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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Dear MIT Community,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">The Program in Science, Technology, and Society invites you to join us
<b>today at 12:00 PM in the Nexus at Hayden Library</b></span><b> </b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">to this year’s Morison Lecture and Prize,
<b>“</b></span><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos;color:black">What if the Real Threat is Artificial Good-Enough Intelligence?”</span></b><span style="font-size:12.0pt"> with Turkish-American Sociologist Zeynep Tufekci.
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">What if the Real Threat is Artificial Good-Enough Intelligence?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Are we having the wrong nightmares about AI? Many worry that “artificial general intelligence” — AGI, or when machine intelligence matches or exceeds that of humans — poses a severe threat. These newly-superintelligent
machines could turn on their creators, we’ve been warned, like Skynet in the apocalyptic movie Terminator.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">But many early predictions — fears and hopes — about how new technologies will change the world turn out to be false or misleading. Meanwhile, significant risks that arise simply from increased speed, expanded
scale or lower costs that technology enables are often overlooked.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">A new technology does not have to outperform humans, or even be singularly sensational compared to previous technologies, to fuel extreme turbulence and instability, usually in an unforeseen manner. Cars weren’t
so transformative simply because they exceeded the speed benchmark set by horses, nor were they horseless carriages.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">In this talk, Tufekci will examine the disruptive and even potentially catastrophic risks from Artificial Good-Enough Intelligence — AI that can do things not necessarily as well as humans but just good enough
to be useful while being faster, cheaper and deployable at scale, and in ways that go beyond current concerns such as employment effects, productivity or bias.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">About Zeynep Tufekci<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><a href="https://zeynep.me/">Zeynep Tufekci</a> is an academic and writer who focuses on big social challenges that defy disciplinary boundaries and simple answers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Originally from Turkey, Zeynep Tufekci writes about sociology and the social effects of technology, having closely examined the impact of and responses to the Covid pandemic. She is a professor of sociology
and public affairs at Princeton University. Her research revolves around politics, civics, movements, privacy and surveillance, as well as data and algorithms.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">She is the author of <a href="https://www.twitterandteargas.org/">
Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest</a> and writes regularly for The Atlantic and the New York Times.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;color:red">** </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Her most recent Op Ed for the New York Times was published last Friday, which can be accessed<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/opinion/musk-doge-personal-data.html">
here</a>. <span style="color:red">**</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:12.0pt">To Attend In-Person<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Please fill out this <a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc0kzzIIW_J4t1Ug8qFPEL-cTeT19JR15bmdsdLGdpLsxpDig/viewform?usp=header">
RSVP form</a> if you plan to attend in-person, as space is limited. To access the lecture virtually, please use this zoom link:
<a href="https://mit.zoom.us/j/97070463196">https://mit.zoom.us/j/97070463196</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Aptos;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">This talk is free to the MIT community and open to the public. See the attached flyer for more details, we hope to see you there!</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Thank you,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Program in Science, Technology, and Society
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">***********<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Mina Hadley | MIT (she/her)</b><br>
Events and Communications Assistant<br>
Program in Science, Technology, & Society<br>
508-808-4282<br>
<a href="https://sts-program.mit.edu/"><span style="color:blue">STS at MIT</span></a>/<a href="https://twitter.com/mitpsts"><span style="color:blue">X</span></a>/<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MITPSTS"><span style="color:blue">Facebook</span></a>/<a href="https://www.instagram.com/sts_mit_program/"><span style="color:blue">Instagram</span></a>
<br>
On campus: Mon Tue Thu<br>
Remote: Wed Fri<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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