Most people know that loss of smell can signal Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and other metabolic disorders — but few realize AI can now detect these changes, too. Professor Dhar’s work with “oMNIST,” one of the first standardized smell datasets, could revolutionize early diagnostics, saving lives by spotting disease years before symptoms appear.

Decades before AI was a buzzword, Professor Vasant Dhar brought machine learning to Wall Street, building some of the earliest systematic trading strategies. His new book, “Thinking With Machines: The Brave New World of AI,” offers a practical guide for deciding when to trust machine intelligence — and when humans must step in.

With ChatGPT and other AI tools transforming education, parents want to ensure their kids are thinking critically — not outsourcing learning to machines. Professor Dhar offers five essential questions parents should ask teachers and administrators to keep AI a tool for learning rather than a replacement for it.

Imagine a phone that warns you about spoiled food, a smart home that detects gas leaks, or a wearable that alerts you to metabolic changes before you feel sick. Professor Dhar explains how olfaction research could unleash the next wave of consumer technology — and why privacy and data security must come first.

Ethics and regulation aren’t just academic concerns — they affect lives. Professor Dhar explores what’s at stake when a smell-based diagnostic misfires or an AI teaching assistant gives biased advice, and why transparency and interpretability must be built into every decision system we deploy.

Beyond screen-time limits, parents need to teach kids how to think with AI — and how to question it. Professor Dhar shows how to prepare the next generation to be savvy, ethical decision-makers in a world where human and machine intelligence will increasingly collaborate.