[Sci-tech-public] Invitation - Panel Discussion: How AI is Impacting Journalism, Free Speech, and Public Discourse (February 27th from 4-5:30 PM)

[Willamina Hadley]

Dear Colleagues and Students,

The Program in Science, Technology, and Society invites you to a special lecture by the Knight Science Journalism Program on Friday, February, 27th, 2026 from 4-5:30 pm in the MIT Welcome Center on AI's impact on journalism, free speech, and public discourse.

Panel Discussion: How AI is Impacting Journalism, Free Speech, and Public Discourse

Join us for a discussion on how AI is impacting the way news is reported and disseminated, the way we learn and communicate, and how this is impacting free speech and democracy. The discussion will feature journalists who are examining more ethical ways to report on and use AI, an MIT Media Lab researcher who is researching the neural and behavioral consequences of using large language models to assist with writing, and the leader of a newly launched lab studying how AI is impacting democratic societies by transforming both traditional and social media and mediating our access to information.

Speakers


Khari Johnson, a guest speaker with the Pulitzer Center's AI Accountability Network, has covered AI since 2016. He reports on how artificial intelligence impacts people, their communities, and society. Initially he focused on reporting on consumer technology and startup funding rounds but today explores AI policy solutions to protect human rights and how AI is used in policing, schools, and government. He currently works as a tech reporter at CalMatters and previously worked at WIRED and VentureBeat

Nataliya Kosmyna is a research scientist at the MIT Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces group and a visiting faculty researcher at Google who has spent 16 years designing brain-computer interfaces and is working on ways to better partner AI with human intelligence. She has created art projects that have been deployed in classrooms, hospitals, and in space, and was one of 25 experts who helped UNESCO prepare a Recommendation on the Ethics of Neurotechnology, which was adopted last year. Her research has been covered by media outlets around the world.

Lam Thuy Vo is an investigative reporter working with Documented, an independent, non-profit newsroom dedicated to reporting with and for immigrant communities, and an associate professor of data journalism at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. She has been an AI Accountability Fellow for the Pulitzer Center and has led newsroom-wide trainings for institutions across the US, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. She also created a curriculum on how to cover artificial intelligence that centers the needs of journalists in the Global South.

John Wihbey is the director of the AI-Media Strategies Lab at Northeastern University and an associate professor of media innovation in the College of Arts, Media and Design. He is a faculty researcher at the Ethics Institute and a co-founder of Northeastern's Internet Democracy Initiative, which is launching the Institute for Information, the Internet, and Democracy. He is the author of Governing Babel: The Debate over Social Media Platforms and Free Speech - and What Comes Next.

Moderated by Usha Lee McFarling, Director, Knight Science Journalism Program
To Attend the Event

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!

Thank you,
Program in Science, Technology, and Society

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Mina Hadley | MIT (she/her)
Events and Communications Assistant
Program in Science, Technology, & Society
508-808-4282
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