Will the proper storm of doubtless life-changing, synthetic intelligence-driven well being care and the need to extend earnings by means of subscription fashions alienate susceptible sufferers?
For the third yr in a row, MIT’s Envisioning the Future of Computing Prize requested college students to explain, in 3,000 phrases or fewer, how developments in computing may form human society for the higher or worse. All entries had been eligible to win quite a lot of money prizes.
Impressed by latest analysis on the larger impact microbiomes have on general well being, MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography and Utilized Ocean Science and Engineering PhD candidate Annaliese Meyer created the idea of “B-Bots,” an artificial bacterial mimic designed to control intestine biomes and activated by Bluetooth.
For the competition, which challenges MIT college students to articulate their musings for what a future pushed by advances in computing holds, Meyer submitted a piece of speculative fiction about how recipients of a revolutionary new health-care know-how discover their therapy in jeopardy with the introduction of a subscription-based pay mannequin.
In her profitable paper, titled “(Pre/Sub)scribe,” Meyer chronicles the utilization of B-Bots from the attitude of each their creator and a B-Bots person named Briar. They have a good time the consequences of the complement, serving to them handle vitamin deficiencies and persistent situations like acid reflux disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Meyer says that the introduction of a B-Bots subscription mannequin “appeared like an ideal alternative to hopefully clarify that in a for-profit health-care system, even medical advances that might, in principle, be revolutionary for human well being can find yourself inflicting extra hurt than good for the many individuals on the dropping facet of the large wealth disparity in trendy society.”
As a Canadian, Meyer has skilled the variations between the well being care programs in the USA and Canada. She recounts her mom’s latest most cancers remedies, emphasizing the associated fee and protection of remedies in British Columbia when in comparison with the U.S.
Apart from a cautionary story of fairness within the American well being care system, Meyer hopes readers take away an extra scientific message on the complexity of intestine microbiomes. Impressed by her thesis work in ocean metaproteomics, Meyer says, “I believe quite a bit about when and why microbes produce totally different proteins to adapt to environmental modifications, and the way that is determined by the remainder of the microbial neighborhood and the change of metabolic merchandise between organisms.”
Meyer had hoped to take part within the earlier yr’s contest, however the time constraints of her lab work put her submission on maintain. Now within the midst of thesis work, she noticed the competition as a method so as to add some selection to what she was writing whereas protecting engaged together with her scientific pursuits. Nevertheless, writing has at all times been a ardour. “I wrote quite a bit as a child (‘creator’ truly usually preceded ‘scientist’ as my dream job whereas I used to be in elementary college), and I nonetheless write fiction in my spare time,” she says.
Named the winner of the $10,000 grand prize, Meyer says the essay and presentation preparation had been extraordinarily rewarding.
“The prospect to discover a brand new subject space which, although associated to my subject, was positively out of my consolation zone, actually pushed me as a author and a scientist. It bought me studying papers I’d by no means have discovered earlier than, and digging into ideas that I’d barely ever encountered. (Did I’ve any actual understanding of the patent course of previous to this? Completely not.) The presentation dinner itself was a ton of enjoyable; it was nice to each have the ability to have a good time with my buddies and colleagues in addition to meet folks from a bunch of various fields and departments round MIT.”
Envisioning the way forward for the computing prize
Co-sponsored by the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), a cross-cutting initiative of the MIT Schwarzman School of Computing and the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS), with assist from MAC3 Philanthropies, the competition this yr attracted 65 submissions from undergraduate and graduate college students throughout numerous majors, together with mind and cognitive sciences, economics, electrical engineering and laptop science, physics, anthropology, and others.
Caspar Hare, affiliate dean of SERC and professor of philosophy, launched the prize in 2023. He says that the article of the prize was “to encourage MIT college students to consider what they’re doing, not simply when it comes to advancing computing-related applied sciences, but in addition when it comes to how the selections they make could or could not work to our collective profit.”
He emphasised that the Envisioning the Way forward for Computing prize will proceed to stay “fascinating and essential” to the MIT neighborhood. There are plans in place to tweak subsequent yr’s contest, providing extra alternatives for workshops and steering for these taken with submitting essays.
“Everybody is worked up to proceed this for so long as it stays related, which may very well be without end,” he says, suggesting that in years to come back the prize may give us a collection of historic snapshots of what computing-related applied sciences MIT college students discovered most compelling.
“Computing-related know-how goes to be reworking and altering the world. MIT college students will stay an enormous a part of that.”
Crowning a winner
As a part of a two-stage analysis course of, all of the submitted essays had been reviewed anonymously by a committee of school members from the faculty, SHASS, and the Division of City Research and Planning. The judges moved ahead three finalists primarily based on the papers that had been deemed to be probably the most articulate, thorough, grounded, imaginative, and provoking.
In early Could, a live awards ceremony was held the place the finalists had been invited to offer 20-minute displays on their entries and took questions from the viewers. Practically 140 MIT neighborhood members, relations, and buddies attended the ceremony in assist of the finalists. The viewers members and judging panel requested the presenters difficult and considerate questions on the societal impression of their fictional computing applied sciences.
A last tally, which comprised 75 p.c of their essay rating and 25 p.c of their presentation rating, decided the winner.
This yr’s judging panel included:
- Marzyeh Ghassemi, affiliate professor in electrical engineering and laptop science;
- Caspar Hare, affiliate dean of SERC and professor of philosophy;
- Jason Jackson, affiliate professor in political economic system and concrete planning;
- Brad Skow, professor of philosophy;
- Armando Photo voltaic-Lezama, affiliate director and chief working officer of the MIT Pc Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory; and
- Nikos Trichakis, interim affiliate dean of SERC and affiliate professor of operations administration.
The judges additionally awarded $5,000 to the 2 runners-up: Martin Staadecker, a graduate scholar within the Expertise and Coverage Program within the Institute for Knowledge, Methods, and Society, for his essay on a fictional token-based system to trace fossil fuels, and Juan Santoyo, a PhD candidate within the Division of Mind and Cognitive Sciences, for his brief story of a field-deployed AI designed to assist the psychological well being of troopers in instances of battle. As well as, eight honorable mentions had been acknowledged, with every receiving a money prize of $1,000.
