The 1 Billion Learner Goal

Name: The Future of MIT Open Education
Uploaded: 2026-05-06T18:11:18+00:00
Duration: 57 min 52 s
Channel: MIT OpenCourseWare
Description: Summary and key takeaways on The Future of MIT Open Education: Summary & Key Takeaways, covering The 1 Billion Learner Goal MIT Open Learning aims to reach one

MIT OpenCourseWare

May 06, 2026

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57 min video

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2 min read

YouTube video ID: SrGIv3ustJ4

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MIT Open Learning aims to reach one billion learners in the next ten years, doubling the impact achieved over the past 25 years of Open Courseware. The ambition reflects a shift from the traditional vertical, department‑centric model toward a horizontal, problem‑based approach that aligns education with global challenges such as health, climate and energy. Mobilizing the MIT community as a unified force, rather than in isolated silos, is presented as the key to scaling this vision.

Universal Learning Framework

The “Universal AI” framework currently comprises 22 modules—16 foundational and 6 vertical—with 18 additional modules in development. These free, application‑oriented modules are hosted on the new learn.mit.edu platform, which consolidates OCW, MITx and professional education into a single discovery hub. Upcoming initiatives, labeled Universal Biology, Universal Health, and Universal Climate/Energy, will extend the modular content to address pressing interdisciplinary problems.

Strategic Pillars

Personalized learning is being enabled through generative AI tools slated for launch this summer, allowing learners to follow customized pathways. Content is being broken into 4‑ to 5‑lecture modules, a process called modularization, which speeds updates—changing two lectures instead of an entire semester’s worth. A translation program will initially launch in 12 languages, expanding access beyond English speakers and supporting the goal of a truly global learner base.

The Future of Open Courseware

Open Courseware will continue to share the full breadth of MIT’s curriculum, not just a curated “top‑10” list. AI‑assisted translation is expected to cross the tipping point for sustainable, high‑quality multilingual content, replacing an earlier manual translation effort that became unsustainable. While MIT retains quality control, the model opens the door for contributions from other institutions, preserving the public‑good ethos of free access.

Residential and Global Integration

A proposal for a hybrid MIT degree would blend online, modular learning with in‑person, human‑centric experiences, addressing concerns about loneliness in digital education. The “Ask Team” tutor system grounds generative AI responses in verified problem sets, preventing hallucinations. Partnerships with entities such as Wikipedia and Fab Labs are being explored to foster community‑driven, hands‑on learning and to broaden the reach of MIT’s open education mission.

Takeaways

MIT Open Learning sets a ten‑year target of reaching one billion learners by shifting from departmental silos to horizontal, problem‑based education.
The Universal AI framework currently offers 22 modular courses and will expand with new biology, health, and climate initiatives on the learn.mit.edu platform.
Personalized AI tools, modular lecture chunks, and translation into 12 languages form the strategic pillars that enable rapid updates and global accessibility.
Open Courseware will maintain MIT’s quality standards while using AI‑assisted translation to sustain free, multilingual content and invite contributions from other institutions.
A hybrid degree model, the Ask Team tutor system, and collaborations with Wikipedia and Fab Labs aim to blend online learning with human interaction and hands‑on experiences.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Universal AI framework and how does it support MIT's learning goals?

The Universal AI framework is a collection of modular courses that currently includes 22 modules—16 foundational and 6 vertical—with 18 more in development. By delivering free, application‑oriented content through the learn.mit.edu hub, it enables personalized, AI‑driven pathways and supports MIT’s ambition to reach a billion learners worldwide.

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Helpful resources related to this video

If you want to practice or explore the concepts discussed in the video, these commonly used tools may help.

Noise Cancelling Headphones For Focused Study Recommended

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Ergonomic Laptop Stand For Desk Setup

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Digital Note Taking Tablet With Stylus

Facilitates active learning and problem-solving, which is essential for the modular, application-oriented content discussed in the podcast.

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High Quality Webcam For Online Learning

Enables better engagement and communication in hybrid learning environments and virtual collaborative sessions.

