Exploring the societal impacts of AI

MIT's 2026 AI and Society Forum brought together economists, computer scientists, and political scientists to examine AI's societal impacts. Economist David Autor challenged the narrative that AI simply eliminates jobs, arguing the key question is whether automation commoditizes or creates specialized expertise, and calling for proactive policies on worker training and wage insurance. Panelists discussed AI's role in workplace transformation, emphasizing that human judgment remains essential. A second session focused on AI and democracy, covering research on LLM bias in election information — a longitudinal study of 12 models during the 2024 U.S. presidential election found responses varied significantly based on user demographics and political leanings. Experts raised concerns about AI eroding democratic processes, election integrity risks, and the mismatch between the pace of technological change and governmental adaptation, while also noting potential positive uses such as Socratic dialogue chatbots that moderate political positions.

Source: https://news.mit.edu/2026/exploring-societal-impacts-of-ai-0623. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.