Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Position Title/Short Description

Full Text of JOE Listing:

Position
1-3 full-time Post-Doctoral Associate positions, available starting in 2027 for 1-3 years (one-year positions are only available to applicants who have secured a subsequent appointment as an assistant professor, research scientist, or research economist)

Employer MIT FutureTech (futuretech.mit.edu) at:

MIT Sloan School of Management’s Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) and
MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL)

Location
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Job Description
Dr. Neil Thompson, Director of MIT FutureTech, seeks to hire up to three Postdoctoral Associates, with a preference for candidates whose research connects to at least one of the following areas:

(i) AI progress and timelines
Rapid advances in AI capabilities have raised both excitement and uncertainty about the pace of future progress. Projections of when specific milestones (e.g., human level performance on complex tasks, widespread deployment of autonomous systems) will be reached differ significantly across researchers, research fields, and industry. This project area seeks to rigorously characterize historical and current trends in AI development and to model plausible future trajectories. Relevant work might include: quantitative measurement of scaling laws and other empirical regularities in algorithmic improvement; analysis of hardware, energy, data, and talent constraints that could accelerate or limit progress; economic, regulatory, and geopolitical factors shaping investment and research concentration; scenario modeling of short-, medium, and long term capability benchmarks; and assessment of feedback loops between AI deployment and further innovation. Insights generated should help clarify realistic timelines, identify key uncertainties, and inform strategic decisions by firms, governments, and society at large regarding preparedness and governance of advanced AI systems. Examples of previous work from the lab in this area include: Algorithmic Progress; Last Mile.

(ii) The Effect of AI on Science
AI has driven advancements in many scientific fields, such as drug discovery, materials science, protein folding, or weather prediction. It is also well known that scientific progress is a key engine for economic growth. This project focuses on understanding the impact of AI on science and the resulting economic consequences. Key topics we aim to address include quantifying the impact of AI on scientific progress and economic growth, the extent to which AI will augment and/or change the R&D production function, and the implications of AI-driven R&D for researchers, firms, and policy. Examples of previous work from the lab in this area include: Influence of Industry; AI-augmented R&D.

(iii) Future of Work and the Labor Market Effects of AI and ICT
What are the (global) labor market implications of new technologies, such as AI and ICT? Do workers within firms benefit from IT improvements and the adoption of AI? If so, which workers specifically benefit, and which are adversely affected through slower wage growth or job displacement? How quickly will jobs be replaced or augmented by AI? Are workers (or individual tasks) complements or substitutes to AI and ICT? Furthermore, how does overall labor demand change in response to advancements in AI? We aim to address these and related questions by leveraging detailed firm-worker-level data from administrative sources (e.g., census data), publicly available task-level data (e.g., ONET), and self-collected surveys. By studying these dynamics, our goal is to gain a deeper understanding of the future of work in the context of the rise of new technologies. Examples of previous work from the lab in this area include: Beyond AI Exposure; Expertise; Crashing waves vs. Rising Tides.

(iv) The Impact of AI on Industry and Firm Performance
AI is widely recognized as having the potential to revolutionize industries and transform firms’ production processes. However, significant gaps remain in our understanding of how AI will affect firm and industry performance both within and across countries. In this project, we aim to develop novel measures of industry exposure to AI and compile data on AI adoption to investigate how AI shapes firm performance, productivity, and market power in national and international contexts. Key questions include identifying the key determinants of AI adoption; how AI affects firms’ market shares and productivity; how these changes influence competition and aggregate productivity; and whether cross-country differences in AI adoption and exposure will narrow or widen existing economic disparities. Examples of the lab’s previous work in this area include: IT and RTS.

In addition to researching these issues, the post-doc will be expected to become a team leader, supervising and mentoring younger students.

Qualifications
• PhD or equivalent in economics or related field
• Demonstrated expertise in computing / AI
• Interest in working in an interdisciplinary lab with computer scientists and engineers
• Strong data analysis skills, including statistical/econometric training
• For some positions, experience working with U.S. census data would be a plus
• Knowledge of relevant theoretical models
• Proficiency with a modern programming language, e.g., Python, R
• Solid English communication skills (verbal and written)
• Desire and skill (e.g. organizational abilities) to work in teams


The post-doc’s primary appointment would be at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and would have a secondary appointment at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab.

Salary
$75,000 per year, plus benefits.

To apply
Submit the following materials via the AEA platform no later than November 15th:
(i) CV
(ii) Job market paper (or other sample of previous research)
(iii) Three letters of reference
(iv) Cover letter discussing the applicant’s experience and which research projects would be of interest

Selected candidates will be interviewed via Zoom.

About MIT FutureTech
Led by Dr. Neil Thompson, MIT FutureTech is an interdisciplinary group of computer scientists, engineers, and economists who study the foundations of progress in computing and Artificial Intelligence: the trends, implications, opportunities, and risks. FutureTech is one of the largest research groups at MIT. It sits both within the Computer Science and AI Lab and the Sloan School of Management. A distinctive strength of our lab is access to a large set of rich and unique data sources that allow us to study the economics of AI and computing. We collaborate extensively with major government agencies and industry leaders. Our work is supported by a broad range of partners, including, among many others, Open Philanthropy, the National Science Foundation, Google, Microsoft, Accenture, IBM, Amazon, and Los Alamos National Lab.

About Dr. Neil Thompson, the Director of MIT FutureTech - futuretech.mit.edu/team/neil-thompson
Dr. Thompson is the Director of MIT FutureTech. Before starting FutureTech, Dr. Thompson was a professor of Innovation and Strategy at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His PhD is in Business & Public Policy from Berkeley. He also holds Master’s degrees in: Computer Science (Berkeley), Economics (London School of Economics), and Statistics (Berkeley). Before joining academia, Dr. Thompson was a management consultant with Bain & Company and worked for the Canadian Government and the United Nations.

About the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE) - ide.mit.edu
The MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy is a team of internationally recognized thought leaders and researchers examining how people and businesses work, interact, and prosper in a time of rapid digital transformation. It is housed at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

About the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) - www.csail.mit.edu
CSAIL is one of the world’s top research centers for computer science and artificial intelligence (currently ranked #1). It has hosted 9 Turing Award winners (the “Nobel Prize of Computing”) and has pioneered many of the technologies that underpin computing.