MIT’s Bold New Class Asks the Big Question: What Do We Owe Each Other?
In the heart of MIT’s tech-driven campus, a quietly radical course is turning heads, not for its algorithms or lab breakthroughs, but for the deep, philosophical question it dares to ask: What do we owe each other?
Offered through the Program in Media Arts and Sciences, the new class isn’t your typical STEM fare. Instead, it pushes students to confront the moral and societal implications of living in a world increasingly governed by AI, climate instability, and geopolitical tension. It's a curriculum designed to equip the next generation of engineers, coders, and scientists with something far less tangible than code, a moral compass.
The course combines readings in philosophy and ethics with real-world dilemmas that students will almost certainly face in their careers. Whether designing autonomous systems, managing data privacy, or deploying AI in healthcare, today’s tech leaders are being asked to make decisions that shape human lives, and this class insists that those choices require more than technical expertise.
“It’s about responsibility in an era where the pace of change is outpacing our institutions,” said MIT Media Lab director Dava Newman. “We’re asking students to think deeply about what kind of future they want to help build, and who gets included in that future.”
The course is also a reflection of a growing movement in science and tech education that prioritizes ethics alongside innovation. As concerns mount over AI bias, surveillance, climate justice, and automation, universities are beginning to recognize that brilliant minds need ethical training as much as technical skills.
Students say the class has reshaped their perspectives, offering space for reflection in an environment that often prizes speed and output above all else.
“It’s easy to get swept up in solving problems,” said one student. “This class asks us to step back and ask: Are we solving the right ones?”
MIT hopes the course will become a model for institutions worldwide, embedding ethics at the heart of technological progress, not as an afterthought, but as a guiding principle.