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Ethics and Governance of AI

The rapidly growing capabilities and increasing presence of AI-based systems in our lives raise pressing questions about the impact, governance, ethics, and accountability of these technologies around the world. How can we narrow the knowledge gap between AI “experts” and the variety of people who use, interact with, and are impacted by these technologies? How do we harness the potential of AI systems while ensuring that they do not exacerbate existing inequalities and biases, or even create new ones?

At the Berkman Klein Center, a wide range of research projects, community members, programs, and perspectives seek to address the big questions related to the ethics and governance of AI. Our first two and half years of work in this area are reviewed in "5 Key Areas of Impact," and a selection of work from across our community is found below.

Our Work 142

Event
Dec 3, 2024 @ 12:15 PM

Artificial Intelligence and The Future of Privacy

A Conversation with Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer and Former FTC Commissioner, Julie Brill

Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Julie Brill and Harvard Law School Visiting Professor Aileen Nielsen will explore the current landscape of privacy regulation in the United States…

Event
Apr 24, 2024 @ 5:30 PM

metaLAB April work-share: Petra Molnar on AI & Surveillance

New Book: The Walls Have Eyes

Special Work-share: Petra Molnar Book talk: "The Walls Have Eyes"From robo-dogs at the border to AI lie detectors used on refugees, new technologies are increasingly…

Publication
Jun 22, 2023

Vectors of AI Governance

Juxtaposing the U.S. Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2022 with The EU Artificial Intelligence Act

This article juxtaposes proposed legislation in the US and EU for regulating AI and reflects on the future direction of AI governance.

Event
Apr 13, 2023 @ 4:00 PM

Student Salon Series: Balancing AI Innovation and Regulation - what is the role of AI auditing at the time of ChatGPTs arms race?

Join us on April 13, for the Berkman Klein Center’s second Student Salon Series event, Balancing AI Innovation and Regulation -- what is the role of AI auditing at the time of…

Publication
Mar 21, 2023

Towards Responsible Quantum Technology

The expected societal impact of quantum technologies (QT) urges us to proceed and innovate responsibly. This article proposes a conceptual framework for Responsible QT.

News
Nov 14, 2022

BKC Comment to the FTC on Transparency and Commercial Surveillance

On behalf of BKC and its projects and associates, the Cyberlaw Clinic submitted a comment regarding the FTC's ANPR related to commercial surveillance and data privacy.

News
Aug 24, 2022

Recommendations for the U.S. National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct in the Technology Sector

Takeaways from a recent Consultation on Ethical and Rights-Respecting Technology for the National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct

Takeaways from a recent Consultation on Ethical and Rights-Respecting Technology for the National Action Plan on Responsible Business Conduct in collaboration with the Global…

News
Aug 8, 2022

BKC Scholars Helped Guide Colombia's AI Policy Implementation as Part of the Country's 'AI Expert Mission'

The AI Expert Mission to the Republic of Colombia, appointed by President Iván Duque, concluded its work in July 2022 after nine months of service and collaboration across…

Event
Nov 2, 2021 @ 12:00 PM

Accounting for AI — a Comparison of Methods

VIDEO: Join the discussion about the pros and cons of different methods of holding AI accountable...

News
Sep 2, 2021

Open Access Resources for AI in Schools

From the AI Policy Research Clinic hosted by BKC and the City of Helsinki

From the AI Policy Research Clinic hosted by BKC and the City of Helsinki

News
Aug 12, 2021

A New Approach to Experiential Learning: Scholars inform the City of Helsinki on ethical AI applications for schools during BKC’s AI Policy Research Clinic

Specialized global team of early career scholars examine ways to use AI technology to support public school students and teachers

A recap of BKC's AI Policy Research Clinic held in the summer of 2021

News
Jul 22, 2021

Five Years of Assembly

Zenzele Best summarizes and celebrates five years of the Assembly Program

Event
May 17, 2021 @ 4:00 PM

Assembly Project Fellowship Showcase

An inside look at the work of the 2021 Assembly Fellows on Disinformation, Privacy, and Ethical AI

An inside look at the work of the 2021 Assembly Fellows on Disinformation, Privacy, and Ethical AI

News
Feb 23, 2021

Ethics and Governance of AI and Robotics

A contribution to the SIENNA project

A contribution to the SIENNA project

News
Jan 28, 2021

Gaining power, losing control

In the wake of the Capitol riots and the deplatforming of Donald Trump, Harvard Law tech expert Jonathan Zittrain explores the clash of free speech and public health online

