2009
Host Rana El Kaliubi says she started her company out of MIT in 2009 and sold it four years before the recording.
“I started my company out of MIT in 2009, sold it four years ago.”
Topic
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
27 facts from 22 episodes, in date order. These are what speakers said on the shows, each linked to the moment it was said. They aren't independently verified.
2009
Rana el Kaliouby says she started Affectiva out of MIT in 2009, before smartphones were common, to bring computer-vision-based emotion algorithms to the world.
“So I started the company out of MIT, um, in 2009, and we were so early. We were basically pre-smartphones and trying to bring these, like, computer vision-based algorithms to the world”
2015
Lex Fridman says he has held a paid research position at MIT since 2015.
“I have been at MIT for over ten years in a paid research position from 2015 to today.”
2019
A 2019 MIT-commissioned study estimated that Bitcoin mining accounted for about 0.2 percent of global electricity consumption.
“in 2019 mit tried to answer this question by commissioning a study and they basically said that bitcoin mining specifically accounts for about two tenths of a percent 0.2 percent of global electricity consumption”
2024
Roman Yampolskiy cites a recent paper by Dr. Park and colleagues from MIT showing that existing AI models already demonstrated successful deception.
“So there is a paper, I think it came out last week by Dr. Park et al from MIT, I think. And they showed that existing models already showed successful deception in what they do.”
2025
An MIT report on the state of AI in business was widely reported as finding that 95% of generative AI pilots fail.
“one of the things talked about in the MIT report was that ninety five of AI pilots fail, and, uh, that that I think has generally spooked a lot of business leaders”
2025
According to Daniel Whitenack's reading of articles on the report, the failures were attributed to a learning gap in designing AI tools and workflows, not to model incapability.
“It's not that the AI models were incapable of doing the things that people wanted to prove out in the AI pilots.”
2025
A recent MIT report was summarized in headlines as saying 95% of AI deployments do not work.
“is the MIT report that came out a couple of weeks ago. 95% of AI deployments don't work.”
2025
Linder cited recent MIT data stating that a large share of AI projects or pilots fail.
“the data recently, yesterday or a couple days ago, coming out of MIT, talking about how 99 of AI projects fail or pilots fail.”
2025
Matthew DeMello cited an MIT study as saying 75% to 95% of enterprise AI pilots fail in production.
“why seventy-five to 95% of enterprise AI pilots fail in production, at least according to MIT.”
2025
The host cites an MIT report figure that 95% of enterprise generative AI pilots deliver zero measurable return on investment.
“95% of enterprises. Gen I pilots delivering zero measurable R O I.”
2026
The host cites MIT's GenAI Divide report as putting AI pilot failure around 95%, and notes the EU AI Act applying to high-risk systems later in the year.
“with MIT's gen AI divide report saying that pilot failure is around 95%, and then we have the EU A AI Act kicking in for high risk systems later in this year.”
Undated
Chevron runs a digital scholarship program with MIT in which employee cohorts study for a year.
“We have a digital scholarship program since a while, and actually we do this with MIT, where we have cohorts going for a year”
Undated
Participants in Chevron's MIT program complete a design engineering master's in one year.
“going through a design engineering master in one year, which is really a tough thing to do.”
Undated
Ethan Mollick cited an MIT study of generative AI in materials science that found a 58% increase in patenting rates.
“there's a great study at MIT looking at generative AI use in material science, finding 58% increase in patenting rates.”
Undated
In the MIT materials science study, Ethan Mollick said the best scientists gained the most because they could use AI to screen many ideas quickly.
“But the scientists who gained the most were the best scientists because they could more easily use the AI to screen lots of ideas quickly.”
Undated
Ramin Mohammadi cites a recent MIT study saying about 70 percent of AI PhDs skip academia and go directly to industry.
“Basically, they say that the uh. Right now, about 70 of the AI PhDs are just skipping academia and go to job market, go to basically industry directly, and that's a huge brain drain for the universities”
Undated
Ramin Mohammadi cites a statistic that 96 percent of major state-of-the-art AI systems come from industry labs rather than universities.
“Like, 96 of the major state of arts systems comes from industry labs, not from universities anymore.”
Undated
Rana El Kaliouby said that when her company spun out of MIT it had to cut many ties with the university because of conflict-of-interest rules.
“when we spun out of MIT, we basically had to, like, cut a lot of our ties with MIT because of conflict of interest.”
Undated
Mehrotra refers to an MIT study reporting that 95% of AI pilots fail.
“the M I T study that came out talking about 95% of the pilots fail.”
Undated
Rana El Kaliouby co-founded Affectiva as a spin-out from MIT; the company used computer vision to understand human emotions and facial expressions.
“when I spun up my company out of MIT Affectiva, and we did computer vision to understand human emotions and human facial expressions.”
Undated
Rana El Kaliouby cited an MIT study reporting that 95% of organizations see no measurable return on their AI investment.
“there's this MIT study that found that 95% of organizations see no measurable return on their investment in AI.”
Undated
Nick Gertsch recalled a large MIT survey that claimed most generative AI projects stall before scaling.
“I think there was a big MIT one at some point this year claiming that the vast majority of gen AI projects stall before scaling.”
Undated
An MIT study cited by Carvalho found that 95% of generative AI implementations failed and 5% succeeded.
“There's an MIT study which shows that 95% of gen AI implementations have failed, 5% have been successful adoptions.”
Undated
The host cites an MIT study that described a large number of failed AI pilots.
“there was that one in particular from MIT that described, uh, pilots and how of the vast number of yes, failed pilots.”
Undated
Erik Brynjolfsson spent over twenty-five years at MIT before moving to Stanford in Silicon Valley.
“I loved my time at MIT. I was there for over twenty five years, but now I'm out here in Silicon Valley”
Undated
Bhagat cites a report attributed to MIT saying that 95% of AI projects fail.
“I'll say everyone tells me M I T has published a report where 95% of A I project fails.”
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