Visit hbs.edu

Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning

The feats achieved through AI and machine learning are astonishing and can feel like modern wizardry. But without clear ethical reasoning and principled leadership, this utopian promise could tumble all too quickly into a dystopian nightmare.

Why inclusion matters for the future of AI

The potential of AI to change the world is undeniable, and yet there is an ugly side to this transformational technology in the form of biased and exclusionary machine learning. Amar Ashar and Sandra Cortesi of the Berkman Klein Center’s Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence group detail some of the most pressing issues related to the AI divide and explore how AI can become more inclusive as the technology takes greater hold globally.

Why AI isn’t a sure thing to increase productivity

As companies adopt artificial intelligence to increase efficiency, are their employees skilled enough to use those technologies effectively? Professor Prithwiraj Choudhury looks to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a case study.

The Algorithm for Precision Medicine

Five years ago, Matt Might’s son Bertrand was dying, stranded on Undiagnosed Island, and suffering from an unnamed and extremely rare genetic disorder. What happened next was a remarkable journey to wellness which included viral blog posts, regenerative worms, one White House mandated initiative, and some arguably shady Amazon orders. In this talk from the Harvard Institute for Applied Computational Science’s Digital Doctor Symposium, Matt Might lays out his bold vision for the future of precision medicine, one that relies on data-driven insights, powerful computation and machine learning, and an invitation to patients to dive feet-first into the scientific method along with their clinicians.

Analytics for an Online Retailer: Demand Forecasting and Price Optimization

HBS Assistant Professor Kris Johnson Ferreira partnered with Rue La La to help the online flash sale company improve their pricing structure. So what exactly can machine learning and data analytics do for a fashion retailer? Just take a look at the bottom line to see the answer.

The Future of News is Humans Talking to Machines

One of the recurring themes we heard coming out of our Future of Advertising and Publishing Forum was the rise of audio and voice-assisted devices in the role of journalism. It is becoming increasingly clear that this is “the next big thing” in the realm of media consumption, and former Nieman Lab fellow Trushar Barot highlights the current state of this growing trend. Barot’s takeaways? News orgs need to be doing more to prepare for the implications of this disruptive technology.

waze-street

Gauging street change over time

The advent of Google Street View and machine learning algorithms has enabled us to study urban change in a way that’s unlike anything we’ve quite seen before. In this joint study between HBS, Harvard, and MIT, researchers demonstrate how cities evolve and why it underscores the importance of human capital and education in defining urban outcomes.

tay-crowdsourcing-featured

Tay: crowdsourcing a PR nightmare

This post was originally published on the Digital Initiative’s classroom blogging platform. “We are deeply sorry for the unintended offensive and hurtful tweets from Tay, which do not represent who we are or what we stand for, nor how we designed Tay.” [1] Approximately 16 hours after launching its conversational chatterbot Tay in 2016, Microsoft […]

Wind map of the US

Augmenting human and machine intelligence with data visualization

Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg explore data visualization’s many applications — from analytics to art.

Cat money

How AI will impact the enterprise

How can organizations shift from theoretical (and academic) explorations of AI to practical implementations that will generate money for the business? Kathryn Hume from Fast Forward Labs explains in this flash talk.

Engage With Us

Join Our Community

Ready to dive deeper with the Digital Data Design Institute at Harvard? Subscribe to our newsletter, contribute to the conversation and begin to invent the future for yourself, your business and society as a whole.