Economist Milton Friedman famously argued that a firm’s sole focus should be maximizing profits for shareholders—not “social responsibilities” unrelated to finance. But these days, many investors care how companies influence their communities, says HBS Associate Professor Elisabeth Kempf. In fact, most people that she and fellow researchers surveyed said that companies shouldn’t lay off workers even if the cuts create value for shareholders. Read more: (fb)

At the Generative AI Symposium held in Klarman Hall, Harvard faculty, students, and staff came together to examine how AI is reshaping higher education. Karim R. Lakhani, Dorothy and Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration and founding chair of the Digital Data Design Institute at HBS, opened the event by highlighting how AI has the potential to transform how we work, teach, learn, and conduct research. HBS Assistant Professor Iavor Bojinov described how students in his AI-native course use tools to prepare for class and build companies, but also raised concerns about how easy it is to bypass learning entirely. Read more about the conversations shaping AI’s role in research and teaching: (fb)