In the wake of the Capitol riots and the deplatforming of Donald Trump, Harvard Law tech expert Jonathan Zittrain explores the clash of free speech and public health online

News
Jan 25, 2021

BKC Assembly announces 2021 Assembly Fellowship cohort

Five teams from inside and outside academia to further develop interventions in the areas of disinformation, cybersecurity, and ethical AI

Five teams from inside and outside academia to further develop interventions in the areas of disinformation, cybersecurity, and ethical AI

News
Jan 22, 2021

Summary Report of Expert Roundtable on Colombia’s Draft AI Ethical Framework

Lens on Youth Issues

Key takeaways from an expert roundtable offering feedback on Colombia’s draft “Ethical Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Colombia.”

Publication
Jan 11, 2021

Skin in the Game: Modulate AI and Addressing the Legal and Ethical Challenges of Voice Skin Technology

A BKC Policy Practice Case Study & Educational Toolkit

An educational toolkit that includes a case study, a teaching note, and a background primer.

News
Dec 17, 2020

Some Reflections on the Role of Government in Trustworthy AI

Urs Gasser shares his remarks from the Launch Event of Colombia’s AI Ethics Framework.

News
Dec 17, 2020

Video: Development of Colombia's AI Ethics Framework

A short video on BKC Policy Practice: AI’s work with the Colombian government on its AI ethics framework, an implementation of Colombia’s national AI policy.

News
Dec 17, 2020

Q&A: Armando Guio Español on AI Ethics and Policy

BKC affiliate drafted Ethical Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Colombia

BKC affiliate drafted Ethical Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Colombia

News
Dec 17, 2020

BKC Policy Practice on AI Hosts Expert Review of Colombia’s AI Ethical Framework with Focus on Youth

Colombia President Iván Duque Márquez launches AI framework; BKC’s Urs Gasser delivers keynote

Colombia President Iván Duque Márquez launches AI framework; BKC’s Urs Gasser delivers keynote

News
Dec 4, 2020

Imagine a world in which AI is in your home, at work, everywhere

AI+Art project prompts us to envision how the technology will change our lives

News
Sep 15, 2020

Draft Policy Guidance on AI for Children

BKC community members inform UNICEF report

BKC community members inform UNICEF report

News
Jun 18, 2020

Technology and contact tracing

Panel offers open questions, calls for collaboration

Experts from tech and public health sectors share open questions for stakeholders engaging in tech and contact tracing

News
Jun 12, 2020

AI & the European Commission’s Risky Business

“Risk” as a cornerstone of AI governance is complicated by decades of debates about how we assess “risk,” Ryan Budish says.

News
May 28, 2020

Framework For the Ethical Use of Advanced Data Science Methods in the Humanitarian Sector

Action-orientated steps to innovate in an ethical, responsible, and practical way.

Action-orientated steps to innovate in an ethical, responsible, and practical way.

News
Apr 20, 2020

Fairness and AI

Sandra Wachter on why fairness cannot be automated

Sandra Wachter on why fairness cannot be automated

Event
Apr 14, 2020 @ 12:00 PM

[Virtual] Why Fairness Cannot Be Automated

Video & Podcast: Bridging the Gap Between EU Non-Discrimination Law & AI

Fairness and discrimination in algorithmic systems are globally recognized as topics of critical importance. To date, the majority of work in this area starts from an American…

News
Apr 6, 2020

In Principle and In Practice

Exploring AI principles from the macro- and micro-levels

Exploring AI principles from the macro- and micro-levels

Event
Feb 12, 2020 @ 5:00 PM

From JD to Data Science: A Case Study in AI and Law

Co-Hosted with the Harvard Data Science Initiative

Zac Kriegman describes his path from a Harvard JD to a data science career focused on deep learning.

News
Jan 21, 2020

Your Guide to BKC @ ACM FAT* 2020

Talks and tutorials led by the Berkman Klein community

Engage with the Berkman Klein community at ACM FAT* 2020!

