萨莉·科恩布鲁斯 (Sally Kornbluth) 总统在《华盛顿邮报》直播活动中警告说，如果没有联邦政府对好奇心驱动的研究, 的支持，帮助确保我们国家 繁荣和安全的创新和人才管道可能会枯竭,。
Without federal support for curiosity-driven research, the innovation and talent pipeline that has helped ensure our nation的 prosperity and safety could run dry, warned President Sally Kornbluth during a Washington Post Live event.
在 "The Next Generation," 期间，华盛顿邮报记者 Zachary Goldfarb 在《华盛顿邮报》的 “Building America Summit,” Kornbluth 和亚利桑那州立大学 (ASU) 校长 Michael Crow 联手就好奇心驱动研究的重要性进行了热烈讨论, 研究大学如何为下一代做好准备领导美国 快速变化的技术格局的科学家。
During "The Next Generation," a panel discussion moderated by Washington Post reporter Zachary Goldfarb at The Washington Post’s “Building America Summit,” Kornbluth and Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael Crow joined forces for a spirited discussion on the importance of curiosity-driven research, examining how universities are preparing the next generation of scientists to lead in America的 rapidly changing technological landscape.
“我们日常生活中拥有的许多东西,是否是医学进步,技术进步,很多这些东西来自30, 40, 50年来科学家们只是试图弄清楚事物是如何工作的,” Kornbluth强调。
“Many of the things we have in our everyday lives, whether they be medical advances, technological advances, a lot of these things came from 30, 40, 50 years of scientists just trying to figure out how things work,” emphasized Kornbluth.
Kornbluth 指出 MIT的课程重点是教授可应用于无数技术进步的基础技能, 技能，这些技能对于引领人工智能世界不可或缺。
Kornbluth pointed to MIT的 curriculum that focuses on teaching foundational skills that can be applied to a myriad of technological advances, skills that will be indispensable to leading in an AI-enabled world.
“I 不认为我们的任何传统科目现在都已经过时了 [ by AI]。 Kornbluth 说， 取决于你如何接近他们,”。 “在我们的新课程,中，我们不仅倾向于基本的 STEM 领域。我们真的觉得我们必须更强烈地恢复一些旧的,道德和公民和伦理教育目标，因为我们希望所有这些正在学习成为前沿技术专家,的孩子从道德,公民和伦理的角度来实现这一目标。”
“I do not think that any of our traditional subjects are now outmoded [by AI]. It的 how you approach them,” said Kornbluth. “In our new curriculum, not only are we leaning into basic STEM fields. We really feel we have to resurrect some of the old, moral and civic and ethical educational goals much more strongly because we want all these kids that are learning to be leading-edge technologists, to come at it from a moral, civic and ethical perspective.”
Kornbluth 使命的关键是保持以人为本的人工智能方法。 Inspired by MIT的 motto, “mens et manus” (mind and hand), she shared: “We really want students to be able to use physical AI.我们希望我们的学生仍然能够构建事物,，但使用人工智能作为增强工具。”
Key to Kornbluth的 mission is maintaining a human-centric approach to AI. Inspired by MIT的 motto, “mens et manus” (mind and hand), she shared: “We really want students to be able to use physical AI. We want our students to still be able to build things, but use AI as an augmentation tool.”
Kornbluth expressed the importance of teaching interested faculty and students how to best use AI as a tool and her commitment to uplifting student collaboration.
“We’非常重视团队合作等事情。因此, [学生]需要能够使用这些工具并共同实现目标,，因为你可以想象人工智能成为你的伙伴而不是你的学习小组的情况。 Kornbluth 表示，我们并不’t 真的希望这种情况发生,”。
“We’re putting a big emphasis on things like teamwork. So, [students] need to be able to use these tools and come together towards goals, because you could imagine a situation that AI becomes your buddy instead of your study group. We don’t really want that to happen,” said Kornbluth.
有效地使用人工智能需要编写强有力的提示。 Kornbluth 讨论了数学, 物理, 生物和化学, 等领域的基础知识，以及教学生如何清晰有效地写作和交流,，如何使学生在将这些新技术应用于科学研究时能够负责任地使用人工智能。
Using AI effectively requires writing strong prompts. Kornbluth discussed how foundational knowledge in fields like math, physics, biology and chemistry, along with teaching students how to write and communicate clearly and effectively, enables students to use AI responsibly when it comes to applying these new technologies to scientific research.
Kornbluth 说，学生需要能够 “ 掌握这些知识，并思考如何利用 AI 发挥最大作用，并学会编写正确的提示,”。
Students need to be able “to take that knowledge and think about how they can use AI to the greatest good and also learn to write the right prompts,” said Kornbluth.
联邦资金推动了好奇心驱动的研究—医学,技术和无数科学突破的基础。
Federal funding fuels curiosity-driven research—the groundwork of medical, technological and countless scientific breakthroughs.
