Applied AI

Understanding how generative, decentralizing technologies - such as GenAI and blockchain - affect power, scalability and productivity is the focal point for this research group. The group, led by IDE Director Sinan Aral, has expanded its charter beyond its previous focus on Web3 architectures.

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Research Papers Advancing AI negotiations: A large-scale autonomous negotiation competition

Jun 2026

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

Harang Ju | Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University

Michelle Vaccaro

Michael Caosun

Jared R. Curhan

This research reveals that principles from human negotiation theory remain crucial even in AI–AI contexts and that AI-specific technical strategies also create success. The results suggest the need to establish a new theory of AI negotiation that integrates classic negotiation theory with AI-specific negotiation theories to better understand autonomous negotiations and optimize agent performance.

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

May 2026

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.

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.

Working Papers The Rise of AI Search: Implications for Information Markets and Human Judgement at Scale

Feb 2026

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

Rui Zuo | Postdoctoral Associate

Haiwen Li

Researchers found a rapid global expansion of AI search and key trends that reflect important, previously hidden, policy decisions by AI companies that impact human exposure to AI search worldwide.

Research Papers Are Crypto Ecosystems (De)centralizing? A Framework for Longitudinal Analysis

Dec 2025

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

Harang Ju | Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University

Ehsan Valavi | Postdoctoral Associate

Madhav Kumar | Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School

This paper proposes a systematic framework for measuring the decentralization of crypto ecosystems over time and compare commonly used decentralization metrics.

Working Papers Measuring Social Media Network Effects

Jun 2025

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

Seth Benzell | Assistant Professor, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University

Avinash Collis | Assistant Professor, Carnegie Mellon University