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Full Transcript YouTube

Welcome back everyone. We've had a
wonderful day so far. Welcome to those
of you who are just joining us online,
maybe just tuning in. We've come to our
last session.
It's a really special one focused on the
future of MIT open learning, MIT open
education. Once again, I'm Sarah Hansen,
the assistant director of open education
innovation, and I'm with Dmitri
Spartimus and Kurt Newton. And for those
of you just tuning in now, Dimmitri is
the vice pro vice provost for open
learning at MIT as well as a professor
and associate dean at Sloan School of
Management. Kurt Newton is the director
of MIT open courseware. It's an honor to
engage both of you in this conversation
about the future and I hope that all of
you will leave feeling inspired um for
the future.
I always like to start with a personal
question that helps everyone here get to
know you as a person. And one of the
leading goals for our organization is
reaching 1 billion learners within 10
years. And uh Dimmitri, I'd like to
start with you and ask you why you are
passionate about that. Where did that
come from? You didn't just wake up one
day and decide that's the goal.
>> Yeah. Well, most of my colleagues at MIT
think I'm dreaming. On the other hand,
we heard in the morning that OCW has
reached half a billion. It seems a
factor of two maybe in 10 years as
opposed to 25 years. It's not a huge
reach. To be honest, when I had the 1
billion, I did not know exactly the the
numbers. But look, MIT is an institution
by its history that it has always put
high aspirations
uh to convince and my colleagues to
participate in such a movement. I can
tell you if I suppose I tell you I would
like to do a 100 million people where
OCW has
you know it's not exciting enough so
that's the other part but I also believe
as an objective for the world you know
MIT as an institution educates 11,000
students some of one in a million people
roughly very very smart kids in 41 years
I have educated maybe 15,000
um of of these students over 40 years
uh aspiring to to educate one in eight
in the world especially in uh areas you
know uh if you look at Africa for
example only 10% of the population goes
to university to aspire to educate you
know a sizable portion of the rest of
the 90% and I just picked one um one
particular continent which the
demographics are exponentiating I think
it's a I thought it was a worthy a
worthy objective that can uh mobilize
our u our community of faculty students
and open learning.
>> That's so interesting that a key aspect
for you is motivating faculty and our
team. It seems like you went to the
Sloan School of Management maybe.
>> Well, I have some experience about
success or failures. I mean part of my
background, thank god I have this
background otherwise I wouldn't be doing
I wouldn't be successful. I mean I know
I'm successful aspiring to be successful
in this job is that
>> you know I have serial I have been a
serial entrepreneur all my life.
>> Yeah.
>> And I have found the key characteristic
of success and failure is to motivate
the people to to do it as a force.
>> Uh and it has been my effort the last
year and a half. My colleagues uh I
suspect have observed that I try to
decrease the silos we have to move as a
force. Uh we have made progress but
there is room to go.
>> Thank you Kurt. How about you? Why is it
personally important to you to reach 1
billion learners?
>> Um well I feel a very deep sort of
intrinsic motivation. Okay.
>> To the some of the values that we've
talked about throughout this session
about um
>> the the incredible force that knowledge
as a public good can be. Um, you know,
and I've I've lived for I've been here
almost the full 25 years, 22 years here
at Open Courseware. Just seeing, you
know, year by year how that progress
builds and I can I can see in a sense
that it is in reach with a, you know,
with a few more things which I think
we'll get into over the course of this
hour that I think we'll we'll open that
up. um you know and I see how um
we we've had this tremendous impact but
that impact through really reaching a
relatively small percentage especially
in certain countries around the world
and so just a a huge opportunity I think
is very motivating.
>> Yeah.
>> Interesting.
Thank you for bringing in your personal
values your personal motivations. So if
we extend that to the organization,
Kurt, thinking about open courseware in
particular, what core values of open
courseware should we hold on to as we
move through the next 25 years?
>> Yeah. Um,
a few, you know, a few things that that
really are top of mind for me there. um
the the commitment to
share broadly from across you know all
possible disciplines from MIT feels
really important you know there's a I
think there's a there's a risk if we
allow ourselves to be too focused on
just the say top 10 topics we lose the
richness that we've heard from from some
of our you know learners you know that
we and educators that we've heard from
today um you Hanata speaking about urban
studies for instance, you know, probably
won't be a top 10 topic, but there's a
there's something really special that's
been enabled by MIT by open courseware's
commitment to sharing from across the
full curriculum that I think is really
important to carry forward. Um, another
one, you know,
as you know, these new tools, AI tools
come in increasingly into our hands is
to keep the proper focus on
humans as being really fundamentally
important and essential and working
collaboratively with other humans in
this work and, you know, continuing to
figure out the right way to do that. Uh,
I think is is another core value that we
want to carry forward. Yeah.
>> And similarly, what new needs, Dimmitri,
have emerged in global education that
you think we need to be paying attention
to going forward?
>> Well, um, everybody and the brother is
talking about AI. It would be I mean,
I'm an AI guy.
>> I know. So it's not exactly uh it has
occurred to me that AI and as you
perhaps know we have launched uh already
it's now past tense launched yeah
>> we have launched what I call universal
AI the idea to educate universal is not
a random title is to educate in a in an
area that is growing fantastically uh
everybody in the world we aspire in in
AI I in the use of AI to improve lives,
careers, trajectories of people. Uh but
in addition uh there are other other
forces. Um if you think about um
universities, universities are
structured vertically. We have civil
engineering number one, mechanical
engineering, this is MIT has numbers for
those of you who don't know. Number two,
I'm I I graduate from mathematics course
18 and so forth. But that's not how the
world is is organized. The world is
organized horizontally. There is
problems of health, of climate. If you
look at the major problems of the world,
energy and so forth, uh they are not
organized neatly in a vertical way. So I
think there is an opportunity in my
opinion to educate the the world and
especially the young people in a way the
problems come because you know common
problems don't come with labels problems
come as they are and it's up to us to
