A new interdisciplinary research center at MIT, led by economist Sendhil Mullainathan, will focus on using artificial intelligence to augment—rather than mimic or replace—human decision-making. The center will bring together experts in the economic, computational, and behavioral sciences to create systems optimized for the complementary strengths of human and artificial intelligence.  Initial plans call for developing algorithms and tools that work alongside people to address challenges in education, economic mobility, and scientific discovery.  By emphasizing AI as a tool that amplifies human intelligence, the center seeks to shift the research narrative away from automation and toward augmentation.  The goal is not only to produce scholars, experiments, and publications that draw deeply on both computational techniques and behavioral research, but ultimately to design systems that can function as “bicycles for the mind.”