News

Q&A: Jessica Fjeld on a New Berkman Klein Study of AI Ethical Principles

Lead author Jessica Fjeld discusses new paper "Principled Artificial Intelligence: Mapping Consensus in Ethical and Rights-based Approaches to Principles for AI"

Jan 15, 2020
Publication
Jan 15, 2020

Principled Artificial Intelligence

Mapping Consensus in Ethical and Rights-based Approaches to Principles for AI

Comparing the contents of thirty-six prominent AI principles documents side-by-side

News
Nov 5, 2019

German President Steinmeier discusses digital technology ethics at BKC event

The President of Germany, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, joined the Berkman Klein Center for a special event

Event
Nov 1, 2019 @ 10:00 AM

Ethics of the Digital Transformation

Special Event with the President of Germany Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier

VIDEO & PODCAST: German President Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier in conversation with Urs Gasser and colleagues

Event
Oct 23, 2019 @ 5:00 PM

Protecting Elections from Online Manipulation and Cyber Threats: The Experience of Israel’s 2019 Elections

Featuring Justice Hanan Melcer, Supreme Court of Israel

VIDEO & PODCAST: Justice Hanan Melcer of Israel's Supreme Court speaks about managing two election cycles in Israel

Event
Oct 22, 2019 @ 5:00 PM

Contesting Algorithms

Featuring Niva Elkin-Koren, Professor of Law at the University of Haifa and Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University.

VIDEO & PODCAST: Professor Elkin-Koren proposes to address AI-based content moderation by introducing an adversarial procedure.

News
Oct 11, 2019

Ethics and Governance of AI at Berkman Klein: Report on Impact, 2017-2019

We take stock of our first two years of work on the Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative

Event
Sep 10, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Can Tech be Governed?

BKC Luncheon Series: Public Kickoff featuring Jonathan Zittrain

VIDEO & PODCAST: How different is this technology from what preceded it, and do we need new ways to govern it? If so, how would they come about?

News
Jul 19, 2019

What We Created During Assembly 2019

Over three months the BKC and MIT Media Lab’s third annual Assembly program built four projects that offer ways to move forward on the thorny problems at the intersection of AI…

News
Jun 11, 2019

Artificial Intelligence in Society

A broad overview of the technical, economic, political, and social landscapes of AI, including its positive and negative impacts

News
Jun 11, 2019

What are the OECD Principles on AI?

Five complementary values-based concepts for the responsible stewardship of trustworthy AI

News
Jun 7, 2019

Introducing the Principled Artificial Intelligence Project

Berkman Klein’s Cyberlaw Clinic launches project to map AI principles and guidelines

News
Jun 3, 2019

On YouTube’s Digital Playground

YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is under scrutiny for surfacing harmful content

BKC researchers lend insight into YouTube’s recommendation algorithm, which is under scrutiny for surfacing harmful content

Publication
May 31, 2019

Youth and Artificial Intelligence

Where We Stand

How can we empower young people to meaningfully interact with AI-based technologies to promote and bolster learning, creative expression, and well-being, while also addressing key…

Event
May 21, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Auditing for Bias in Resume Search Engines

with Christo Wilson, Associate Professor Northeastern University

VIDEO & PODCAST: Are the algorithms that surface and rank your resume for job recruiters biased with respect to gender?

Event
Apr 29, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Having our cake and eating it too

How to develop AI competitively without falling victim to collective action problems

VIDEO: Could competition to develop new AI systems cause companies to cut corners ensuring their systems are safe and beneficial?

Event
Apr 23, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

How to Work with Tech Companies on Human Rights

Insights from a decade of multi-stakeholder collaboration (and an argument with Steve Jobs)

PODCAST & VIDEO: In conversation with Chinmayi Arun, David Sullivan draws upon a decade of work with technology companies (and a heated argument with Steve Jobs) to offer insights…

Event
Apr 16, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Dirty Data, Bad Predictions

How Civil Rights Violations Impact Police Data, Predictive Policing Systems and Society

PODCAST & VIDEO: An examination of the data provenance of police data commonly used in predictive policing system.

News
Apr 10, 2019

The Law and the Digital World

The AGTech Forum at Harvard Law gives state attorneys general a place to learn about technological changes and strategize about how the law can keep up

Insight for Attorney Generals into privacy and emerging technologies

Event
Apr 2, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Machines Learning to Find Injustice

Featuring HLS Climenko Fellow and Lecturer on Law, Ryan Copus

VIDEO & PODCAST: Can we find a responsible, ethical, and transparent way to leverage the power of predictive algorithms in our justice systems?