organize knowledge so that's the second
opportunity first AI use broadly
uh third uh and it was actually my dream
when I joined actually was one of the
most important dreams I had and I I
would not have expected to be so close
to realizing izing it personalized
education. Traditional university
education is not personalized. What what
we do today is definitely not
personalized. We say the same thing. It
is absorbed by you the same you know
might be differently but we say the same
things but but uh the opportunity in
online education is to personalize the
the and we know for there's significant
research to suggest that uh
uh people do not understand the same
way. They have different values. they
have different absorption rates and so
forth. I think the dream of personalized
education has been a dream of mine for
decades before. I I thought maybe in
five 10 years I will be able to do
something in that. Uh we're about to
launch personalized education in the
summer. So uh based on some gen AI
research we're doing. So that's an
that's a third fourth area that I think
needs adaptation. Um the the traditional
unit of uh of knowledge is classes. We
have semester courses at MIT. Our are
our OCW our OCW courses. You know, we
export what we do at I'm not
criticizing. I'm saying I'm doing it
myself by the way. So uh it is uh but
that's not how especially younger people
do not absorb this way. They they they
absorb knowledge in shorter horizons. In
fact, my friend uh Kurt educated me on
this. I'm a good student, Kurt. So, and
I check with my students, they they
absorb in different ways. So, I think
trying to organize knowledge in a
certain chunks also, it's easier to to
revise uh you know, if you expect our my
colleagues at my team, me included, to
revise 50% of a class that change in AI
26 lecture, 50% 13, good luck. I mean,
they will it will never happen. But if
you have a module of four or five to to
change two two lectures, it's feasible.
I mean, and I have evidence on that
because we already have been doing it.
So, uh, for fifth, uh,
>> I'm having a hard time keeping track of
all these. I'm like mentally repeating
them in my head, but go ahead. What's
the Yeah, I got it. Personalized
learning. Modularized learning. And then
there was another one, but I forget it.
>> The complication is I forgot it, too.
So uh we I it was interesting that um
when we were reading uh I think uh Peter
read the original OCW proposal. It
talked about translations. I've never
read the original proposal but it talked
about translations. Is it correct Peter?
>> Yeah.
>> Well it was my hope to create
translations.
>> Mhm.
>> But it hasn't happened. It was the scope
but I haven't seen it in open learning.
Well, we are launching this month
translation 12 languages. Yeah.
>> So, uh
translations are critical in my opinion.
You have countries like Japan that 80%
of the of the people don't speak don't
speak uh English. So, if you have
content fantastic content that is that
is only in English, I mean you you
limit. But if you have content in the
local language, adaptable, personalized
and so forth, you have a higher chance
of adopting. So it is indeed uh you know
I I have few things more to say but
otherwise if you are losing it I'm
certain we are not the only one. Uh
>> no the other one you mentioned was
horizontal learning that Yeah. Thank
you. Um
>> good student. She's good.
>> Yeah.
Um
>> very important horizontal learning.
>> Yeah. uh and it's it informs later on
we'll talk about our strategy. It
informs our strategy.
>> Yes.
>> Namely, you know, AI the first thing we
launched is it's definitely cuts across
all 26 departments we have at MIT and
all the centers is it's you know I don't
know anyone who is not even affected.
Climate is our next objective. energy as
you know they cut across yeah
>> you know uh health name it there is a in
my opinion organ you know if you
especially with the young people whom I
have as you can tell I'm not indifferent
to my young friends yes
>> so um I I do feel that uh educating in
the world they will face
>> in the with the same with the same
orientation I think it goes a long way
and I actually argued to our to Sally
that we should also do
uh residentially not only online that is
it's our in my obl it is our obligation
to also teach our own students
>> yeah so can we back up for a second for
the people who are maybe just joining us
online or are new to MIT open learning
can you explain what universal learning
is like we yeah go ahead that's good
that's appropriate yes so what is
universal learning so let me start with
universal AI because it's it's in in our
past. You know, for those of you that
have an MIT account, MITDU account and
you you you register on the left side on
learn MITDU, you can see universal AI.
It has 16 modules of uh the fundamentals
and at the moment six vertical modules.
>> So altogether 22 about 30 faculty have
participated in this effort and there
are another 18 cooking another 18
verticals. So what does it mean? The
first collection of modules uh is four
modules on the fundamentals of
programming and machine learning.
>> Okay.
>> Uh Annabelle, I don't know if Anna Bell
is here is was a significant participant
in the first uh form. This content by
the way is free.
>> Okay.
>> Second set of modules. It is uh the
fundamentals of deep learning.
Um there are three modules. Each module
has of the order of four to five
lectures altogether 15 to seven I forget
the exact number lectures. Next one is
prescriptive AI decision making with AI.
Next one is is the is uh large language
models and generative AI. Uh next
modules are uh is the ethics of AI
>> and the future of work. Um and then the
from a from a vertical perspective we
have uh AI and energy, AI and health, AI
and um and um law AI and you know AI
plus X basically the X and so forth
that's sort of the F in other words we
teach people not at the level of
graduate level you know um see if we if
we want if you are genuinely trying to
reach a billion learners you have to
teach things in a way that not an MIT
student only understands but the the
world and which means high quality
content applicationoriented
that that speaks to problems of the
world with an applied orientation and
quite more accessible. So that's the
foundational piece and then if somebody
wants to deepen their understanding
you'd like to understand what is the
implication of of AI in law
>> of which they subsided or health or or
biology and so forth that's the idea of
that part so this is on AI so then we
have a new effort that um two of my
colleagues lead Chris Rab and Desire
Plata I think Chris is in the room I
think it was in the morning
>> um is to do similar things on climate
and energy foundational. I mean climate
is a significant existential threat of
our times especially important for the
people who who have another 70 80 years
to live. So um it has similar educating
people in the fundamentals and then
verticals. Next one is biology. We call
it universal biology. Fourth one is
universal health. the the first two
biology, climate and energy. We are
hoping to have our first modules in
