MIT in the press: For the future of tech, “Massachusetts can absolutely lead” | MIT News

June 9, The Boston Globe released its 2026 “Tech Power Players” list, recognizing 50 influential local leaders in technology and business across Massachusetts. The list includes eight MIT ambassadors including President Sally Kornbluth, Prof. Daniela Rus (director of CSAIL), Prof. Regina Barzilay, Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, Prof. Max Tegmark, Ana Bakshi (executive director of the Martin Trust Center for MIT Entrepreneurship), Katie Rae CEO and Managing Partner of Engine for Brian MIT alumni.

In addition to recognizing individual leaders, the Power Players spread highlights MIT’s research labs, its culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, connections to industry, innovative AI initiatives, and the Institute’s deep commitment to maintaining Massachusetts’ technological leadership.

“Massachusetts can absolutely lead this next wave,” said President Kornbluth, noting that the future is bright with growing opportunities to advance technology in fields ranging from manufacturing, health and life sciences to quantum technology and the power to serve Americans across the country.

Developing AI and entrepreneurship

When it comes to AI, MIT is “working to advance artificial intelligence in areas where the region is strongest, from biotechnology and robotics to defense and clean energy. It is also trying to increase entrepreneurship through a ‘dorm-to-startup’ push, creating a pipeline of support services – from hack-a-thons to founding Robertan companies to help with writing classes,” The Globe.

I look forward, The Globe highlights how MIT aims to remain a central driver of AI development within higher ed.

“President Sally Kornbluth is renewing the school’s support for a new local initiative,” writes Aaron Pressman, noting how MIT is “unveiling new online classes dedicated to AI — with free classes for anyone to enter — and encouraging more entrepreneurship on campus.”

MIT’s free, online AI courses can help local technology leaders in their challenge “to ensure that people, not just companies, benefit from technology,” Pressman wrote.

And when it comes to applying AI technology to real-world problems, MIT aims to ensure that the greater Boston area remains a leader.

“Some schools in Massachusetts, including MIT, specialize in applied AI – sometimes called ‘AI+X’ – using the technology to help businesses, hospitals, and research institutions increase productivity, innovation, and scientific success,” Weisman explained.

Aman Narang ’04, CEO of Toast, adds: “The biggest strength has always been the university system. The best thing Boston can do is keep these people around.”

MIT startups are a key driver of the region’s business ecosystem. To ensure that the greater Boston area remains a hub for innovators and to respond to the growing interests of students, MIT is looking to build on its existing student entrepreneurship resources, including more than 150 courses and 85 centers and programs dedicated to fostering the entrepreneurial community. Additionally, President Sally Kornbluth and Provost Anantha Chandrakasan recently formed the Committee to Accelerate Translation and Commercialization (CATE) to reexamine how the Center can best support, remove barriers, and accelerate the movement of ideas from MIT research and new discoveries to new businesses.

In addition, we are thinking about the prospects around the Greater Boston tech area, The Globe explains that applications to The Martin Trust Center’s MIT Entrepreneurship accelerator program have doubled since last year, and nearly one-fifth of MIT’s undergraduates — about 800 — attended the latest startup event.

Innovation beyond MIT

A simple worm could drive the future of AI. This may sound like a squishy premise, but that’s the idea behind the start of MIT Liquid AI, which creates AI models inspired by the structure of a simple worm’s brain and can significantly reduce AI’s energy consumption. Liquid AI models, “which can expose financial fraud and fly autonomous drones, require much less electricity to operate than large models of languages, saving energy and water, used to cool data centers,” explains Pressman.

The Globe highlights that Liquid AI recently signed an agreement with Mercedes-Benz to incorporate its technology into the systems of vehicles sold in North America.

To enable new AI technologies – and ensure that Americans across the country can have reliable and affordable energy sources – MIT researchers and a number of alumni are also looking at the future of energy.

In the lab of Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, researchers are developing batteries that can store more electricity over time, creating “more opportunities for wind, solar, and other clean energy sources.”

Weisman highlights how “Chiang’s lab and other MIT research centers are also working on innovations in microchips, precious minerals, fusion technology, and defense technology. They are all examples of ‘hard technology’ projects that combine science and engineering, which Chiang says are ‘in the sweet spot of the Boston ecosystem.’

Soon, 80 MIT students will work as summer interns with GE Vernova employees, thanks to the MIT-GE Vernova Climate and Energy Alliance, a collaboration aimed at advancing research and education that will accelerate the global energy transition.

GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik wanted his organization to “connect the innovation culture of the city,” especially the MIT campus and the community. The company announced that it will provide $50 million over five years to fund internships and research projects where students and faculty work alongside GE Vernova engineers and technicians.

A very promising area for the Greater Boston tech scene

The Globe concluded by asking each Power Player what the most promising thing about Greater Boston’s tech scene is right now.

For Rus, the answer is: “talent. Boston has the best AI researchers in the world, and they produce real new ideas, not incremental ones,” he explains.

When it comes to seeing the potential of fusion energy, Bob Mumgaard SM ’15, founder and CEO of Commonwealth Fusion Systems, explains that he would not have built the company anywhere outside of Massachusetts because of the state’s expertise in engineering, design, and manufacturing of hardware and devices and access to university researchers.

“An ecosystem has building blocks,” Mumgaard said. “Massachusetts is the nation’s powerhouse in energy innovation.”

President Kornbluth points out the quantum.

“There is no field of technology that is more important right now than science and quantum technology, and the Boston area has the most talent in the world,” Kornbluth emphasized.