MIT Open Aggregated Podcast Feed

How living in space will affect future generations—and what the potential unintended consequences of space settlements are.We are on the cusp of a golden age of space travel in which, for the first time, it will be possible for large numbers of people to venture into space. Some intend to stay. But what happens—and will happen—to us in the extreme conditions of space? What should space tourists expect to happen to them during a journey to an orbiting space station, the Moon, or Mars? What would happen to children born on another planet? Would they evolve into a new species? In Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds (MIT Press, 2026) Scott Solomon explores the many ways in which humanity’s migration into space will change our bodies and our minds.This book focuses on the latest science, taking readers to the front lines of research. We hear from astronauts, including Scott Kelly who writes the foreword, and we join a team of scientists guiding a rover across the surface of Mars. We visit a high-security lab where engineers are simulating space radiation to measure its effects on the body. We travel to isolated islands where field biologists are gleaning insights into evolutionary processes applicable to people isolated on faraway planets. We meet synthetic biologists developing gene-editing tools to equip future humans to thrive in alien environments. We watch a rocket designed to carry humanity to Mars make its first successful launch. And then we ask, knowing what we know: Should we go?

Stephanie Woerner reads MIT CISR's April 2026 research briefing, which she co-authored with Peter Weill. See the text version and related content at https://cisr.mit.edu/publication/2026_0401_DigitalColleagues_WeillWoerner.

Abstract: Digital colleagues—AI-enabled systems that collaborate with humans to perform complex work—are rapidly transitioning from experimentation to an embedded enterprise capability. Unlike traditional automation or reactive AI assistants, digital colleagues integrate generative AI, agentic systems, machine learning, use of enterprise data, and embedded governance mechanisms to function as members of human teams. They may perform tasks autonomously, engage in dialogue, learn over time, operate continuously, and escalate consequential decisions to humans. This briefing describes digital colleagues, where value from their use is emerging, and the organizational choices that distinguish higher-performing enterprises.

Electric Life: Utility Regulation and the Fight for Energy Democracy (MIT Press, 2026) by Dr. Nikki Luke traces the intertwined history of Atlanta’s racialized uneven development and growing electricity use to show how electricity infrastructure shapes everyday life. Nikki Luke looks at how quotidian relationships with the electric utility catalyze intersectional organizing for energy democracy. She also investigates the legal and material construction of the investor-owned utility as a regulated monopoly and the state public service commission that regulates it.Contemporary organizing for energy democracy questions how the utility and the systems that govern it need to change to ensure energy affordability, provide remedy and reparation for enduring environmental and energy injustice, and build a just and equitable energy transition from fossil fuels. Bridging urban, environmental, and labor studies, the author demonstrates how these demands to change the utility emerge from the tradition of civil rights, labor, and environmental organizing for fair treatment from the utility, affordable energy, protection from pollution, and good jobs. The book is available Open Access.

This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.

Professor Armando Solar-Lezama, MIT CSAIL Associate Director, says there are currently three camps in AI discourse: the utopian thinkers, the alarmists, and the skeptics. And all of them are wrong. Plus, hear his thoughts on AI Agents, neurosymbolic programming, vibe coding, and more.

In this conversation, Professor Solar-Lezama explains how "vibe coding" is transforming daily productivity for those who already know how to code, why software development is becoming a capital-intensive business for the first time in its history, and why the developers who benefit most from AI tools are the ones with the strongest foundations.

He also offers a warning on AI agents: that simple attacks have been patched but major vulnerabilities remain, and deploying agents in high-stakes environments without understanding those risks is a gamble organizations shouldn't take yet.

Plus, get a closer look at emerging technologies like neurosymbolic programming and areas where human expertise will be more important than ever.

Episodes, listener discounts, meet the host, and more can be found here: csail.mit.edu/podcast

Connect with CSAIL Alliances:

On our site: cap.csail.mit.edu/about-us/meet-our-team

On LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/mit-csail

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In this episode, Sam talks with Peter Koerte, member of the managing board and chief strategy and technology officer of Siemens, about how industrial AI is quietly transforming the infrastructure that powers everyday life.

While consumer AI grabs headlines, Peter explains how artificial

intelligence is improving factories, transportation systems, energy

grids, and buildings behind the scenes. The conversation explores what

makes industrial AI different — from the need for near-perfect accuracy

to the challenge of working with proprietary, domain-specific data.

Peter shares examples like predicting train door failures days in

advance, optimizing building energy use, and accelerating complex

engineering simulations. Peter and Sam also discuss the importance of

domain expertise, the value of data-sharing partnerships across

companies, and why transformation is as much about people and workflows

as it is about technology. Read the episode transcript here.