September and hopefully the end. Uh so I
would like to encourage you to uh
especially many of you have the MIT and
by the way even if you don't you can uh
register we are actually launched March
30th uh to individuals not only
institutions and there are two ways we
we go about it. The first way is to try
to reach uh individuals We now have the
platform. I'm very excited about this
platform. We are moving uh all of OCW or
FMITX uh our professional education I I
hope June 30 July 30th
um to the new learn platform. So in a
sense we are and and in a sense we are
controlling our destiny. We are
controlling quality. We are controlling
uh um you know all all of our
innovations will be there. We we we are
going to create we are creating
translations in end of April. We are the
first guinea pigs so to speak would be
universal AI but rest assured I will
make certain that uh OCW gets it and
might all of our efforts benefit from
that. So that's the another advantage of
fully controlling your destiny and
everything is on based on open edex
which is a a
platform and I asked my my colleagues in
engineering where should I bet I I'm not
very knowledgeable in this area you know
they proposed to me uh
um open edex this is where we are
putting so it's it's a it's in a sense
MIT if you think about it fundamentally
uh MIT is going solo
>> on uh providing knowledge controlling
quality and so forth but this is only
the beginning there is a phase two and
phase three I I actually believe MIT
while it's a great institution doesn't
have the the totality of knowledge so we
first start MIT leading with universal
learning second phase which is actually
happening as we speak institutions from
other countries other in in the United
States but different than MIT
develop their own content because
everything lands on learn. Their
students in phase two have access. We
have no control on what they put. But
phase three, some of the best of this
material, we put it, we embed it and
then we offer it to the world as well.
In other words, the collective
intelligence of the world is um is
capable of addressing of of doing that.
Um so we don't restrict but there is one
difference. We control quality. Uh I
mean in my opinion edx cosera and so
forth have exceptional content and
extremely poor content. That's my
opinion. Of course you might not agree
but uh but but if you look at the
totality I mean some of them I don't
know if it's even correct tell you the
truth. Forget about pedagogically. So
that's sort of the overall strategy. I
mean people can also ask questions
afterwards. You know, I like interacting
with the audience as you know.
>> I will get us there.
>> Okay, great. I'm sorry I sp I spent more
time. I apologize.
>> You you are allowed. It's okay.
>> All right.
>> Um,
>> so one thing you got at Dimmitri is this
idea of others contributing and and
knowledge as a public good. Yeah. Which
is so interesting. And that speaks so
much Kurt to the ethos of OCW. And I'm
wondering how you're envisioning that
OCW's foundational beliefs might be
represented within universal learning
either as it is now or has it as it
might be in the future.
>> Yeah, I think it's a really important
thing that we continue to be committed
to. Um,
you know, one of the great things that's
that's being enabled by MIT Learn is is
having all of these lifelong learning
materials available for people in one
place. And so you have a kind of a
seamless discovery experience. Um,
Demetri, you talked, you know, about
personalized learning. I like to think
about what OCW has is, you know,
personal personalizable,
>> right, materials. it's put out there in
a wide openen form so you can grab as
little or as much as you want. We need
enhanced tools which we are working on
to make it easier to do so. But I feel
like um building on that foundation that
we've got with those OCW materials, you
know, shared openly and freely with the
world, you know, provides a really
important foundation that, you know,
will be, you know, uh kind of unleashing
in new ways through through the learn
platform.
>> Yeah.
>> Can I can I make a comment?
>> So, I'd like to give a concrete example
how OCW material could be utilized great
>> in uh in the new world
>> as we envision it. new world hasn't
fully arrived. So in the morning John
Gruber was here uh very distinguished
person in economics who has exceptional
material and um
so the way I would envision it is that
which is sort of starting at the moment
slowly is that you take you can take
parts of of this strong material
uh modularize it make it smaller add
other things to it. So create what I
call uh universal economics
>> and then other people participate as
well. So you provide more of more global
educational system supported with
translations with personalized learning
with customiz with all of we have
launched for example a tutor called ask
team MIT reversed not this is not ask
dim
>> so um and um and this is uh supporting
every aspect so there are roundtrip
influences you can take OCW material
adopt it and you can take some of the
innovative things we have done and
distribute it to everything else open
learning does. That's an in my opinion
an advantage where all of these great
great progress we have made on multiple
arenas we can work together as opposed
to siloed to move to the future.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Can I um lean into another aspect
of the public good? It's not knowledge
is a public good for everyone who speaks
English,
>> right? Um, and having done this work for
25 years, we also have the benefit of
trying some stuff and it worked for a
while and then it didn't and we
composted it and we're going to, you
know, we prepared the soil for for doing
it new, right? We had actually a really
vibrant translations program in the late
as early teens. Yeah.
>> Which was very manually done, handone. I
think we had over well over a thousand
OCW courses translated into like 10
different languages. But over time that
became unsustainable and so we composted
it right the soil is rich right the
interest is really deeply there we see
in the usage statistics how much the
opportunity would be and now with you
know the AI tools that are being brought
now to bear we've cross the tipping
point they're good enough showing up on
learn to really kind of unleash the the
access to this knowledge as a public
good for all languages
>> we now sit on the cusp of and I'm
incredibly excited about that for for
the next years to come.
>> And I can tell you I know Greek.
>> Yes,
>> it's my native language. We checked
Greek. There are only 10 million Greeks.
It's not like it's a gigantic. But I
would like to check in something I
understand that it's of good quality.
>> Yes.
>> A+.
>> Wow.
>> And I can say I didn't do anything. I
mean the AI and you know some of my
students, our engineering team has
worked on it. I mean the quality is
high.
>> Mhm. I mean perfection is outside the
human condition anyway but but uh it is
high quality translations. I would I
have evidence on this because we I tried
experimentally in two high schools by
the way in Greece about 80 people in one
70 people in the other
comments are very positive.
