5 MIT college members and two further alumni have been just lately named to the 2026 cohort of AI2050 Fellows. The distinction is introduced yearly by Schmidt Sciences, Eric and Wendy Schmidt’s philanthropic initiative that goals to speed up scientific innovation.
Conceived and co-chaired by Eric Schmidt and James Manyika, AI2050 is a philanthropic initiative aimed toward serving to to unravel exhausting issues in synthetic intelligence. Inside their analysis, every fellow will take care of the central motivating query of AI2050: “It’s 2050. AI has turned out to be vastly helpful to society. What occurred? What are an important issues we solved and the alternatives and potentialities we realized to make sure this end result?”
AI2050 Senior Fellow
Sendhil Mullainathan is the Peter de Florez Professor at MIT with twin appointments within the departments of Economics and Electrical Engineering and Pc Science who can also be a principal investigator on the MIT Laboratory for Data and Choice Techniques. His present analysis is on the intersection of algorithms and folks, with a central concentrate on launching The Bike Store@MIT, a brand new analysis middle that works towards extra human-centered AI by way of scalable bicycles for the thoughts, and modern new gears for machine studying algorithms. Mullainathan is the co-founder of ideas42, a nonprofit to use behavioral science; MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Motion Lab, which promotes the usage of randomized management trials in growth; and Dandelion Well being, which mixes proprietary AI instruments with real-world affected person information. He is the co-author of “Shortage: Why Having Too Little Means So A lot.”
Amongst different awards, he’s a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius Grant”; has been designated a “Younger International Chief” by the World Financial Discussion board; was labeled a “High 100 Thinker” by International Coverage Journal; and was named to the “Sensible Checklist: 50 individuals who will change the world” by Wired Journal (U.Ok.). He serves on the board of the MacArthur Basis, is affiliated with the NBER and BREAD, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His AI2050 mission focuses on the interpretation of patterns detectable by AI into testable theories.
AI2050 Early Profession Fellows
Alex Damian is an assistant professor within the Division of Arithmetic, holding an MIT Schwarzman Faculty of Computing shared place with the Division of Electrical Engineering and Pc Science, who can also be a principal investigator on the MIT Laboratory for Data and Choice Techniques. His analysis focuses on the mathematical foundations of deep studying, with an emphasis on optimization dynamics and illustration studying. He was beforehand a analysis fellow on the Kempner Institute at Harvard College. He acquired his PhD in utilized and computational arithmetic from Princeton College and his BS in arithmetic from Duke College. His AI2050 mission focuses on efficient AI mannequin coaching.
Bailey Flanigan is a Theodore T. Miller (1922) Profession Improvement Assistant Professor at MIT, holding an MIT Schwarzman Faculty of Computing shared place with the departments of Electrical Engineering and Pc Science and Political Science, and can also be a principal investigator on the MIT Laboratory for Data and Choice Techniques. She acquired her PhD in pc science from Carnegie Mellon College in 2024. In 2024-25, she was a Harvard Knowledge Science Initiative Fellow, hosted on the Harvard Ash Heart for Democratic Innovation. Her analysis combines instruments from throughout disciplines (together with social alternative principle, recreation principle, algorithms, statistics, and survey strategies) to advance political methodology and strengthen public participation in democracy. She is particularly occupied with sampling algorithms, opinion measurement/desire elicitation, and the design of democratic improvements like deliberative minipublics and participatory budgeting. Her AI2050 mission focuses on gathering structured public enter that lawmakers can use when making advanced choices.
Yunha Hwang is the Samuel A. Goldblitch Profession Improvement Assistant Professor at MIT, holding an MIT Schwarzman Faculty of Computing shared place with the departments of Electrical Engineering and Pc Science and Biology. She can also be a principal investigator on the MIT Laboratory for Data and Choice Techniques. Hwang serves because the co-founder and chief scientist at Tatta Bio, a scientific nonprofit devoted to advancing genomic AI for organic discovery. She acquired her PhD in biology from Harvard College and BS in pc science from Stanford College. Her analysis pursuits span machine studying for microbial evolution, biomanufacturing, and open science. Her AI 2050 mission focuses on figuring out organic enzyme features.
Manish Raghavan is the Drew Houston (2005) Profession Improvement Professor on the MIT Sloan Faculty of Administration, holding an MIT Schwarzman Faculty of Computing shared place with the Division of Electrical Engineering and Pc Science. He’s additionally a principal investigator on the MIT Laboratory for Data and Choice Techniques. Earlier than that, he was a postdoc on the Harvard Heart for Analysis on Computation and Society. Raghavan acquired his bachelor’s diploma in electrical engineering and pc science from the College of California at Berkeley, and PhD from Cornell College. His analysis pursuits lie within the utility of computational strategies to domains of social concern, together with algorithmic equity and behavioral economics, with a selected concentrate on the usage of algorithmic instruments within the hiring pipeline. His AI2050 mission focuses on mitigating unfavourable results, and strengthening optimistic points, of widespread AI reliance.
MIT alumni Irene Chen PhD ’22 and Allison Z. Koenecke ’14 in addition to former postdoc Juan Carlos Perdomo have been additionally named AI2050 Early Profession Fellows.
