The Impact of AI: From Financial Investments to Scientific Investigations—A Fireside Chat Between Peter Galison and Andrew W. Lo

In this wide-ranging conversation conducted at Harvard University’s Inaugural AI Summit in October 2025, MIT’s Andrew W. Lo and Harvard’s Peter Galison examine how AI is transforming scientific research, economic decision-making, and collaborative problem-solving. They trace AI’s evolution from automation toward systems that increasingly resemble partners in thought, enabling new forms of understanding across fields such as physics, finance, biology, and economics. Galison highlights how AI and advanced computation are becoming essential for handling massive data sets, including those used to image black holes, while Lo discusses the challenge of embedding ethical and regulatory norms such as fiduciary duty into AI systems. Together, they explore both the promise of AI in accelerating discovery and the risks of misuse, reflecting on how rapid advances in computation may propel science, reshape the economy, and push us closer to artificial general intelligence.