Researchers at MIT and elsewhere have published a study on why voters who value democracy participate in democratic backsliding, reports Jason Willick for The Washington Post. The authors have identified “a strong linear relationship between perceptions of the other side’s willingness to subvert democracy and partisans’ own willingness to do so,” writes Willick.
Neil Thompson, director of the FutureTech research project at MIT CSAIL and a principal investigator MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy, speaks with Politico reporter Mohar Chatterjee about generative AI, the pace of computer progress and the need for the U.S. to invest more in developing the future of computing. “We need to make sure we have good secure factories that can produce cutting-edge semiconductors,” says Thompson. “The CHIPS Act covers that. And people are starting to invest in some of these post-CMOS technologies — but it just needs to be much more. These are incredibly important technologies.”
Institute Prof. Daron Acemoglu and Prof. Aleksander Mądry join GBH’s Greater Boston to explore how AI can be regulated and safely integrated into our lives. “With much of our society driven by informational spaces — in particular social media and online media in general — AI and, in particular, generative AI accelerates a lot of problems like misinformation, spam, spear phishing and blackmail,” Mądry explains. Acemoglu adds that he feels AI reforms should be approached “more broadly so that AI researchers actually work in using these technologies in human-friendly ways, trying to make humans more empowered and more productive.”
MIT researchers have found that “69 percent of registered voters said they were either very or somewhat confident that votes at a nationwide level were counted as intended,” reports Zach Montellaro for Politico. This research is a “prominent measure of voter trust in election integrity,” writes Montellaro.
A new working paper by Prof. Christian Wolf and his colleagues explores a “mechanism by which a government could run deficits and never have to pay them,” reports Peter Coy for The New York Times. The researchers found that “‘deficits contribute to their own financing via two channels.’ First, they can accelerate economic growth, which generates more tax revenue. Second, they can cause inflation to rise, which shrinks the effective cost of debt.
Steven Simon, a fellow with MIT’s Center for International Studies, and Jonathan Stevenson of the International Institute for Strategic Studies write for Politico about how the 2024 election could lead to political violence and civil breakdown. “Despite all that U.S. national security and law enforcement officials have learned since Jan. 6, the country is still not prepared for a far-right revolt,” write Simon and Stevenson.
Adjunct Professor Emeritus Melvin “Mel” King, a political activist, former MA state representative and the first Black person to reach a Boston mayoral general election, has died at 94. “[In 1971], he founded the Community Fellows Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he became an adjunct professor of urban studies and planning. The program brings leaders from minority communities to MIT for a year of research and study,” writes Mark Feeney for The Boston Globe.
Prof. Simon Johnson writes for The Los Angeles Times about the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates despite the recent instability in the banking sector. “Increasing the deposit insurance cap and focusing on small-business transaction accounts could stabilize midsize banks, reduce more deposit transfers out of those institutions, and shore up confidence in the banking system,” writes Johnson.
Prof. Aleksander Mądry’s testimony before a House subcommittee was highlighted by Politico fellow Mohar Chatterjee in a recent newsletter exploring how large tech companies are dominating how generative AI technologies are developed and utilized. During his testimony, Mądry emphasized that “very few players will be able to compete, given the highly specialized skills and enormous capital investments the building of such systems requires.”
Prof. Simon Johnson writes for The Los Angeles Times about the impact of government support during a financial crisis. “The immediate banking crisis may have been tempered, but it isn’t over,” writes Johnson. “As concerns about moral hazard rise again in Europe, will European regulators succumb to the temptation to make an example of some bank or other? One thing is certain: What they do will have global consequences, including for the U.S., and we will need to be prepared for them.”
Prof. Gang Chen speaks with Times Higher Education reporter Pola Lem about how “government interference has created an atmosphere of fear for foreign-born academics in the US.” Says Chen, “I don’t expect myself to go back to what I was before, but I’m also determined. I’m not going to be beaten in my science. I’m going to become stronger through this ordeal.” He adds, “I hope basic science can remain open.”
Writing for The Los Angeles Times, Prof. Simon Johnson outlines how regulation and supervision of the banking industry should be strengthened following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. “A well-regulated system is still the right goal,” writes Johnson. “The Federal Reserve needs to overhaul and improve its bank supervision — and to make that consistent with its macroeconomic policy for interest rates.”
Prof. Emeritus Peter Diamond speaks with Boston Globe reporter Scot Lehigh about the future of Social Security. “Given the large past differences in the approaches of the two parties, it is important that citizens press members of Congress to be specific about their views on fixing the program,” says Diamond. “And it’s just as important that voters let their members of Congress know their own views.”
A new report co-authored by MIT researchers finds that the “US lead in advanced computing has declined significantly over the past five years—especially when measured against China,” writes Will Knight for Wired. The report’s authors emphasize that the US “needs to make sure that the CHIPS Act spending reflects the importance of developing novel ideas in advanced computing, as opposed to just propping up existing technologies,” Knight notes.
Prof. Emeritus Olivier Blanchard speaks with New York Times opinion writer Peter Coy about the U.S. policy towards federal debt. “Blanchard pointed out in the [his] book that if the interest rate the government pays on its debt is lower than the economy’s growth rate, the existing stock of debt will feel lighter over time because it will shrink as a share of gross domestic product even if the government isn’t running surpluses,” writes Coy.