

A region of the brain called the striatum is critical for many cognitive and motor functions, including decision-making, control of movement, habit formation, and processing of reward. It also plays a role in addiction and is significantly affected by Huntington’s disease, schizophrenia, and other disorders.

When an AI image generator produces a portrait, whose work went into it? The question sits at the center of lawsuits, licensing deals, and proposed regulations worldwide. Artists want credit. Companies want clarity. Policymakers want a way to assign responsibility.

Daniela Rus, Director of MIT CSAIL and the Panasonic Professor of Computer Science, has received the 2026 High-Tech Prize of the Bavarian Minister-President for her contributions to robotics, artificial intelligence, and autonomous systems.

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.’” 

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.