>> Yeah this is a really exciting future.
Um
>> I definitely hope so.
>> I know I'm ready. I'm ready for it.
>> A billionaire we better start. we got to
get working. Um, so in this new future,
you talked about desiloing and working
together as a force to meet our goal of
of reaching 1 billion learners
>> and we have done you know UI is a
reality
>> 50 people across open learning
collaborating on this just to to say
it's not a pipe dream only.
>> No, you're doing it. A+ it's happening.
Um,
>> you don't know if I get an A. A minus. I
have rooms to grow. So,
>> yeah. Okay. A minus. Um,
Kurt, we think and Dana is in the
audience. Yeah. Hi, Dana Doyle. So, we
think a lot about the future of MIT open
education because we've really taken to
heart what you're saying about like why
are why try to be open courseware owls
like these separate entities when we
could be more powerful together. So,
Kurt, could you speak a little bit to
our emerging vision for what MIT Open
Education might become or the processes
we're going through? Yeah, I think it's
it's a really exciting opportunity here
that we get to um reconsider, you know,
broadly the things that are happening
and definitely sustain the things that
that are really key, but then kind of
restructure and take another take
another run at it. Um, you know, we're
in a different world than we were, you
know, five years ago, 10 years ago.
Things are shifting. And so what we've
alluded to for instance in this like um
modularized
and and then wellsupported learning
journeys is one that I think is really
important and
>> to show up for that with the open
education ethos of making sure that it's
freely available you know to everyone
around the world regardless of
institutional affiliation or or
financial situation as a starting point
is really really key you know um it's I
don't know If you uh remember taking a
trip and navigating with paper maps and
if you were a AAA member, you could get
a trip tick, right? And they would do
the routing for you. You know, I feel
like, you know, from a learning pathway
perspective or on the cusp of getting
ready to uh take the leap with a
functional like GPS enabled, just hit
the road and figure it out and get the
verted, hit that coffee shop, you'll
still get there. You don't have to like
have the manually created curated tptic
to tell you where you're going. Again,
some of these some of these emerging
technologies, the ability to personalize
these learning journeys based on the
infrastructure, the personaliz
personalizable because I haven't said
that very often yet. Personalizable
materials that we've got in open
education will really make this make
this possible. So, I'm super excited
about that.
>> I would also like to comment the
following. you know to reach a billion
learners
>> 95 97% of those should be free
>> that is I haven't yet lost it I don't
believe that uh because even if we get
uh 97% of people like it would be naive
of me to believe that uh people in
subaran Africa would would would be
willing or even able to pay even $5 for
this but but but But but uh on the other
hand we need to be sustainable that is
uh you know perhaps you don't know but
uh but uh the the MI the MIT
administration announced and I actually
agree with that it's not against my
wishes that um we had a subsidy of about
$20 million from the institution this
will go to zero in four years so
therefore for for us to be able to
support these visions and of you know
uh we better have the ma the vast
majority in open education but it cannot
be only in open education because we
will not exist.
>> So um
so realistically speaking we organized
open learning to open education that
Dana and Kurt are leading and then we
have a workforce learning and then
universal learning because some of it is
free some of it is not is like
intersecting both of them. Mhm.
>> So uh and I believe that uh we can
achieve both um uh both sustainability
as well as uh significant number of
learners. So that's uh that's an
significant move forward. And speaking
about strategy, I would like to
acknowledge Andrea here from Wikipedia.
You know, Wikipedia uh you heard from
Kurt or or Peter was it uh is uh you
know it is my personal go-to place to
learn something information from
something they have reached four five
billion learners. So I would you know
Wikipedia in my opinion Andrea agrees
because I checked yesterday has some
weaknesses had fantastic success. this
is truly an A+ but there is you know
areas that they don't you know they
don't have uh characteristics they they
don't actually teach you know they they
they
translate information it's not
multimedia it's primarily text we are
hoping in fact we have started the
project together to uh combine forces
you know the gentleman uh in the
previous talked about collaboration
between open forces so to speak.
>> Yeah.
>> I it it is my aspiration anyway that
this collaboration will help both
institutions and most importantly the
world because you know our learners can
can have u significant information from
Wikipedia and Wikipedia learners can
also get significant information from
it. So stay tuned but uh that's a
significant bet. So to to know that is
significant bet whoever comes to my
office I have a list of things when we
accomplish I race it keep it is number
one saw it yesterday so which means I
will only erase it when I think we
succeeded.
>> Oh wow. Okay.
>> So you haven't been to my care and he
sits there he's right
>> you don't you don't like to just cross
them out so you can remember your
accomplishments. No, because I then uh
will focus on the new thing.
>> Then I have then I keep space. I I will
replace it. I had translations.
>> Yes, that's I I erased it.
>> Okay.
I have so much to learn from you.
>> Well,
>> okay.
>> You come to my office. Okay.
>> Not only Zoom.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> Um Kurt, let's look into the future.
>> Yeah.
>> I'm not going to ask you to look 25
years out because we're just going to be
holograms by then. Thank you.
>> Yeah.
>> So 5 years from now,
>> 10 5 10 5 to 10 which is my horizon.
>> Okay. Yeah. That's Yes. Fair.
>> So 5 to 10 years from now, what are the
opportunities for Open Courseware's
legacy to live on but maybe be dynamic
and change and become something new?
>> Yeah. Um I'm going to channel a couple
things from that video. That wonderful
video we saw this morning about
>> that was a plus. Yeah. True. Truly. Yes.
Um
there was something about that moment
2001ish
with some of the forces that were that
were at play right that opened up the op
a kind of a special opportunity somewhat
in that moment right of that moment to
with a simple brilliant brave leap
disrupt the universe as as you will
right
>> and I I look at what's going on with AI
and it's absolutely absolutely certainly
going to disrupt itself, our kind of
relationship with knowledge and how, you
know, how we work with each other on all
of that. It feels like what we've
glimpsed with the emergence of chat GPT
recently and some of this new agentic AI
is like, wow, the first mosaic web
browser and Altavisa and Yahoo search
and maybe some pets.com stuff is in
