The Impact of AI: From Financial Investments to Scienti c Investigations-A Fireside Chat Between
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x46iyf46w7ifja53tnkmx6wjfvkyjtew.pdf
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174.28 KB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
Galison, Peter
Lo, Andrew
Date Issued
March 5, 2026
Journal
Harvard Data Science Review
Publisher
MIT Press
Citation
Galison, P., & Lo, A. W. (2026). The Impact of AI: From Financial Investments to Scientific Investigations—A Fireside Chat Between Peter Galison and Andrew W. Lo. Harvard Data Science Review, 8(1).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In this wide-ranging conversation conducted at Harvard University's Inaugural AI Summit in October 2025, Harvard's Peter Galison and MIT's Andrew W. Lo examine how AI is transforming scientific research, economic decision-making, and collaborative problem-solving. They trace AI's evolution from automation toward systems that increasingly resemble partners in thought, enabling new forms of understanding across fields such as physics, finance, biology, and economics. Galison highlights how AI and advanced computation are becoming essential for handling massive data sets, including those used to image black holes, while Lo discusses the challenge of embedding ethical and regulatory norms such as fiduciary duty into AI systems. Together, they explore both the promise of AI in accelerating discovery and the risks of misuse, reflecting on how rapid advances in computation may propel science, reshape the economy, and push us closer to artificial general intelligence. The following revised dialogue, between Peter Galison (Harvard) and Andrew W. Lo (MIT), was organized under the auspices of the Harvard AI Summit, cohosted by Harvard Data Science Review and Archerman Capital, held on October 21, 2025, at the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge. The aim of this fireside chat was to put in conversation two people, both of whom work with AI but from very different disciplinary locations, one from physics and history of science, and the other from financial economics and the finance industry. Despite that topical distance, they held much in common as they reflected on the present and future impact of AI, this rapidly evolving technology. Discipline crossing by way of data and AI is a central ambition of HDSR.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.a51c61d7
