Publications

At the IDE, research and data-based evidence underlie all that we do. Explore the cutting-edge academic papers, featured in leading publications around the globe.

Publication Types

Research Papers The AI risk repository: A meta-review, database, and taxonomy of risks from artificial intelligence

May 2026

Peter Slattery | Research Scientist at MIT Future Tech

Neil Thompson | Research Scientist, MIT Sloan School of Management and CSAIL

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping society, from video generation to medical diagnosis, coding agents to autonomous vehicles. Yet researchers, policymakers, and technology companies lack shared terminology for discussing AI risks. This paper addresses this challenge by creating a comprehensive catalog of AI risks.

Working Papers The Augmentation Trap: AI Productivity and the Cost of Cognitive Offloading

Sinan Aral | Director, MIT IDE; Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management

Michael Caosun | Ph.D. Candidate

Authors develop a dynamic model in which a decision-maker chooses AI usage intensity for a worker over time, trading immediate productivity against the erosion of worker skill, testing when decision-makers opt for AI use and the productivity of workers as a result.

Research Papers Teaching AI to handle exceptions: Supervised fine-tuning with human-aligned judgment

May 2026

Sinan Aral | Director, MIT IDE; Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management

Harang Ju | Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University

These findings highlight the need to address LLMs’ shortcomings in handling exceptions in order to guide the development of agentic AI toward models that can effectively align with human judgment and simultaneously adapt to novel contexts.

Working Papers The Diminishing Returns to Human Recruiting in Online Labor Markets

John Horton | Associate Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management

Emma Wiles | IDE Digital Fellow and Assistant Professor, Questrom School of Business, Boston University

John Fallon | Boston University

This paper explores whether human intermediaries add value when employers already have access to algorithmic screening tools.

Research Papers Can Social Networks Substitute for Reputation Systems? Evidence from a Large Scale Field Experiment

Sinan Aral | Director, MIT IDE; Professor, MIT Sloan School of Management

David Holtz | Assistant Professor, Columbia Business School

P. Alex Dow | Microsoft Research

In this paper, the research team presents results from what they believe is the first ever field experiment to randomize the introduction of a reputation system into a massive online marketplace.

IDE Special Reports 2026 IDE Annual Conference Report

May 2026

Working Papers Crashing Waves vs. Rising Tides: Preliminary Findings on AI Automation from Thousands of Worker Evaluations of Labor Market Tasks

Apr 2026

Neil Thompson | Research Scientist, MIT Sloan School of Management and CSAIL

Martin Fleming | Research Scientist, IDE

Matthias Mertens | Research Scientist at Future Tech

Brittany Harris | Data Analyst, CSAIL

Wensu Li | Postdoctoral Associate

The authors propose that AI automation is a continuum between: crashing waves where AI capabilities surge abruptly over small sets of tasks, and rising tides where the increase in AI capabilities is more continuous and broad-based.

Research Papers Prompt Adaptation as a Dynamic Complement in Generative AI Systems

Apr 2026

David Holtz | Assistant Professor, Columbia Business School

Benjamin Manning | Ph.D. Candidate

Eaman Jahani | Assistant Professor, Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland

Hong-Yi Tu Ye | PhD Candidate

Joe Zhang | Stanford University

Mohammed Alsobay | Microsoft Research

Christos Nicolaides | University of Cyprus

Siddharth Suri | Microsoft Research

This paper studies prompt adaptation—how users adjust their inputs in response to evolving model behavior—using a common experimental design applied to two preregistered tasks with 3,750 total participants who submitted nearly 37,000 prompts.