there too distracting us. But like
sometime over the next I'll say five
years,
>> I'm looking for some way that history
rhymes with what happened 25 years ago.
What's the
opening the refrigerator or on the
exercise bike sudden just like rupture
of of of conception that like what's the
brilliant thing to drop in there? It's
like simple
and can like galvanize this this new
movement for this frankly really at the
moment pretty confusing world that we're
heading into. That's what I'm looking
for and that we play continue to play a
really important role in that.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. That's what I hope for. I have a
prediction on this.
>> Oh, good.
universal learning supported
uh by AI where the entirety of the world
contributes.
>> I have bet the house on that.
>> I have a little question about that.
>> Please.
>> And I don't even like that I'm asking it
but like how do you protect the MIT
brand if everyone is contributing?
or see you know because everybody would
remember that this started at the m you
see I I don't believe you know I I
started the morning saying I love this
institution it's true I have a a deep
affection to it and its people and
students but I definitely don't believe
that we are the only people in the world
that can have exciting thoughts exciting
so I believe smart organizations utilize
the world if you look at um the the the
winning companies of today they they
somehow manage to engage the world for
example Google uses the entire internet
to learn and so forth
>> it's not just you know they have an
algorithm but the the knowledge base so
you know in the end of the day we if if
we succeed in reaching a billion
learners with this initiative and so
forth everybody will remember it's don't
forget learn Everything runs on learn
MIT edu.
>> We have bet the house on that.
>> So there might be Stanford content.
There might be university of uh you know
Lima content but in the end of the day
>> it it runs on MIT on things that that's
my my susp my my bet anyway.
>> Yeah. Thank you. That's helpful. Chris,
did you want to add?
>> Yeah, I want to pick up on that a little
bit. Um this is in the spirit definitely
of kind of radical disruptions in the
universe. Uh you know channel a
provocation from from my friend the
brilliant thinker Bio Akamal. Uh he gave
this talk at the United the UNESCO
digital learning summit this past fall.
um where some of his experiences have
him thinking that what we're heading
towards actually is a is a big reset and
perhaps a real frankly a really useful
one about the very concept of authorship
of ideas, right? when this incredible
new species that we've created out of
our knowledge kind of gets in the middle
there,
maybe there's there's a a sort of
letting go of the concepts of ownership
and authorship that get very imshed with
things like brands. And I don't know how
this is going to play out, but um I feel
like there's there's momentum that's
leading us in this direction, right?
that's going to be provocative in some
really interesting ways, you know. So,
we have to we have to have the right way
of holding this.
>> Yeah.
>> But if you look at the scientific
experience, I write papers with my
colleague from Amsterdam Digen Herto. I
write papers and books with my colleague
in Germany and uh we work it's a very
intern the scientific endeavor is a very
much a collaboration endeavor right
100 years ago it's the single scientist
and so we engage our students and so
forth why not in education actually
universal AI has you know admittedly
they were visiting professors at MIT but
we have a visitor from Greece a visitor
from from the from the Netherlands
a visitor from University of Seattle. I
mean they are all MIT related but and 1
plus 1 is bigger than two. I mean you
know you can't tell. I mean the so I
actually believe that uh you know the
the key objective is to impact the world
positively
everything is on learn MIT will get a s
a s and I would like also to also share
with the audience a personal story of
Jack vest whom I was a big fan of. Jack
felt that uh in his 12 years as a
president uh his two most important uh
contributions to the world was OCW
>> which is our MIT stories number two and
our MIT stories number three the the the
women faculty movement which I would
like to preview. So we you just saw this
was the second story on MIT stories. We
are working on number three. One of my
colleagues uh Lana Scott is working on
the matter. I'm hoping that Sally
when her time to
>> to change will say well open learning
>> it's universal whatever we do and so
forth would be a defining moment in her
life.
>> Yeah that's really exciting. I
definitely believe that I would succeed
on that.
>> Yeah, you got to write Sally Sally's
dream on the top of your whiteboard. You
know,
>> she knows already. We talked.
>> Okay, that's good.
>> Um, I feel like now would be a great
time to open it up to questions in the
audience because you've all said, you've
both said
>> good
>> several provocative things that I think
people might want to pick up on.
>> No questions.
I was expecting you
>> couple of
>> the body language suggested
>> Kathy.
Oh
>> hello
>> number two.
>> Um so I have a question. Um I I totally
believe in this modularization
movement. But I also um know that um OCW
users um like this opening of the MIT
classroom and getting that feeling of
being in the classroom. And I kind of I
want to hear about how you see what
happens in the classroom in the future.
What how is the how is the MIT
classroom? What's happening in the
classroom?
>> You mean residentially? residentially
because that's one of the really I mean
>> well
>> they want modularization but they also
want to be in the classroom with the
students
>> well I have a proposal to the MIT
faculty to do something like that I
believe the future of residential
education is hybrid where I don't
believe we should teach uh you know is
uh Gil Strang here I saw him in the
morning so suppose you want to learn
algebra He has exceptionally good
lectures really A++
you know uh but on the other hand if you
want to understand
uh you know for the residential
experience you you can utilize hybrid
for learning the theories and so forth
but if you want to to solve the real
world application at least for our
residential students you can you can you
can have a flip classroom Esther Duo was
talking about that
>> we already do that though
>> we do that and I would like to continue
I think but But in a in a larger I mean
not many classes are are hybrid I would
say. So I have a proposal to the you
know I've come from the Sloan school
about doing the there's no hybrid degree
at MIT
none MIT does not give it will be a
first of its kind. So that would be a
step in the right direction. So uh to be
honest given the financial pressures it
would be I would say I would be
surprised if the faculty who or in
ordinary years they will say no. I'm
optimistic that
first of all I think it's a good idea
but but in addition
uh and and if we do that we can actually
educate more students at MIT you know uh
10x not you know that's my this is a bit
more futuristic but we'll have evidence