News
Mar 29, 2019

ARTificial Intelligence: The Laughing Room

An artificially intelligent sitcom

The Laughing Room is an artificially intelligent room and interactive art installation that plays a laugh track whenever the participants say something that the room’s algorithm…

News
Mar 27, 2019

Inside The R&D Of AI Ethics

Designing a roadmap for AI governance

It’s clear that the roadmap for AI governance won’t rely solely on business or academic research. That's where Assembly comes in.

News

Adversarial attacks on medical AI: A health policy challenge

Emerging vulnerabilities demand new conversations

Technical solutions alone aren't enough to address vulnerabilities in machine learning systems

Mar 21, 2019
News
Mar 12, 2019

Announcing the Winners of the AI and the News Open Challenge

Seven projects that tackle artificial intelligence in the field of news and information

News
Mar 4, 2019

Announcing the 2019 Assembly Cohort

We are thrilled to announce the 2019 cohort for the Assembly program at the Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab. The program, which will start its third iteration on March…

News
Feb 20, 2019

Zittrain and Zuckerberg discuss encryption, ‘information fiduciaries’ and targeted advertisements

CEO visits with students from the University’s Techtopia program and Zittrain’s Internet and Society course

Should Facebook be considered an “information fiduciary” when it comes to the privacy of its clients?

Event
Feb 19, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

The Smart Enough City

Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future

VIDEO & PODCAST: Why technology is not an end in itself, and how cities can be “smart enough,” using technology to promote democracy and equity.

News
Feb 4, 2019

Template License and Collaboration Agreements for AI Art

Guidance for developers and artists on how to handle rights for AI-generated art

Event
Feb 4, 2019 @ 6:30 PM

Is A.I Laughing at us?

A conversation with Jessica Fjeld, Jon Orwant, and Nikhil Dharmaraj

Watch video from this conversation Join a spirited and accessible discussion of artificial intelligence and art, how humor and creativity interrelate, and the successes and the…

News
Jan 29, 2019

The “Dataset Nutrition Label Project” Tackles Dataset Health and Standards

Algorithms can only be as good as the data that underly them. Learn about one project that is pulling back the curtain on the quality of datasets.

Course

Applied Ethical and Governance Challenges in AI - Spring 2019

This course will pursue a cross-disciplinary investigation of the development and deployment of the opaque complex adaptive systems that are increasingly in public and private use.

News
Dec 14, 2018

Get to Know Berkman Klein Fellow Lily Hu

a spotlight on one of our 2018-2019 BKC Fellows

by Nikhil Dharmaraj and Julia Pan Why Computer Scientists Need Philosophers, According to a Mathematician Lily Hu is a 3rd year PhD candidate in Applied Mathematics at…

News
Dec 14, 2018

Get to Know Berkman Klein Fellow Armando Guio-Espanol

a spotlight on one of our 2018-2019 BKC Fellows

by Tanvi Kanchinadam This interview is part of a collaborative effort between the summer 2018 BKC interns and the Communications team to showcase the tremendous&nbsp…

News
Dec 14, 2018

Embracing AI for the Social Good

The Imperative to Engage Globally

Three key challenges to promoting AI for the social good

Publication
Dec 10, 2018

Assessing the Assessments

Lessons From Early State Experiences In The Procurement And Implementation of Risk Assessment Tools

This report provides context for state and local officials considering the development, procurement, implementation, and use of Risk Assessment (RA) tools.

News
Dec 9, 2018

Network Propaganda named one of the best books of 2018

The Guardian celebrates some of our research as the most important of the year.

News

Facebook leader sits down with Harvard’s Jonathan Zittrain

Professor Jonathan Zittrain discusses the social media giant’s ‘long year’ with Facebook's head of global policy management Monika Bickert.

Dec 5, 2018
News
Dec 4, 2018

Meet the 66 finalists in the AI and the News Open Challenge

We're excited to share the 66 finalists who are vying for a share of the $750,000 to address specific problems at the intersection of AI and the news

Event
Nov 30, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Promoting Fairness, Equity, and Human Rights in Tech

Perspectives from Europe and the US on a Law and Policy Agenda

VIDEO & PODCAST: A broad overview of the landscape for regulating cutting-edge digital technologies in Europe and the US

Event
Nov 29, 2018 @ 5:00 PM

Skewed or Rescued?: The Emerging Theory of Algorithmic Fairness

Opening Keynote Address by Cynthia Dwork

A Public Lecture by Cynthia Dwork, the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard, the Radcliffe…

