MIT's Sasha Rakhlin outlines how universities should respond to AI in research and training

MIT Statistics and Data Science Center director Sasha Rakhlin argues that AI progress is fastest where results can be verified quickly, citing a model reaching gold-medal level at the International Mathematical Olympiad a year before models produced new research results.

He says departments should reconsider how they reward work, emphasizing question-asking, replication, and disclosure of AI's role in a researcher's contributions.

He also urges universities to build shared lab infrastructure that captures failed experiments and tacit expertise.