More News from IWER

There are two reasons that gas prices could linger on the higher end, said Christopher Knittel, associate dean for climate and sustainability. One is the large amount of infrastructure in the Middle East that has been damaged or destroyed. The second is the uncertainty about whether sailing through the Strait of Hormuz is safe. "Basic economics tells us the riskier business is, the higher profits you have to earn to want to enter into that business," Knittel said. "Oil, gasoline, and natural gas have gotten more risky. That might actually keep us from ever getting back to prewar levels for gasoline," he added.

Visiting senior lecturer Paul McDonagh-Smith recommends treating vendor exits as staged migrations rather than one-time cutovers. "Proceed like a surgeon, not a butcher: map dependencies, shadow-run replacements for one cycle before decommissioning and negotiate from the renewal date backwards."

At a keynote fireside chat at the Asian Investment Conference, professor Simon Johnson said that while many businesses were showcasing how they were using AI to impress their customers and investors, they needed to go one step further. "The key is to think about how AI has expanded your capacities, as well as how it benefits your workers, your community and society as a whole – that's the story that needs to be told," he said.

When a technology lets people do the work themselves, demand for the service collapses. As research scientist Christian Catalini and collaborators have argued, when AI pushes the cost of execution towards zero, the binding constraint becomes human verification — our limited capacity to validate outcomes and take responsibility. Self-service offloads that burden onto the customer.

There might be some upsides in this future. Healthcare and education costs might fall because much of that expertise can be delivered, cheaper and easier, with AI-augmented tools, said principal research scientist Neil Thompson. Americans might be healthier and live longer lives thanks to AI-driven advancements in medicine. And underemployed workers might wind up with more hours of free time for creative pursuits.

The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which professor of the practice Gary Gensler helped implement after the global financial crisis, simply does not pertain to sports bets, he said. "Since antiquity, people have wanted to bet on sports and other things. So on some level, I understand the economic interest of the people setting up the platforms to fill that demand and compete with the casinos, FanDuels, and DraftKings of the world. But I do think that there's a misrepresentation of what we were doing in 2010," Gensler said.

Senior lecturer Kate W. Isaacs wrote: "Scientists have long understood that the interoceptive information informing lived experiences travels via two major systems: nerves and humors (blood and lymph). Now they're actively studying a third system — the 'interstitium,' a network of fluid-filled spaces woven throughout the body's connective fascia that may also play a role in communication."

In a new paper, professor Kristin Forbes and co-authors noted the U.S. has financed a lot of its deficit lately by selling stocks to foreigners. The good news, according to Forbes, is that a plunge in stocks driven, for example, by disappointment in AI would effectively write down the IOUs the U.S. issued to foreigners to finance its deficits. It could also lower the dollar, further correcting those deficits. The bad news is the losses inflicted on foreign investors could spill over to bond and currency markets.

The EU's Digital Markets Act could force Apple to open its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) APIs to third-party developers, but legal experts say Apple's App Store review process gives it ample room to resist. "This is the first time a hardware feature has become a moat," said professor Stuart Madnick. "Apple's NPU isn't just a chip — it's a platform lock-in mechanism."

A paper by associate dean for climate and sustainability Christopher Knittel, professor Catherine Wolfram, and co-author found that climate change is already costing U.S. households between $400 and $900 a year, on average. "Even if you don't live in tornado alley, you might be seeing your insurance rates go up to cover the cost for people who are in the more danger-prone areas," said Wolfram.