Guest bio:

As a member of the managing board, chief strategy officer, and chief

technology officer of Siemens, Peter Koerte is responsible for

developing the company’s strategy and leading its worldwide research and

development activities. His current priorities include accelerating

development of innovative sustainable technologies and continuing

development of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform.

Koerte previously headed Digital Health, a Siemens Healthineers unit

that develops AI-supported diagnostic procedures for health care. He

joined the corporate strategy side of the company in 2007 after working

for the Boston Consulting Group. Koerte holds a master’s degree in

business and engineering from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and a

doctorate in strategy and international management from the WHU-Otto

Beisheim School of Management. He also completed the General Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Me, Myself, and AI is a podcast produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and hosted by Sam Ransbotham. It is engineered by David Lishansky and produced by Allison Ryder.

We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

ME, MYSELF, AND AI® is a federally registered trademark of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.

Imagine a future where we grow houses rather than build them. Where smartphones are alive, clothing has opinions and all human knowledge fits into a speck of DNA. A world where disease is a thing of the past and the human lifespan is dramatically extended.To achieve this, says Adrian Woolfson, founder of the genome writing company Genyro, we must transform biology into a predictive, programmable engineering material. That means decoding the generative grammar of DNA: the language of life itself. We will then be able to author genomes—and, if we choose, even rewrite our own.In On the Future of Species: Authoring Life by Means of Artificial Biological Intelligence (MIT Press, 2026), Woolfson describes how we are at the cusp of a technological revolution, driven by the convergence of artificial intelligence and synthetic biology. Currently at the scribbling phase—writing the genomes of viruses, bacteria and yeast—we will eventually author the genomes of extinct and never-before-realized species. Life will become computable, detached from its past and no longer bound by Darwinian evolution.While offering extraordinary opportunities, this power also carries great risk, and it is vital for everyone to understand what the future might hold. In this groundbreaking work, Woolfson provides a guide to this bold new world, offering a moral compass to help us do so safely, wisely and ethically.

Adrian Woolfson is the cofounder of Genyro, a California-based biotechnology company specializing in synthetic genome design and construction. He studied medicine at Balliol College, Oxford, and was formerly the Charles and Katherine Darwin Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, working at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology.

Greg is the Executive Director and Founder of the World War II Discussion Forum (wwiidf.org). He also has a strong interest in literature, culture, religion, science and philosophy (translation: he's an eclectic reader who is constantly missing deadlines for book reviews).

The cybernetic tradition in cognitive science analyzes the purposive behavior of many complex systems – from sensory-guided missiles to sensory-guided animals -- in terms of feedback control that maintains stability in the face of external perturbation. A more recent extension and elaboration of this framework brings in predictive processing and the minimization of free energy – essentially, minimizing getting inputs that conflict with what the system expects. In A Drive to Survive: the Free Energy Principle and the Meaning of Life (MIT Press, 2025), Kathryn Nave argues that this framework is inadequate for explaining living organisms, which are not merely complex but inherently unstable and continually producing themselves through metabolism. Nave, who is a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, defends a bioenactivist view of living organisms in which the chemical and energetic constraints involved in having a metabolism are essential for understanding their actions, in contrast to the “sensor-guided movementism” of the FEP framework.

In this episode, Sam is joined by Jacqui Canney, chief people and AI enablement officer at ServiceNow. Jacqui outlines how the software company has embedded AI agents into processes like employee onboarding to automate tasks, personalize experiences, and free up people’s time to focus on higher-value work. She emphasizes that successful adoption of artificial intelligence requires strong change management, workforce training, and a focus on talent — not just technology — including companywide AI skill assessments and personalized learning paths. Tune in to learn why Jacqui sees AI as a human capital opportunity. Read the episode transcript here.

*Please take our listener survey: ⁠⁠mitsmr.com/podcastsurvey⁠⁠

It's short — we promise! — and all respondents will receive a free MIT SMR article collection, "Maximizing the Value of Generative AI."

Guest bio: Jacqui Canney is the chief people and AI enablement officer at

ServiceNow, where she leads the enterprise software company’s talent

strategies for improving employees experience and preparing them for the

future workforce through the use of technology and generative AI.

Before joining ServiceNow in 2021, Canney served as chief people

officer at WPP and Walmart. She previously worked at Accenture for 25

years. Canney currently sits on the board of directors for food delivery

platform Wonder and nonprofit Project Healthy Minds. She’s also on the

Institute for Corporate Productivity’s Chief HR Officer Board and Boston

College’s board of trustees, and she cochairs the Boston College Wall

Street Business Leadership Council.

Me, Myself, and AI is a podcast produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and hosted by Sam Ransbotham. It is engineered by David Lishansky and produced by Allison Ryder.

We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.

ME, MYSELF, AND AI® is a federally registered trademark of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. All rights reserved.