What makes work valuable? Michal Masny, NC Ethics of Technology Postdoctoral Fellow in MIT’s Department of Philosophy, investigates the role that work plays in our lives and its impact on our well-being.
Masny sees many benefits to working, beyond the pay. It is an opportunity for people to improve their performance, make a contribution to society, gain social recognition, and create and support society.
“Imagine a future where we shorten the work week, or where we eliminate work altogether,” said Masny. “I don’t believe that one of these situations would be inexplicably good for everyone.”
“Work is really necessary and valuable,” he argued, going on to suggest that our lives could be miserable if we did away with work altogether. “There can be appropriate combinations of work and leisure time.”
Masny is completing his two-year NC Ethics of Technology Fellowship at the end of the spring semester. In addition to advancing his research, Masny has worked to promote dialogue and educate students about issues at the intersection of philosophy and computing. This semester, Masny teaches the undergraduate course, 24.131 (Ethics of Technology).
Masny advocates a revised approach to educating holistic, socially conscious students. “I want to create scientists who think about their projects and possible outcomes as lawyers and philosophers might, and vice versa,” he says. Masny argues for the importance of closing the “intellectual gap” between these groups, citing scientist Carl Sagan’s warning about the dangers of having “power without limited intelligence” as scientific and technological advances continue.
“The traditional division of labor is that scientists and engineers create new technologies, and philosophers and lawyers test and control them,” he continued. “But the speed with which new technologies are being developed and used has made this division of labor unacceptable.”
Established in 2021 with a grant from the NC Cultural Foundation, the fellowship was created with the goal of advancing critical discourse and research on the ethics of technology and AI at MIT, and by making important research and knowledge available to the global community.
Venture capitalist Songyee Yoon, founder and managing partner of AI-focused investment firm Principal Venture Partners and a supporter of the NC Ethics of Technology Fellowship, believes that technology and scientific discovery are among the most important public goods for humans, and artificial intelligence represents the most important technology of our time.
“If we want the fabric of our society to be built responsibly, we must train our builders upstream, at the time when they begin to learn to design and measure technology. There is no better place to start this work than MIT,” he said. “Supporting the Ethics of Technology Fellows Program was born out of that case, and I am very encouraged to see it adopted at MIT.”
“In philosophy, you have to question everything”
Masny arrived at MIT in the fall of 2024, following a year as a postdoc at the Kavli Center for Ethics, Science, and Society at the University of California at Berkeley. Originally from Poland, Masny received his PhD in philosophy from Princeton University after completing studies at Oxford University and the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom.
He works mainly in value theory, ethics of technology, and social and political philosophy. His current research interests include the nature of human and animal welfare, our responsibilities to future generations, human extinction risk, the future of work, and antiaging technologies.
During his tenure at the fellowship, Masny published several research articles on ethical issues related to the future of humanity – a topic closely related to thinking about the potential risks of AI development and deployment.
He says: “In philosophy, you have to question everything.
Masny’s work in collaboration continues the tradition of collaborative inquiry and exploration that MIT inspires and celebrates. In the fall of 2024, Masny co-taught an undergraduate course, STS.006J/24.06J (Bioethics), with Robin Scheffler, an associate professor in the Science, Technology, and Organization Program.
During the 2024-25 academic year, Masny led a student research group, “Deepfakes: Ethical, Political, and Epistemological Issues,” as part of the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) Scholars Program. The team explored the ethical, political, and epistemological dimensions of concern about misleading deepfakes, and how they can be mitigated.
Students in Masny’s group spent the spring of 2025 working in small groups on multiple projects and presented their findings in a poster session during the MIT Ethics of Computing Research Symposium at the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing.
In the summer of 2025, Masny assisted with a philosophy summer course, 24.133/134 (Experiential Ethics), where students put their computer science and engineering projects to an ethical test with the help of trained philosophers.
He is encouraged by opportunities to test his ideas and share them with people who can help refine and develop them.
Communities of practice and engagement
When considering the value of his experience at MIT, Masny credits the philosophy department and the opportunities to interact with many different types of scholars. To answer the kinds of questions his research uncovers, he says, you have to go a long way. He appreciates the space that MIT is creating for further investigation while seeking connections between his findings at work, its importance, and the human impact of technology on our social lives.
“Normally, undergraduate philosophy courses consist of two-hour lectures followed by discussion; the lecture is like an audiobook,” he said. Instead, he believes, they should prefer listening to a podcast or watching a talk show.
“I want the class to be an event organized by the student,” he continued.
Masny also thinks about how to integrate important philosophical tools into life outside the classroom. Philosophy and research can support other types of inquiry. Improving the minds of philosophers is a good thing, by his reckoning. Designing better questions, for example, can lead to better, more insightful, and more accurate answers. It can also improve students’ ability to identify challenges.
Masny will begin teaching at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the fall of 2026, and wants to explore new ideas while continuing his research on the value of work.
Kieran Setiya, Peter de Florez Professor in Philosophy and head of the Department of Languages and Philosophy, says that the NC Ethics of Technology Postdoctoral Fellowship has allowed MIT to bring a series of young philosophers working at the intersection of ethics and AI, studying the effects of new computer systems, political challenges and political challenges.
“This is the kind of interdisciplinary thinking that we need to support and encourage at MIT,” he adds.
