MIT launches Laboratory for Social Machines with major Twitter investment | MIT News

Elsewhere in the press release: "Though funded by Twitter, the LSM will have complete operational and academic independence."

"“The Laboratory for Social Machines will experiment in areas of public communication and social organization where humans and machines collaborate on problems that can’t be solved manually or through automation alone,” says Deb Roy, an associate professor at the Media Lab who will lead the LSM, and who also serves as Twitter’s chief media scientist. "Social feedback loops based on analysis of public media and data can be an effective catalyst for increasing accountability and transparency — creating mutual visibility among institutions and individuals."
"With this investment, Twitter is seizing the opportunity to go deeper into research to understand the role Twitter and other platforms play in the way people communicate, the effect that rapid and fluid communication can have and apply those findings to complex societal issues," says Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter."

MIT launches Laboratory for Social Machines with major Twitter investment | MIT News