Five MIT faculty members and two alumni were recently named to the 2026 AI2050 Fellows cohort. The honor is announced each year by Schmidt Sciences, the philanthropic initiative of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, with the goal of accelerating scientific innovation. Conceived and co‑chaired by Eric Schmidt and James Manyika, AI2050 focuses on solving hard problems in artificial intelligence. Every fellow’s work is guided by the central AI2050 question: \"It’s 2050. AI has turned out to be hugely beneficial to society. What happened? What are the most important problems we solved and the opportunities we realized to ensure this outcome?\"
Sendhil Mullainathan holds the Peter de Florez Professorship at MIT with joint appointments in Economics and Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and he is a principal investigator at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. His research sits at the intersection of algorithms and human behavior, and he is launching Bike Shop@MIT—a new research center that pursues human‑centered AI through scalable “bicycles for the mind” and novel machine‑learning algorithmic gears. Mullainathan co‑founded ideas42 (a behavioral‑science nonprofit), MIT’s Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and Dandelion Health, which blends proprietary AI tools with real‑world patient data. His AI2050 project translates AI‑detectable patterns into testable theories.
Alex Damian is an assistant professor of Mathematics, holding a shared Schwarzman College of Computing position with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and he is also a principal investigator at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. His research investigates the mathematical foundations of deep learning, emphasizing optimization dynamics and representation learning. Damian’s AI2050 project focuses on effective AI model training.
Bailey Flanigan serves as a Theodore T. Miller Career Development Assistant Professor, sharing a Schwarzman College of Computing appointment between Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Political Science, and she is a principal investigator at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. Her work combines social‑choice theory, game theory, algorithms, statistics, and survey methods to advance political methodology and strengthen public participation in democracy. She is interested in sampling algorithms, opinion measurement, and democratic innovations such as deliberative mini‑publics and participatory budgeting. Flanigan’s AI2050 project aims to gather structured public input that lawmakers can use for complex decisions.
Yunha Hwang is the Samuel A. Goldblitch Career Development Assistant Professor, holding a shared Schwarzman College of Computing position with Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Biology, and she is a principal investigator at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. Hwang co‑founded and serves as chief scientist of Tatta Bio, a nonprofit advancing genomic AI for biological discovery. Her AI2050 project focuses on determining biological enzyme functions.
Manish Raghavan holds the Drew Houston Career Development Professorship at the MIT Sloan School of Management, sharing a Schwarzman College of Computing appointment with Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, and he is a principal investigator at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. His research applies computational techniques to socially relevant domains, including algorithmic fairness and behavioral economics, with a particular focus on algorithmic tools in hiring pipelines. Raghavan’s AI2050 project seeks to mitigate the negative effects of widespread AI reliance while strengthening its positive aspects.
MIT alumni Irene Chen (PhD ’22) and Allison Z. Koenecke (’14), along with former postdoc Juan Carlos Perdomo, were also named AI2050 Early Career Fellows.
Review