Name: WALL-E
Start: 2025-09-23T19:00:00-04:00
Location: Coolidge Corner Theatre

Do AI tools like ChatGPT harm critical thinking abilities?
Before the film, MIT Media Lab research scientist Dr. Nataliya Kos'myna will share how findings from her recent study “Your Brain on Chat GPT” echo this beloved Pixar classic’s warnings about the dangers of over-reliance on automation. Read more about Dr. Kos’myna’s study here.
About the Film:
Winner, Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In the distant future, Earth is overrun with garbage and devoid of plant and animal life. WALL-E, short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class, is the last robot left on the planet. Lonely, with only a pet cockroach to keep him company, WALL-E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search probe named EVE.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Natalia Kos’myna is a Research Scientist at MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group and a Visiting Faculty Researcher at Google.
She has over 15 years of experience in developing and designing end-to-end brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Coming from a background in artificial intelligence, neuroscience and human-computer interaction (HCI), she is passionate about the idea of creating a partnership between AI and human intelligence, a fusion of the machine with the human brain.
Nataliya obtained her Ph.D in 2015 in the domain of non-invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) as a part of EHCI team of Université Grenoble-Alpes, France. Most of her projects are focused around BCIs in the context of consumer grade applications. Before joining MIT Media Lab - Fluid Interfaces group in 2017, she was a post-doc at Hybrid team (VR/AR), Inria Rennes, France. Nataliya is a public speaker, author of multiple research papers and reviewer of numerous professional journals and conferences. Dr. Kosmyna often collaborates with teams from Boston Dynamics, Microsoft Research, NASA. Dr. Kosmyna’s solutions are successfully deployed in the classrooms, hospitals, workspaces, aerospace, Lower Earth Orbit, and on the Moon. These projects are also presented to general public and were tested by more than 15000 people in 2015-2024. Nataliya won multiple awards for her work, among which is L’Oréal-UNESCOWomen in Science award she received in 2016. Nataliya was also named as one of 10 Top French Talent 2017 from MIT Innovators Under 35.