From students crafting essays and engineers writing code to call center operators responding to customers, generative artificial intelligence tools have prompted a wave of experimentation over the past 12 months. At MIT, these experiments have raised questions — some recent, some ages old — about how these tools can change the best way we live and work. 

Can these tools make us higher at our jobs, or might they ensure skills obsolete? How can we use these tools for good and minimize potential harm?

The generative AI wave has elicited excitement, anxiety, and many speculation about what’s to come back, but no clear answers to those core questions. To find how generative AI can lead to raised jobs, MIT is convening a working group on Generative AI and the Work of the Future. The working group is kicking off with 25 corporations and nonprofits alongside MIT faculty and students. The group is gathering original data on how teams are using generative AI tools — and the impact these tools are having on staff. 

“The world counts on MIT to show sophisticated ideas into positive impact for the great of society,” says MIT President Sally Kornbluth. “This working group is targeted on doing exactly that: Within the face of broad public concern about AI’s potential to eliminate jobs, they’re developing practical strategies for learn how to use generative AI to make existing jobs higher and improve people’s lives.”

Organized at MIT’s Industrial Performance Center (IPC) and led by IPC Executive Director Ben Armstrong and MIT professors Julie Shah and Kate Kellogg, the working group recently released the primary edition of its monthly newsletter, , to share its early findings — and convened its first meeting of AI leads from a various cross-section of world corporations. The working group also hosted a workshop on Feb. 29 highlighting responsible AI practices, in partnership with MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program.

The MIT team driving this initiative is a multidisciplinary and multi-talented group including Senior Fellow Carey Goldberg and Work of the Future graduate fellows Sabiyyah Ali, Shakked Noy, Prerna Ravi, Azfar Sulaiman, Leandra Tejedor, Felix Wang, and Whitney Zhang. 

Google.org is funding the working group’s research through its Community Grants Fund, in reference to its Digital Futures Project, an initiative that goals to bring together a variety of voices to advertise efforts to grasp and address the opportunities and challenges of AI.

“AI has the potential to expand prosperity and transform economies, and it is important that we work across sectors to totally realize AI’s opportunities and address its challenges,” says Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink, director of Google.org. “Independent research like that is a crucial part of higher understanding how AI is changing the best way people and teams do their work, and it’s going to function a resource for all us — governments, civil society, and firms — as we adapt to recent ways of working.”

Over the subsequent two years, the working group will engage in three activities. First, it’s going to conduct research on early use cases of generative AI at leading corporations all over the world. The group’s goal is to grasp how these recent technologies are getting used in practice, how organizations are ensuring that the tools are getting used responsibly, and the way the workforce is adapting. The group is especially interested by how these technologies are changing the talents and training required to thrive at work. MIT graduate student Work of the Future Fellows are collaborating with corporations within the working group to conduct this research, which will likely be published as a series of case studies starting in 2024.

Liberty Mutual Insurance joined the working group as a part of its long-standing collaborative relationship with MIT researchers. “In a 12 months of extraordinary advancements in AI, there isn’t any doubt that it’s going to proceed shaping the long run — and the future of work — at a rapid pace, says Liberty Mutual CIO Adam L’Italien. “We’re excited to collaborate with MIT and the working group to harness it to empower our employees, construct recent capabilities, and do more for our customers.”

Second, the working group will function a convener, hosting virtual quarterly meetings for working group members to share progress and challenges with their uses of generative AI tools, in addition to to learn from their peers. MIT will even host a series of in-person summits for working group members and the general public to share research results and highlight best practices from member corporations. 

Third, based on the group’s research and feedback from participating organizations, the working group will develop training resources for organizations working to organize or retrain staff as they integrate generative AI tools into their teams.

IBM has joined the working group as a part of its broader investments in retraining and job transformation related to generative AI. “Skills are the currency of today and tomorrow. It’s crucial that employees and employers are equally invested in continuous learning and maintaining a growth mindset,” says Nickle Lamoreaux, senior vp and chief human resources officer at IBM. 

The working group has already interviewed or engaged with greater than 40 corporations. Working group members include Amsted Automotive, Cushman and Wakefield, Cytiva, Emeritus, Fujitsu, GlobalFoundries, Google Inc., IBM, Liberty Mutual, Mass General Brigham, MFS, Michelin, PwC, Ranstad, Raytheon, and Xerox Corp.

To learn more about this project or get entangled, visit ipc.mit.edu/gen-ai.