“It is very difficult to make a groundbreaking discovery that的 going to revolutionize human life because you want to do that.你确实必须弄清楚事情是如何运作的，传统上，这个国家的此类研究是由政府资助的，因为它没有立即回报,” 说，Kornbluth。
“It is very difficult to make a groundbreaking discovery that的 going to revolutionize human life because you want to do that. You really have to be figuring out how things work and traditionally that sort of research in this country has been funded by the government because it does not have an immediate return,” said Kornbluth.
在讨论联邦资金, 问题时，Kornbluth 表示，虽然资金已拨给大学,，但总体上尚未发放给大学。
Discussing issues with federal funding, Kornbluth said that although money has been appropriated for universities, it has not been released to them by and large.
“We’正在真正尝试弄清楚资金流将如何发展,” Kornbluth 说道。
“We’re really trying to figure out what the funding stream is going to be going forward,” said Kornbluth.
When asked about the consequences of these frozen funds, Kornbluth pointed to the long timeline required to develop life-saving treatments.
作为一个例子，, Kornbluth 指出了糖尿病的治疗方法。
As one example, Kornbluth pointed to diabetes treatments.
“[Treatments] 最初是通过注射胰岛素来拯救人们，现在 使用自动泵和 CGM [ 连续血糖监测仪],” Kornbluth 说。 “下一阶段将是实际的功能性治疗,，即干细胞植入—掩盖细胞，以便它们’不会被免疫系统排斥。但这需要大量的基础工作才能实现。”
“[Treatments] started with injections of insulin saving people and now it的 automated pumps and CGMs [Continuous Glucose Monitors],” said Kornbluth. “The next phase is going to be an actual functional cure, which is stem cell implantation—masking the cells so they’re not rejected by the immune system. But it takes a lot of basic work to be able to get there.”
“[diabetes] 只是其中一个区域。 Kornbluth 说，你可以将其推断为癌症治疗,”。
“That [diabetes] is just one area. You can extrapolate that to cancer therapy,” said Kornbluth.
对基础研究的投资可以推进免疫疗法等治疗方法。
Investment in basic research can advance treatments such as immunotherapy.
“Immunotherapy is just in its infancy—it doesn’t work in every possible kind of cancer at this point.但现在从基础科学实验室到制药公司和生物技术所做的所有修改都使其越来越广泛地适用，因此胰腺癌现在不再绝对是死刑,” Kornbluth 强调。
“Immunotherapy is just in its infancy—it doesn’t work in every possible kind of cancer at this point. But all of the modifications that are being done now in basic science laboratories through to pharmaceutical companies and biotech are making it more and more broadly applicable so that pancreatic cancer is not absolutely a death sentence now,” Kornbluth emphasized.
Beyond research and AI, the president concluded by highlighting the strength of MIT的 student body, programs, and spinouts.
Kornbluth underscored the value of an MIT education for students and the greater economy.
2029 届 MIT 班的 20% 是第一代学生。教育“是实现经济流动的最佳途径,” Kornbluth 说。
Twenty percent of MIT的 class of 2029 were first-generation students. Education“is the best pathway to economic mobility,” said Kornbluth.
她继续说道: “MIT 已经从 30,000 家公司中分拆出来。 MIT对这个国家的经济影响相当于世界第14位的GDP。我们正在对经济产生巨大影响，我们’正在培养下一代人才。”
She continued: “MIT has spun out north of 30,000 companies. The economic impact of MIT on this country is equivalent to the 14th largest GDP in the world. We are having a huge impact on the economy and we’re producing the next generation of talent.”
Though MIT is highly selective, Kornbluth noted it is financially accessible through its free tuition program for students with parental incomes under $200,000. She further highlighted MIT for America, an initiative expanding access to calculus, a required course for institutions such as MIT, in under-resourced high schools nationwide.
科恩布鲁斯和克劳在小组讨论结束时强调了各自大学如何相互学习。
Kornbluth and Crow concluded the panel by highlighting how their respective universities learn from one another.
“我们[ASU]从麻省理工学院学到的是,，其中’是技术的边缘,” Crow说。 “We learn how master technologists, and master scientists work in small groups.” For ASU, which has a student population of over 150,000, “ it的 instructive to learn and then operate at a different scale and in a different way.他说， 有很多来回,”。
“What we [ASU] learn from MIT is, where的 the edge of technology,” said Crow. “We learn how master technologists, and master scientists work in small groups.” For ASU, which has a student population of over 150,000, “ it的 instructive to learn and then operate at a different scale and in a different way. There的 a lot of back and forth,” he said.
科恩布鲁斯表示，她希望麻省理工学院能够在未来 250 年继续其长期的研究和教育传统，为国家 服务。
Kornbluth expressed her hope for MIT to continue its longstanding tradition of research and education in service of the nation的 next 250 years.
“As a smaller private institution, we’re putting a much stronger footprint in how we can impact people well beyond the MIT walls,” said Kornbluth, “as well as having a scientific impact on society through our discoveries.”