• Imagine if the next breakthrough in artificial intelligence came from the root of intelligence itself: the human brain.

  • Imagine if artificial intelligence was socially and emotionally intelligent enough to empower everyone to flourish—from individuals to societies.

  • Imagine if machine learning could revolutionize disease detection, prevention and treatment.

  • Imagine if we could build a machine that grows into intelligence the way a person does—that starts like a baby and learns like a child.

  • Imagine the insights and societal benefits we could derive from the aggregation of data across organizations. Now imagine we could do this while respecting privacy concerns.

Advancing research in natural and machine intelligence, and developing applications to benefit society.

The MIT Quest for Intelligence is advancing research in natural and machine intelligence and driving the development of new tools and technologies to benefit society. Housed within the new MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, MIT Quest brings together researchers from across disciplines to pursue ambitious questions tied to intelligence and to address the ethical and social implications of automated decision-making.

MIT Quest Vision

We believe that the engineering of artificial intelligence and the scientific understanding of natural intelligence are interlocking aspects of a single, collaborative grand challenge. To capitalize on that vision, MIT Quest research is organized around long-term collaborative projects called “missions,” each rooted in a foundational question in intelligence – animal, human, or collective. A foundational question is one that, if solved in engineering terms, is likely to bring about practical advances in machine intelligence and major benefits in human health, education, and well-being.

MIT Quest Corporate

MIT Quest Corporate is a community of scientists from MIT and industry committed to developing next-generation artificial intelligence tools to solve urgent problems facing business, society, and the environment. We are experimenting with ways to transition from AI that performs specialized tasks at super-human levels to more generalized systems that are flexible, fair, and transparent. We fund promising ideas that we think can be implemented at scale and create positive and lasting improvements in people’s lives.