Content by Peter Dizikes
Study: Automation Drives Income InequalityNew data suggest most of the growth in the wage gap since 1980 comes from automation displacing less-educated workers
Tue, 12/06/2022 - 12:01
(MIT: Cambridge, Massachusetts) -- When you use self-checkout machines in supermarkets and drugstores, you’re probably not doing a better job of bagging your purchases than checkout clerks once did. Automation just makes bagging less expensive for…
A Serious Plea for Playful DesignIn their book, <em>Urban Play</em>, MIT researchers advance the idea of using technology to make urban life creative and unpredictable
Tue, 09/14/2021 - 12:02
 First published August 25, 2021, on MIT News. In 2010, the city of Rio de Janeiro opened its Operations Center, a high-tech command post centralizing the activities of 30 agencies. With its banks of monitors looming over rows of employees, the…
A Better Way to Introduce Digital Tech in the Workplace‘Experimentalist governance’ looks for what works best for employees, then implements it widely
Wed, 06/30/2021 - 12:02
When bringing technologies into the workplace, it pays to be realistic. Often, for instance, bringing new digital technology into an organization does not radically improve a firm’s operations. Despite high-level planning, a more frequent result is…
Why We Shouldn’t Fear the Future of Work Automation and artificial intelligence don’t just replace jobs; they also create them
Wed, 12/09/2020 - 12:03
The American workforce is at a crossroads. Digitization and automation have replaced millions of middle-class jobs, while wages have stagnated for many who remain employed. A lot of labor has become insecure, low-income freelance work. Yet there is…
The Changing World of Work MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future responds to rapid changes brought by the pandemic
Tue, 06/09/2020 - 12:03
With 20.5 million jobs slashed from U.S. payrolls in April, and a 14.7 percent unemployment rate, the Covid-19 pandemic has created workforce problems unseen since the Great Depression. These dynamics are being closely observed by MIT’s Task Force…
The Elephant in the Server RoomIn <em>Data Feminism,</em> Catherine D’Ignazio examines problems of bias and power that beset modern information
Wed, 04/01/2020 - 12:01
Suppose you would like to know mortality rates for women during childbirth, by country, around the world. Where would you look? One option is the WomanStats Project, the website of an academic research effort investigating the links between the…
Hospital Rankings Hold UpSome basic metrics do effectively diagnose care quality
Wed, 02/19/2020 - 12:01
Given the complexities of healthcare, do basic statistics used to rank hospitals really work well? A study co-authored by MIT economists indicates that some fundamental metrics do, in fact, provide real insight about hospital quality. “The results…
Why Business Leaders Should Ask QuestionsMIT Sloan’s Hal Gregersen talks about his new book, <em>Questions Are the Answer</em>
Wed, 01/16/2019 - 12:00
Should business leaders spend more time asking questions? Hal Gregersen has a firm answer to that: Yes. Gregersen, the executive director of the MIT Leadership Center and a senior lecturer on leadership and innovation at the MIT Sloan School of…
A Stake in InnovationLaws allowing companies to prioritize stakeholders boost innovative activity
Wed, 03/09/2016 - 13:09
Want to encourage innovation? A new study co-authored by an MIT professor finds that little-known state laws called “constituency statutes” have significant effects on the quantity and quality of innovative business actions. The statutes, which…
Observing the ObserversMIT study show's how people make even life-and-death decisions based on observation and inference
Tue, 01/07/2014 - 16:40
A kidney transplant is a lifesaving operation—and yet every year in the United States, about 10 percent of donated kidneys go unused, after being rejected by multiple potential recipients. Why is this? According to Juanjuan Zhang, an associate…