Laboratory for Social Machines

The Laboratory for Social Machines (LSM) at the MIT Media Lab develops data science methods – based primarily on natural language processing, network science and machine learning – to map and analyze communication and interaction in human networks, and to design tools and field experiments to investigate new forms of human networks. LSM’s core research areas of media analytics and design are being applied in three ways:

(1) Analysis of large-scale media ecosystems and design of network interventions that encourage new kinds of media consumption behavior
(2) Design and deployment of technologies that support children’s early literacy through small-scale networks connecting children, parents and coaches
(3) Development of scalable listening technologies designed to surface underheard voices and create empathic bridges among communities

Core research methods include both media analytics (NLP, social network structure, diffusion dynamics, cross-medium interactions) and media design (apps, browser plugins, interactive data visualizations, data-grounded storytelling).

Media and the public sphere work:
(*) mapping and understanding public sphere conversation through semantic and network analysis methods;
(*) surfacing unheard voices through new research on situated listening and narrative intelligence; and
(*) creating bridges across political, social and cultural boundaries through tools designed to create new connections, empathy and trust among people