Data Nation

As an MIT professor and tech entrepreneur, Devavrat Shah has seen firsthand how AI tools can impact research, business, and careers. While some have dire warnings about the scale of harm AI can cause, Shah is optimistic. He joins the Data Nation podcast to dispel some doom and gloom, unpack ways that people are already using AI to make change for the better, and to examine how future benefits can emerge with regulation and education.

Regina Barzilay, computer scientist and expert in natural language processing, talks about data collection, privacy, bias, and 'distributional shift' in healthcare algorithms. She addresses the lack of diversity in data sets, challenges in integrating data in drug discovery, biases in AI and healthcare, and challenges in insurance and personalized medicine.

MIT political scientist and MIT Election Lab director Charles Stewart discusses modern-day election fraud and its impact on American elections. Topics include the significance of voting errors, the evolution of voting in the US, the effects of the COVID pandemic on elections, and the importance of being an informed voter.

Liberty Vittert and Munther Dahleh dive into the world of augmented and virtual reality this month with Professor Fox Harrell.  Harrell is Professor of Digital Media & AI in both the Comparative Media Studies Program and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT.  Is the world ready for what’s coming? Will augmented reality and virtual reality be a force for good or for evil, and what can you do to prepare yourself? You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram @mitidss. Thanks for listening to Data Nation from the MIT Institute of Data Systems and Society.  

Ford Professor in the MIT Department of Economics David Autor joins Data Nation to explore how AI automation can replace, augment, and unpredictably change how we work.

In this episode of Data Nation, we’re talking all about anesthesia and sleep with Dr. Emery Brown. Dr. Brown is a Professor in IDSS and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, as well as Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Data Nation is hosted by Professor Liberty Vittert and Dr. Munther Dahleh, the head of MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. Data Nation is a production of MIT's Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. 

A Native American man gets pulled over for driving a nice car, a black man is arrested in front of his family for a crime he didn’t commit – innocent people are at risk because of racial profiling. But to stop profiling, you have to first identify it, and that’s not as easy as it seems. Liberty and Scott are going deep into data in this episode, investigating how data is used against marginalized communities, and how it should be used to protect and serve them. They go to the experts to find out which methods are failing, what solutions can mitigate the dangers of facial recognition technology and smart policing, and how we know we’ve succeeded in ending profiling.  Liberty and Scott speak with Craig Watkins, Martin Luther King Jr. visiting professor at MIT; and Brandon Del Pozo, former police chief in NYC and Vermont.   Data Nation is a production of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and Voxtopica. 

Artificial intelligence – it’s not the easiest thing to trust when it comes to our healthcare. I mean, will AI replace our doctors in the future? There’s a lot of uncertainty about algorithms deciding our medical fate, so Liberty and Scott are getting the truth on AI’s role in healthcare. They go to the experts to explore the problems behind biased algorithms and faulty diagnoses, and discover if AI will cause harm to patients or if it will progress the medical field farther than it could ever go.  Liberty and Scott talk with Caroline Uhler, co-Director of the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard; and Niels Olson, Chief Medical Officer at the United States Defense Innovation Unit. Data Nation is a production of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and Voxtopica. 

Depending on who you are, when someone brings up the metaverse, you either get really excited, or you have no clue what they’re talking about. Or both! Liberty and Scott have each found themselves in one of these boats. So they’re diving deep into the data to find out what in the world the metaverse actually is, what it’s not, and if it’s going to be a thing that helps society flourish, or if it will be our demise. They talk with experts to get clear definitions and to find out if we’ll be living in a virtual reality world years from now.  Liberty and Scott speak with Joe Paradiso, director of the MIT Media Lab's Responsive Environments Group; and Eric Ravenscraft, technology writer for WIRED  Data Nation is a production of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and Voxtopica. 

“Shh! Google is listening,” your mom points at her Alexa. You roll your eyes, but you know there’s some truth to it. Your data is being tracked. The question is, where’s it going, what are they doing with it, and how are they getting it? Liberty and Scott are investigating just how dangerous the data economy really is and if people truly need to be worried. They look for answers from MIT professor and former scientist at Facebook Dean Eckles, and New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose to find the truth behind data privacy and how we can protect ourselves.  Want more resources & information on this episode? Check out our website. Data Nation is a production of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and Voxtopica.