Jack Carson, a second-year undergraduate at MIT majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, has been named a 2026 Udall Scholar, one of up to 65 undergraduates nationally to receive the prestigious $7,500 award. The Udall Scholarship honors students who have demonstrated a commitment to the environment, Indigenous health care, or tribal public policy. Carson is only the third MIT student to win this award, and the first to win for tribal policy. Carson, a member of the Cherokee Nation and resident of Oklahoma, exemplifies the multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving that the Udall Scholarship seeks to honor. His work spans artificial intelligence, biomedical research, Indigenous community development, and ethics. "Jack is the type of leader the Udall Foundation exists to support," says Kim Benard, associate dean for distinguished fellowships. "He's not only conducting cutting-edge research, but he's actively creating opportunities for Indigenous students to enter tech fields."...

In the before times'before machines could hallucinate, before compute was a noun'it was not uncommon to go several weeks without someone telling me the world was about to end. Similarly, a whole season might pass without anyone assuring me that it was also, simultaneously, about to become perfect. That particular luxury died on November 30, 2022, when OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public. What followed was less a news cycle than a weather event'a tropical depression that would not budge. Within weeks, millions of people had their first experience with generative AI. Within months, every major technology company had announced its own version of a large language model, or a partnership, or a pivot. Venture capital arrived drooling. Most people in tech think about money, but AI-profit projections are different'like CFO fan fiction, written in Excel. In 2023, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that $4.4 trillion in annual corporate profits could be up for grabs from generative AI alone. Morgan Stanley estimated $40 trillion more in operational efficiencies. The words artificial intelligence went from obscurity to a constant hum, present in every earnings call, every school-board meeting, and far too many arguments at dinner tables....

The surveillance video begins with a seemingly innocent scene: A Jewish man stands next to a bus shelter, adjusting his yarmulke. Suddenly, he is pummeled by a passerby and stabbed repeatedly until he is propelled off-screen. The victim's skullcap, which had fallen into the street, slowly wafts away in the wind. This assault was the culmination of a violent spree that has shocked many in Britain. Last Wednesday, according to authorities, a man named Essa Suleiman allegedly attacked Ishmail Hussein, an acquaintance he'd known for decades, in South London. He then traveled eight miles to Golders Green, one of the most Jewish areas in the United Kingdom, and stabbed two random Jewish men in religious garb whom he did not know, including the one at the bus stop, before finally being apprehended. The two victims, ages 34 and 76, were hospitalized but survived. On its own, this incident would be disturbing. But the Golders Green onslaught was just the latest in a series of escalating anti-Semitic attacks across Britain, and the third one in five weeks in the same Jewish community. This past month, multiple synagogues in Golders Green were targeted by arsonists, as was another Jewish institution. The month prior, four ambulances owned by Hatzola, the local Jewish-run charity-ambulance service, were set on fire and destroyed. Last week, Hatzola medics used their remaining resources to treat the victims of the Golders Green stabbing attack. And yet, despite pious protestations from politicians, the country appears to have no idea how to prevent any of this from happening....

Over 200 students, alumni, faculty, staff, funders, and community collaborators gathered at the MIT Media Lab on April 15 for the 25th annual IDEAS Social Innovation Incubator Showcase and Awards, hosted by the Priscilla King Gray (PKG) Center for Social Impact. Since its founding in 2001, the PKG Center's IDEAS Incubator has launched hundreds of social ventures in over 60 countries, guiding MIT's technical talent toward urgent social challenges ' from energy and climate to health care, education, and economic development. 'Global and local challenges are increasingly complex and interconnected,' said Lauren Tyger, assistant dean for social innovation at the PKG Center and director of IDEAS. 'IDEAS educates technical founders in systems thinking and community-based innovation, helping students develop business models that achieve both measurable social outcomes and financial sustainability.' Thies traced his tuberculosis medication adherence work in India from a low-cost electronic pillbox through multiple iterations that helped shift India's treatment policies toward patient autonomy. Ultimately, his work led to Nikshay, a national electronic medical records platform now supporting 150 million people, which recently transitioned to full government control....