Professor Michael A. Cusumano said the PTC acquisition isn't about any real or imagined shortcomings of Boston. It's about tough competition in the enterprise software business. "Software companies tend to get acquired all the time," said Cusumano. "I don't think it's anything specific to Massachusetts. There's been an enormous consolidation of independent software companies going back to at least the year 2000."

In this broadcast episode, Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu said: "What we are living through with AI is unprecedented. The first phase of the Industrial Revolution lasted for 80 years. Today, it's taking place in one or two years. I am very, very cautious in saying we should say no to technology. Absolutely not. But in every technological revolution there is pushback, and that pushback takes many different forms." (Interview starts at 12:35)

One barrier to further nuclear development in New England is that the small modular reactors championed by innovators are still far from being grid-ready, said senior lecturer John Parsons. "It's wonderful that we have these startup companies," said Parsons, referring to multiple companies angling to begin producing small modular nuclear reactors. Those companies are "fantastic, good for the economy, good for the vibrancy of our society,” he said. But, he added, "it's not going to put any electrons on the grid tomorrow."

Professor Eric von Hippel has spent decades studying what he calls user innovation: products and solutions developed by the people or organizations that need them, rather than by companies trying to sell to them. One reason users can be unusually good at identifying solutions is what von Hippel calls "sticky information." Information about what a customer truly needs can be costly or difficult to transfer because so much of it lives within the customer's specific circumstances and experience.

A working paper by professor Kate Kellogg and co-authors, based on a two-year field study of an academic medical center and a corporate law firm, found that building organization-wide generative AI tools created substantial work beyond employees' day-to-day jobs. That work included trial-and-error experimentation, reviewing and refining outputs with colleagues across departments, and continually adapting solutions as AI models evolved.

In their retirement policy proposal, associate professor Taha Choukhmane, research affiliate Lawrence D. W. Schmidt, and co-authors argue that the existing safe harbor formulas are poorly designed: they feature high match rates applied over narrow contribution ranges, which heavily subsidize saving that would have occurred anyway while failing to extend incentives to a broader set of workers.

Professor of the practice Gary Gensler joined Bloomberg "Open Interest" to break down how AI could trigger bank stress by shifting deposits, fuel an "AI bubble" retrenchment, and expose hidden risks in private equity and credit. He also discussed Anthropic's stark S‑1 warnings and what it really signals for investors and financial stability.

Even as it raises their cost, AI may also increase demand for public services. One way for fiscal systems to cope is to slow or stop the adoption of AI. Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu and colleagues have argued that America's tax system favors automation by taxing labor heavily while offering generous tax treatment to assets such as software and machinery. This, they say, gives bosses an incentive to replace workers with technology.

Research by professor Jackson G. Lu and co-authors validates what many of us have seen in corporate America for decades: individuals from lower social-class backgrounds systematically initiate negotiations far less often than their higher-class counterparts. This disparity holds true across starting salaries, benefits, raises, promotions, and job responsibilities.

Professor Yasheng Huang said: "About 35 percent of the Chinese population still lives in rural areas, and if you look at the Chinese household registration system, that proportion reaches 60 percent. We admire high-speed rail lines, but we ignore the rural homes that were demolished to make way for them. Even progressives in the United States — who are generally sensitive to the plight of the most disadvantaged — shrug their shoulders. They, too, remain fixated on the 800 million Chinese who have supposedly escaped poverty. But then we should ask ourselves: who plunged them into poverty in the first place?"

Senior lecturer Jonathan Ruane said: "Do I think AI could play a huge part in a major cybersecurity event? Absolutely. And I think we should be worried about that. I talk to people working at the cybersecurity frontier and it's become like a game of whack-a-mole on steroids for them, with AI increasingly used by both sides. But that's not the same thing as saying there is an existential threat to humanity."

Professor Emilio J. Castilla wrote: "Leaders with an opportunity mindset hire candidates who are good enough to succeed and then build the structural conditions — through excellent onboarding, mentorship, development, and evaluation processes — that help good people become great. These leaders evaluate potential by what a person actually does on the job, not by schools attended, past employers, or previous job titles."