Q&A: MIT SHASS and the future of education in the age of AI

Source: MIT News - AI

The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) was founded in 1950 in response to “a new era emerging from social upheaval and the disasters of war,” as outlined in the 1949 Lewis Committee Report.
The report’s findings emphasized MIT’s role and responsibility in the new nuclear age, calling for a genuine integration of scientific and technical topics with humanistic scholarship and teaching. Only that way, the committee wrote, could MIT tackle “the most difficult and complicated problems confronting our generation.”

As SHASS marks its 75th anniversary, Dean Agustín Rayo answers questions about why developing students with broad minds and human understanding is as urgent as ever, given pressing challenges in the midst of a new technological revolution.

Q & A

Q: Many universities are responding to artificial intelligence by launching new technical programs or updating curricula. You’ve suggested the change is deeper than that. Why?

A: Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing the way students learn — it’s transforming every aspect of society. The labor market is experiencing a dramatic shift, upending traditional paths to financial stability. AI is also changing the ways we bring meaning to our lives: how we build relationships, how we pay attention, and the things we enjoy doing.

The upshot is that the most important question universities need to ask is not how to adapt our pedagogy to AI — although we certainly need to address that. The most important question is how to provide an education that brings real value to students in the age of AI.

• We must ensure universities give students the tools they need to find a path to financial security and to build meaningful lives.
• We must produce students with minds that are both nimble and broad. They need to execute tasks effectively and have the judgment to determine which tasks are worth executing.
• Students need a moral compass and an understanding of how the world works—in all its political, economic, and human complexity.
• Critical thinking, excellent communication, and leadership skills are essential.

Q: What role do the humanities, arts, and social sciences play in preparing MIT students for that future?

A: They’re essential and are rightly a core part of an MIT education: MIT has long required its undergraduates to take at least eight courses in HASS disciplines to graduate.

Fields such as philosophy, political science, economics, literature, history, music, and anthropology are crucial to developing the parts of our lives that are essentially human — the parts that will not be replaced by AI. They:

• Foster critical thinking and a moral compass.
• Help us understand people—our values, institutions, cultures, and ways of thinking.
• Create broad thinkers who grasp how the world works.
• Develop excellent communicators who can describe their projects—and their lives—in ways that endow them with meaning.

Our students understand this. One put it succinctly:

“Engineering gives me the tools to measure the world; the humanities teach me how to interpret it. That balance has shaped both how I do science and why I do it.”
(Full interview here.)

Q: Some people worry that emphasizing humanistic study could dilute MIT’s technological edge. How do you respond to that concern?

A: I think the opposite is true.

MIT is an important engine for social mobility in the United States and a catalyst for entrepreneurship, adding billions of dollars to the American economy. That cannot be separated from the fact that we are a technical institution, bringing together the country’s most talented undergraduates—regardless of socioeconomic background—and transforming them into the next generation of scientific and engineering leaders.

MIT plays an incredibly important role in our country, so the last thing I want to do is mess with our “secret sauce.”

But the age of AI is forcing us to rethink what it means to be a top engineer. Consider AI itself: the challenges we face are not just technical. Issues like bias, accountability, governance, and the societal impact of automation are no less important. Understanding those dimensions helps technologists design better systems and anticipate real‑world consequences.

Strengthening the humanities at MIT isn’t a departure from our core mission—it’s a way of ensuring that our technical leadership continues to matter in the world.

Q: What kinds of changes is MIT SHASS pursuing to support this vision?

A: There’s a lot going on!

• We’ve launched the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) to strengthen research in the humanities, arts, and social sciences and deepen collaboration across MIT.
• We’re shaping the undergraduate experience so that every MIT student engages with the big societal questions of our time—democratic resilience, climate change, ethics of new technologies, and more.
• We’re building stronger connections through initiatives like the creation of shared faculty positions with the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing (SCC).
• We recently launched a new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program with the School of Engineering.
• We’re partnering with SERC (link continued in the original source).

These efforts reflect our commitment to integrating humanistic insight with MIT’s technical excellence, preparing students to lead responsibly in an AI‑driven world.

Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing

The SCC’s Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing initiative is being used to design new classes at the intersection of computing and human‑centered issues, such as ethics.

We are also elevating the humanities—both for their intrinsic value and as a space for experimentation—by bringing together students, faculty, and partners to explore new forms of research, teaching, and public engagement.

This is a very exciting time for SHASS.