For entrepreneurial MIT students seeking to apply their artificial intelligence expertise to meaningful causes, the Media Arts and Sciences course MAS.664 (AI for Impact) has become a transformative experience. When the global pandemic emerged, this mission gained unprecedented urgency. Merely weeks before campus closures in 2020, a dedicated team from this class pioneered an open-source platform designed to identify coronavirus exposures while safeguarding personal privacy—a groundbreaking achievement in AI technology for social impact.
This innovation became the foundation of Safe Paths, among America's earliest contact tracing applications. The MIT students collaborated with volunteers from universities, medical centers, and corporations worldwide, releasing their code alongside a widely acclaimed white paper detailing their privacy-preserving, decentralized protocol. Their efforts extended to partnering with organizations implementing the app within their communities. Eventually, this technology evolved into the nonprofit PathCheck Foundation, which now works with public health entities across Guam, Cyprus, Hawaii, Minnesota, Alabama, and Louisiana to deliver critical exposure notifications.
"The creation of Safe Paths exemplifies the unique conviction among MIT researchers that 'we can develop solutions benefiting people worldwide,'" observes Media Lab Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar, who co-teaches the course with Media Lab Professor Alex "Sandy" Pentland and Media Lab Lecturer Joost Bonsen. "To possess such passion and ambition—coupled with the confidence that your innovations can achieve global deployment—is truly remarkable."
Originally conceived by Pentland two decades ago as Development Ventures, AI for Impact has cultivated numerous thriving enterprises. Among the class ventures Pentland incubated or co-founded are Dimagi, Cogito, Ginger, Prosperia, and Sanergy—each representing successful applications of artificial intelligence entrepreneurship education.
Each semester, students face an ambitious challenge: develop a business plan capable of positively impacting one billion people across multiple nations. "Not every class project becomes a business," Pentland explains, "but 20 to 30 percent of students launch ventures—an exceptional outcome for an entrepreneurship course."
Real-World Transformations
The statistics behind Dimagi illustrate remarkable success. Their flagship product CommCare has equipped frontline health workers to serve over 400 million people across 130+ countries. In maternal and child healthcare alone, Dimagi's platform has registered one in every 110 pregnancies globally. Throughout the past year, numerous governments worldwide—from Sierra Leone and Somalia to New York and Colorado—deployed CommCare applications for Covid-19 response efforts.
Similarly, spinoffs like Cogito, Prosperia, and Ginger have evolved into highly successful enterprises. Cogito assists a million people daily in accessing essential healthcare; Prosperia manages social support payments for 80 million people throughout Latin America; and Ginger provides mental health services to over 1 million individuals—demonstrating the power of AI solutions for global health challenges.
The passion driving these ventures reflects a core philosophy of the course: MIT students increasingly seek entrepreneurial opportunities that generate positive social transformation. During spring 2021, promising student projects included tools empowering residents of underserved communities to transition from renting to homeownership and gain greater control over community health initiatives.
"It's evident that our graduates aspire to meaningful lives... they want to impact their world," Pentland states. "This course connects them with like-minded peers and provides guidance for launching ventures that achieve these goals."
Students entering the course typically bring diverse interests. Through guest lectures, case studies of social entrepreneurship projects, and exposure to an extensive ecosystem of expertise and funding, they refine their broad concepts into specific, viable projects—perfecting their approach to AI technology for social impact.
Pioneering Pandemic Response
When Raskar began co-teaching in 2019, he introduced a "Big AI" perspective to the Development Ventures curriculum, inspired by an AI for Impact team he had established during his tenure at Facebook. "I recognized that companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon possess sufficient data about all of us to address major societal challenges—climate, transportation, health, and beyond," he explains. "We must seriously consider how to leverage AI and data for positive social impact while preserving privacy."
Early in the spring 2020 semester, as students began developing their projects, Raskar presented the emerging coronavirus outbreak as a potential focus area. Students like Kristen Vilcans immediately recognized both the urgency and opportunity. She and ten classmates united to develop a Covid-19-focused project—demonstrating how contact tracing AI development can emerge in crisis situations.
"Students felt empowered to address this alarming new virus," Raskar recalls. "They immediately began developing data- and AI-based solutions to one of pandemic response's most critical challenges: breaking the chain of infections. They created and launched among America's first digital contact tracing and exposure notification systems—an early warning mechanism that engaged the public while protecting privacy."
Raskar reflects on the moment when a core student group coalesced into a team: "It was extraordinary for such a significant portion of the class to spontaneously unite, saying 'let's do this, immediately.' It became as much a movement as a venture."
Discussions soon centered on creating open-source, privacy-first digital tools for Covid-19 contact tracing. For the following two weeks, until the campus shutdown in March 2020, the team occupied adjacent conference rooms in the Media Lab and established a dedicated Slack channel. As they reached out to friends, colleagues, and mentors, participation expanded to nearly 1,600 people collaborating virtually from across the globe.
Kaushal Jain, a Harvard Business School student who had cross-registered for the spring 2020 course to engage with the MIT ecosystem, became an early Safe Paths contributor. He drafted an initial venture plan and began working with external organizations to structure it as a nonprofit company, eventually leading funding and partnership initiatives.
Vilcans, a graduate student in system design and management, served as Safe Paths' communications lead through July 2020 while maintaining part-time employment at Draper Laboratory and continuing her studies.
"There are moments when you feel compelled to dive in, contribute, and work tirelessly," she reflects. "This experience was also a crucial lesson in managing burnout and balancing personal needs while contributing to a high-impact team—essential understanding for future leadership."
MIT later recognized Vilcans' contributions with the 2020 SDM Student Award for Leadership, Innovation, and Systems Thinking.
Jain also describes the course as exceeding his expectations. "I formed strong friendships with like-minded individuals from diverse backgrounds," he shares. "One crucial lesson was maintaining flexibility about your work. Remain open to opportunities—whether emerging from crisis or from something you believe could transform the world—and then pursue it wholeheartedly."