on this because there will be a it has
to be an MIT vote we shall see I'm
optimistic
>> yeah I'd like to respond briefly to that
kind of at a different level which is I
predict that our online learning
materials will continue to show faculty
teaching on chalkboards for many years
to come,
>> right? And we will continue to get
questions. You guys still using chalk?
Yeah, we are. Because it's a really
really valuable pedagogical approach. Um
those chalkboard lectures will become
less, you know, 110 minutes long
>> and more, you know, carved up or at
least discoverable in smaller pieces.
But we'll still be showing the
chalkboard for for many years. And that
and that sense of
>> I have no difficulties with that
actually.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> I'm okay. I
>> I'm not a particularly good ch how do
you call it?
>> Chalkboard instructor,
>> but I know others are Wow.
>> Yeah.
>> You have to have good handwriting.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I am excluded
>> and more patience
>> by definition.
>> Yeah.
>> Kathy.
>> Yeah. So I'm wondering um when you talk
about the universal education piece and
then having MIT content there but also
allowing other universities or colleges
to contribute. Do you think there's
certain universities and colleges in the
US that would be more likely and some
less likely and the same outside the US?
>> Um I'll tell you what I know for sure
and then the other is conjecture. So you
know we have we have started uh this
phase two with the top engineering
school in Greece. I have lots of
connections there. So I have tried to
connect with some of my colleagues at
MIT to develop AI and drug design AI and
uh you know satellite data and so forth.
They told me yes but they haven't done
anything. But the people in Greece
actually both of them were MIT educated
but they are professors there. They
start doing it. I've seen what they have
done. Excellent, excellent content. So
the answer is definitely uh from
universities abroad and I have another
one more I have two examples. it's it's
happening whether Stanford would
contribute in this effort where MIT is
leading I have my doubts but but uh but
I I see why not uh you know multiple
uh
take for example a two-year college that
uh they might have see we at MIT I don't
think we have particular expertise in
teaching two-year college students I
mean I have none some of my colleagues
have more some colleagues have more but
if you have very dedicated exceptionally
good instructor s in the pedagogy they
can contribute and if it's if we feel
that is good for the overall after all
the fundamentals are more I would
definitely see that I will see four year
college Williams college might be you
know I do believe the major research
universities in the beginning they will
not if it becomes a a global movement
you never know but don't forget we
control quality
>> and would you control who you invite in
or would you allow people would you
control who you invite in or would it
be?
>> Everybody can propose.
>> Okay, that's
>> Everybody can propose
>> but we have the judgment of whether
>> Yes.
>> Yes. Uh thank you. Uh this is a very
interesting thing and I have sort of
three pieces of
>> one at a time though.
>> Oh, I'll I'll do the
>> I cannot keep them straight. That's the
problem. You already observed I lost
one.
>> Okay. Um if you could say a few words
then and take one of them. The PK
through 12 initiative. Much of the old
school open learning is college level
courses but uh you have a new initiative
to address through to the earlier grades
and uh so that's the first of three
quick things.
>> So how PK12 look we already have some
experience in high schools in Greece. We
have two of the major high schools and
we are currently talking with the
minister of education for all of the
high schools of Greece and it has moved
quite far. This is high schools people
that are 16, 17, 18. I have personally
no experience of how to teach five,
seven years old, 80 years olds. I mean I
don't have and what we develop is not
appropriate for that but my colleagues
in PK12 have some ideas. So
you know would like to participate in
this effort. My view is that the current
MIT how MIT is structured it's quite
likely that our content will be quite
appropriate for 18 17 16 but then as you
go lower ages you have to do different
things you have to educate the educators
so uh my colleagues have good ideas on
that we are still developing our
strategy stay tuned on that
>> okay well and that ties into the second
piece which is uh
it's one thing to learn from a lecture
from from courseware that's online but
there are a lot of things that hands-on
materials are useful to support their
learning process particularly as you go
down to younger students.
>> I completely agree with that.
>> And then the question is how do you work
in either a subscription model or the
ability to purchase and then for people
with economic need how do you arrange
scholarships for things like the
>> kits? We hope philanthropy can help that
is uh
we are also willing to offer you know my
the primary the primary objective is
impact positive impact in the world
financial sustainability constraint but
it doesn't have to be everything we do
has to be appropriately so we we have a
reasonable strategy on that and um I am
all right offering things for free uh
assuming we are financially sustainable
because I have to make certain
You know, imagine if on my hands uh open
learning collapses. That would be I have
a pretty successful career at MIT, but
this would be remembered as a big
failure of this fellow.
It's not in my intentions. So, I would
like to do both.
>> That all sounds great. And that connects
directly to the the third piece which is
I agree with you very much that a lot of
what's out there is not worth the the
space that take takes up but and you
have to keep the quality high but I
think that that is an opportunity for
the MIT brand to be applied to things
that came from elsewhere that are
appropriate particularly in the realm of
these kits and things like that that are
available to support
>> MIT brand will be there that is if
something is on learn MIT TDU within
universal AI MIT started it and it's a
module that a professor at at uh Carne
Melon will develop which is actually
this is cooking already uh but an
individual I don't think it will be the
brand will be diluted I really don't
believe that unless we make mistakes on
quality if we make mistakes on quality
we delude the brand but if we don't
>> we have a question
>> yeah you speak about um positive impact
worldwide.
>> Oh, sorry.
Yeah, you speak about positive impact
worldwide and practical applications of
uh of the learning. Um there's a
shortage of trades people. Um you know,
>> what what have you thought about that?
And I I'll give a personal anecdote. My
refrigerator broke. I didn't know how to
fix it. I went online. There is there's
nothing about practical applications,
fixing appliances, whatever. But on on
open courseware, I I looked at the fluid
dynamics portions of some courses and
electrical circuit board design so I
could troubleshoot the refrigerator and
