Launching the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium
Dear members of the MIT community,
As we see all around us, generative AI is transforming industries, enhancing human creativity and opening new scientific frontiers – a revolution that has important roots in decades of AI innovation from the people of MIT. Since the summer of 2023, when we invited a first round of proposals for impact papers on generative AI, our community has responded with a surge of new collaborations, including new connections to industry.
To harness this rising enthusiasm, I asked Anantha Chandrakasan, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer and Dean of the School of Engineering, to lead the development of a strategic initiative to help our community pursue important new high-risk, high-reward ideas.
Today, I’m delighted to announce the result: the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium (MGAIC).
Supporting both research and innovation, the consortium will bring MIT researchers together with industry leaders to explore how generative AI can spawn transformative solutions for real-world challenges, and to help ensure that its societal impact is broadly beneficial.
MGAIC will actively engage faculty in several different ways. Through an open call for proposals, it will fund the best ideas in the application of generative AI as well as support focused projects with consortium member companies. The consortium will also engage the community through student activities, workshops and an annual event, and provide open-source solutions to the world. The funds will be open to principal investigators across all five schools and the Schwarzman College of Computing.
You can learn more about MGAIC on MIT News – and learn more about it at the info session detailed below.
MGAIC leadership and areas of focus
As a presidential initiative administered by the Schwarzman College of Computing, the consortium will draw on the expertise of the GenAI Dean's Oversight Group, co-chaired by Dan Huttenlocher, dean of the Schwarzman College of Computing, and Georgia Perakis, John C Head III Dean (Interim) of the MIT Sloan School of Management.
The consortium will also benefit from the expertise and guidance of faculty co-leads Tim Kraska, associate professor in electrical engineering and computer science and a member of CSAIL, and Vivek Farias, the Patrick J. McGovern (1959) Professor at MIT Sloan.
Faculty leads for specific aspects of the work are listed on the MGAIC website.
The consortium will focus on three high-impact areas:
- Innovative applications of generative AI across many domains that foster collaboration between humans and AI
- Insights into the interplay between AI and human behavior, with the aim of amplifying benefits and addressing risks
- Cross-disciplinary research to advance both the technology and its role in enhancing human flourishing
Open source for global impact
MIT has a long history of encouraging open collaboration and knowledge sharing – the intellectual oxygen that feeds a flourishing ecosystem of discovery and innovation. In that spirit, the consortium will make its research openly available, ensuring that findings will benefit not only consortium members and MIT but also society at large.
Upcoming information session and call for papers
So that you can learn more, explore research directions and engage with colleagues across disciplines, consortium leadership will hold an open information session:
- Monday, February 10
- 4–5 p.m.
- Schwarzman College of Computing, Bldg. 45-801
- Register for information session
The call for proposals is now live. We encourage you to review the details and submit your research proposals on key applications and impacts of generative AI technologies.
Few technologies in history have driven change with the immense speed and scope the world is experiencing with gen AI. I hope MGAIC will help our community blaze the way to important new gen AI solutions and protect society from its inherent risks.
With enthusiasm and appreciation,
Sally Kornbluth
President