Prof. Daron Acemoglu discusses how issues with AI and social media inform his new book, “What Happened to Liberal Democracy?” in an article by Fortune’s Nick Lichtenberg. “We live in an environment that’s been partly shaped by social media, and there is a tendency to escalate everything, because that gets attention,” says Acemoglu. “Politics is like that. The other topic like that, unfortunately, is AI.”
Dezeen’s Ellen Eberhardt describes how the renovation of the historic Metropolitan Warehouse, the new home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, maintains “details such as the building's fortress-like corner towers and crenellated corbeled cornices, while punching new windows into its two-foot-thick walls.” Eberhardt highlights how “the project included careful ‘cutting strategies’ and the application of new support systems to shift existing loads within the building to make room for modern academic spaces such as studios and makerspaces.”
MIT students and community members spoke with 7 News Boston about their experiences viewing Wednesday’s partial solar eclipse, using the Unistellar eVscope Two, a smart telescope provided by the MIT Astrogazers, an outreach group largely made up of MIT graduate students. “To be able to see this celestial event in a way that’s so approachable, and the way that everybody in the community can enjoy it, especially when you have the right gear, is a really special opportunity,” says Joe Diaz, program manager and STEAM educator at the MIT Media Lab.
As the moon began to obscure portions of the sun during a partial solar eclipse, the MIT Astrogazers, an outreach group of MIT graduate students, brought telescopes to Kendall Square and offered passersby the opportunity to view the celestial showcase, reports Jay Willett for WBZ News Radio. “This is a Unistellar eVscope Two, so it can take the image that falls on that sensor, and project it to an iPad, another tablet, a smartphone, or even the eyepiece itself,” explained alumnus and Astrogazer, David DePalma ‘26. Graduate student Sydney Jenkins shared: “We’re trying to show everyone what the eclipse looks like, but safely.”
Financial Times reporter Martin Wolf spotlights Institute Prof. Daron Acemoglu’s latest book, “What Happened to Liberal Democracy?”, which he notes is "timely and thought-provoking,” and "an important call to arms.” In the book, Acemoglu explores his "grand idea of ‘working-class liberalism,’” writes Wolf. “This concept, he states, is built on experimentation and the freedoms of association and expression, is suspicious of excessive power, uses redistribution, allows the less fortunate to participate more fully, values growth, attempts to provide good jobs for everybody and values community, trust and the sharing of useful knowledge.”
For The Architect’s Newspaper, reporter Fred A. Bernstein details the renovation of the Metropolitan Warehouse, the new home of MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning, transforming the fortress-like storage warehouse into “light-filled classrooms and studios.” The building is “going to be a living laboratory and a teaching tool for generations of students,” shares Prof. John Ochsendorf. “Twenty years ago, MIT took me inside and asked if I could see a way to reuse the building. And I said, ‘Absolutely not.’ It was hard to imagine it could be as open and light-filled as it is. That took heroics.”
In a “radical example of adaptive reuse” and a reimagining of a historic Cambridge landmark, MIT has transformed the Metropolitan Storage Warehouse into the new home of the School of Architecture and Planning, bringing together MIT’s architecture and design programs into one connected academic hub, reports Boston Business Journal reporter Maya Shavit. “There will be new installations and new manifestations of our students’ creativity every single week,” explains Prof. John Ochsendorf. “That’s unpredictable and messy, but it’s also part of the fun of being at a place like MIT where people are constantly inventing the future.”
Writing for Forbes, Joseph Coughlin, director of the MIT AgeLab, emphasizes the importance of longevity planning for retirement. “For decades, preparedness meant saving enough, investing wisely, paying down debt, and entering retirement financially secure,” writes Coughlin. “Those remain essential. But longer lives are changing what it means to be prepared. Retirement planning now requires longevity planning — preparing for the long game of more years of life and all the things that life exposes us to.”
During her OneMIT Commencement address, Lisa Su 90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, shared her views on the critical role humans should play in the development and use of AI technologies, reports Courtney Connley-Hampton for Forbes. “For everything that AI can do, AI can’t decide which problems are worth solving. It can’t make the hard judgments when the data is not there. It can’t take responsibility for the outcomes. These are actually our responsibilities and they matter now more than ever,” Su emphasized. “Technology itself does not decide what the future looks like—the best people do.”
In her address to the Class of 2026 during the OneMIT Commencement Ceremony, Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, emphasized that “the world does not just need people who know how to use powerful tools, it needs people who know what to use them for, people with a sense of purpose, judgment, courage.” She added: “For everything that AI can do, AI can’t decide which problems are worth solving. It can’t make the hard judgments when the data is not there. It can’t take responsibility for the outcomes. These are actually our responsibilities, and they matter now more than ever.”
During MIT’s 2026 OneMIT Commencement ceremony, Lisa Su ’90, SM ’91, PhD ’94, Advanced Micro Devices CEO, urged graduates to “run toward the hardest problems,” reports Aayushi Datta for The Boston Globe. In her address, President Sally Kornbluth underscored the value and power of curiosity-driven science, noting that: “shrinking the pipeline of basic discovery research means choking off the flow of future solutions, innovations, and cures.”
Vogue editor Lisa Wong Macabasco spotlights “Lighten Up! On Biology and Time,” a new exhibit at the MIT Museum that “traces the rhythms of life itself: circadian patterns, light’s command over the body, and the delicate architecture of alertness and rest.” The exhibit features “18 works that blend science and art, from immersive soundscapes to visualizations of circadian patterns and reflective spaces where you observe your own heartbeat and alertness in new ways,” explains Macabasco.
Mirchi, MIT’s competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team, will participate in the 17th annual South Asian Showdown on Saturday, February 28, reports Shira Laucharoen for WBUR. The Bollywood-fusion dance competition features “teams from across North America and Canada [who will put their] best moves on display, electrifying the audience with hip-hop, Bhangra, contemporary styles and more,” explains Laucharoen.
Boston Globe reporters Patricia Harris and David Lyon highlight their recent visits to the MIT Museum, List Visual Arts Center, and the Hart Nautical Gallery. “We always feel at least marginally smarter after a day in the galleries at MIT,” they write. “Setting aside high-school anxieties about an upcoming science lab, it turns out that many of the exhibits are engagingly interactive and — dare we say it — even fun.”
Eastern Edge, a food hall bordering the MIT campus, has debuted in Kendall Square, featuring nine local food vendors with roots in the Cambridge community, reports Kara Baskin for The Boston Globe. “It’s built to be a gathering space, and that’s something that we really enjoy at Clover,” says Julia Wrin Piper, CEO of Clover. “At MIT, it’s a privilege to be in a space where every great idea that humankind has ever had has been debated. That’s something that’s very unique to this specific food hall – to be in this hyper-intellectual space and be very grounded by these delicious experiences.”