those types of things. I also used it as
a learning experience for my kids. But
I'm thinking people in in developing
countries, it could be something that's,
you know, necessary for them to survive.
um it could be a path to uh get the
financial security so then they can move
on to the higher level education. So I
just go ahead.
>> Yeah. Um I I think you rais a really
important point. You know the materials
that we put out have a sort of an MIT
frame on it, right? There's frequently a
lot more theoretical grounding than than
the the sort of typical trades person uh
expectation would be. But one of the
wonderful things about working in an
ecosystem with others is we get to work
with for instance schools and educators
who do really understand how to do you
know relevant education for people from
from a wide range of needs such as you
know how to how to be the most awesome
refrigeration repair person you can be
you know so Sarah you've you've done
stuff for instance you know building
collaboration with community colleges
who have a little bit more of a
footprint in that direction maybe you
care to share an aspect of that?
>> I mean, it's just really wonderful to
see open education in action and to see
our content adapted for different
learners who then go on and do really
powerful things with them.
>> Yeah, I'm glad to hear that you found
some value in working on your
refrigerator from open courseware.
>> That's great.
>> Yeah.
>> Um, hi. So, uh, I was in the internet,
so I've come live. I'm hybrid. Thank
you. Sorry I couldn't be here earlier,
but I just wanted to first share
something and then I have a comment on
something. The first one is just a
really cool history point. I was lucky
to be a young MIT corporation member
when we launched OCW and when we hired
Chuck Vest who was extraordinary and I I
think the points you made about not only
OCW but also the women's reports and
getting more equality for like all of us
in um but I want to share something that
still relates to us that's deeper in
history as it rhymes as you were talking
about. Um, so in 1865
is the first year that MIT taught
classes. And there's this super cool
timeline that's on the wall if you kind
of go down the infinite quarter and take
a little right into building three. And
in 1865, it says on February 20th, free
the the first classes were held in the
Merkantile Building. And it goes on and
talks about more and
LOL free courses began in the evenings
year one um open to both men and women
taught by MIT faculty under the opaces
of lol you know and and that's from an
earlier time but just isn't it amazing
to think of our our early days the first
faculty and that the the threads of OCW
were going to teach for free obviously
it wasn't digital uh so you had to be in
the Boston area but everyone could join
for free which was amazing and of course
MIT is a land grant uh university with
all of our neighbors in other states and
so we were part of that idea of everyone
open learning for everybody and
including the community so just a po
cool point of history for everybody and
then the second point is just um I was
lucky to be a student of Woody Flowers
who was part of creating first robotics
and O27 and now we have Fab Labs and so
I'm just so excited about what you were
talking about which is the the
partnerships we can do we don't have to
make all these things but Carnegie made
all these libraries. I think there's
more libraries than McDonald's in the
United States. So, we can partner with
them. And I I just brought to share, you
know, most kids, they they know about
their phone, uh, but they don't know
about the board inside. That's just a
Raspberry Pi. Or they could do, you
know, air quality sensors and these
things. How do we get the physical? And
it just I've been so inspired by how OCW
has been doing great work with partners.
And I think we can triple down on that
because a lot of young people are also
facing loneliness. And so a way to not
be lonely is to be in a community. And
so having not just the course, let's not
have AI just teach us, let's have each
other and have AI helping us, which also
wasn't invented in a media lab way.
>> Um
>> anyway, so just a congrats to everybody
on this and then
>> No, no, but I would like to respond to
something.
>> Yeah, I know. Just congrats to OCW. I'm
so happy where we've come. But uh one of
the areas that I think the plan I
outlined does not address is the the
inperson connection. So I have been
talking quite extensively actually to
Neil Gersonfeld the Fab Labs. Fab Labs
for those of you who don't know is uh a
significant success. They have
>> there's massive number Fab Labs. I've
heard this and there's going to be a new
fab right here. Fab and Fab 26 this
summer. All of the community from all
over the world will be here at the end
of July.
>> But I would like to connect with with
what we are doing. So we have a
collaboration with Neil. I mean at the
moment I haven't even discussed it with
my colleague because I'm not convinced
we'll succeed but if we succeed I'll
bring it. So uh the idea would be you
know take AI for for example you can
build a a model like that in which
individual uh labs around the world can
do things can meet themselves and so
forth. they have some hybrid education
where we at open learning teach courses
and so forth teach modules rather but
there will be an in-person component at
but at the distributed level uh so we
have some experiment with cyber security
first and AI second so we shall see but
if we succeed on that believe me I I
because I I definitely believe that
while I'm a big proponent of hybrid
education I also believe that the
inerson The human component in education
is nothing to laugh about. That is the
loneliness aspect and so forth. I mean
>> opportunity.
>> It's an opportunity but you know this is
at the experiment you know I haven't
even read write wrote it in my board
because if I write it I only erase it if
this might not it's an experiment in a
way a silent experiment although it's
not so silent today.
>> That's right.
>> We have time for one last question. Yes
sir.
Hi. So,
several studies from MIT have shown that
using AI to supplement learning can
sometimes actually hinder those like
learning faculties in the brain. So,
my question is how do you decide how
much AI is enough?
>> Well, I can tell you what what our
answer is. We have launched as I
mentioned
>> I don't know why but
I think the mic did not like what I was
saying. So it says silence as the guy.
>> We can take a hint.
>> Okay. So we launched uh ask team which
is a tutor system. A tutor system. You
see one of the issues with AI it gives
sometimes wrong answers hallucinates.
However, ask team when it as a helper
for problem does not hallucinate. Why?
Because we give the answers the the the
we constructed the problem sets. The the
answers are known. AI knows that. The
only thing is that it does not reveal

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Lecture 11: One-Shot Deviation Principle and Bargaining

MIT OpenCourseWare

May 18, 2026

Universal Learning Framework

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