People won’t trust companies that they think are causing harm, Gosline said, and they are empowered to join social movements against companies. “Having the courage and ethics to say we want to cultivate a system and a relationship with our customers whereby we don’t simply always extract, but we also share value - that’s what leads to loyalty in the long term.”Īt the inaugural MIT Thinker-Fest, hosted by the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and Thinkers50, Gosline and Sanjeev Vohra, senior managing director and global lead of applied intelligence at Accenture, discussed how companies can keep humans at the center of their AI efforts, and why that’s important. “Leadership involves absolutely centering the human and being rigorous before releasing into the wild things that affect these humans,” said Renée Richardson Gosline, a senior lecturer and principal research scientist at MIT Sloan. “Cellulose is a really recurring material that can reoccur much faster than, say, petroleum,” Brunato says.It also highlights an important area that companies using or thinking about using AI need to confront: how to embrace AI in a way that doesn’t harm humans. “We’re creating a sequin that’s a much more simplified material and can have this natural sparkle.” Instead, Radiant Matter uses cellulose derived from wood to create a natural iridescence without the use of dyes, petroleum, or metals. “They’re petroleum based and have dyes and chemicals and added metals to create the sparkle,” she says. We look at the way nature does it.”īrunato explains that the majority of sequins currently on the market are either made with PVC or PET, which are both plastics. There are no metal coatings on their wings.

“We’re inspired by the way that nature creates sparkle: A lot of what we do is look at peacock feathers and beetles’ wings and butterflies,” says Elissa Brunato, the founder of Radiant Matter. Enter: Radiant Matter, a material-innovation company finding new ways to shine. It’s only appropriate that McCartney, a pioneer of sustainable fashion, would find a more eco-friendly alternative to regular old sequins. Designed by Stella McCartney, the formfitting piece deserves a closer look. In one of the most striking images from her April Vogue cover shoot, Cara Delevingne poses in a rolling green field while wearing a paillette-covered peach jumpsuit.

What is matter made of