News
Nov 27, 2018

The Dataset Nutrition Label Project

The Dataset Nutrition Label Project empowers data scientists and policymakers with practical tools to improve AI outcomes

Event
Nov 16, 2018 @ 12:00 AM

The Laughing Room

An interactive art installation in which participants enter an artificially intelligent room, designed like a sitcom set, that plays a laugh track whenever the participants say…

Event
Nov 13, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Re-Engineering Humanity

VIDEO & PODCAST: Re-Engineering Humanity brings a pragmatic if somewhat dystopic perspective to the technological phenomena of our age. Humans are learning machines and we learn…

Event
Oct 30, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Custodians of the Internet

Platforms, Content Moderation, and the Hidden Decisions that Shape Social Media

Social media platforms face an irreconcilable contradiction: while platforms promise an open space for participation and community, every one of them imposes rules of some…

Event
Oct 23, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Automating Inequality

How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

Podcast & Video: In Automating Inequality, Virginia Eubanks systematically investigates the impacts of data mining, policy algorithms, and predictive risk models on poor and…

Publication
Oct 15, 2018

Network Propaganda

Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics

The most comprehensive study yet published on media coverage of American presidential politics from April 2015 to the one year anniversary of the Trump presidency

News

It’s not enough for AI to be “ethical”; it must also be “rights respecting”

On the importance of thinking about both the human rights implications and the ethics of AI.

Oct 9, 2018
Event
Oct 4, 2018 @ 5:30 PM

Network Propaganda

Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics

VIDEO & PODCAST: New research on the media ecosystem around the 2016 US election offer new perspectives and methods for diagnosing the sources of, and potential solutions for, the…

News

Evaluating the impact of artificial intelligence on human rights

Profiling six areas where current deployments of artificial intelligence are having an impact on human rights

Sep 27, 2018
Publication
Sep 25, 2018

Artificial Intelligence & Human Rights

Opportunities & Risks

en Français Artificial intelligence (“AI”) is changing the world before our eyes. The promise of AI to improve our lives is enormous. AI-based systems are already outperforming…

News
Sep 18, 2018

AI and the News: An Open Challenge

Have an idea for using AI to stop bad actors, empower journalism, govern platforms or to reimagine news? Apply for an AI and the News Open Challenge grant to work on the product.

Event
Sep 13, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Data Driven Discrimination

What Is it, and Where Do We Go from Here?

Join Brittny-Jade Saunders ’08, Deputy Commissioner for Strategic Initiatives at the New York City Commission on Human Rights, for a discussion discrimination resulting from the…

News
Aug 13, 2018

Helping Global Policymakers Navigate AI’s Challenges and Opportunities

Giving policymakers practical steps to help close the many gaps they see in understanding how to deal with Artificial Intelligence technologies

Publication
Aug 3, 2018

A Harm-Reduction Framework for Algorithmic Fairness

Any evaluation of algorithmic fairness must consider a counterfactual analysis of the effects that algorithmic design, implementation, and use have on the well-being of…

News
Aug 1, 2018

Berkman Klein Center Joins the Partnership on AI

The Berkman Klein Center is excited to announce that we are joining the Partnership on AI as a new partner organization, beginning August 2018. The Partnership’s mission to “study…

News
Jul 25, 2018

4 Policy Papers on Autonomous Vehicles

Four papers describing key regulatory issues for autonomous vehicles, a range of policy and governance frameworks, and suggestions for policy innovation and experimentation

News
Jul 24, 2018

Apply Now to Join Our Assembly Cohort in 2019!

At the Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab. Applications are due Sunday, September 2, 2018!

Seeking technologists with diverse skill sets to confront the concrete and constantly emerging problems related to artificial intelligence and governance. Applications are due…

Publication
Jul 13, 2018

5 Technological Factors Regulators And Policymakers Need To Know

a Policy Paper on Autonomous Vehicles

The basics of autonomous vehicle technology and current policy discussions.

Publication
Jul 13, 2018

3 Practical Tools To Help Regulators Develop Better Laws And Policies

a Policy Paper on Autonomous Vehicles

Three practical tools that policymakers and regulators can use to develop better AV policies and expand their toolkit of instruments to govern the technology.

Publication
Jul 13, 2018

What Governments Across The Globe Are Doing To Seize The Benefits Of Autonomous Vehicles

a Policy Paper on Autonomous Vehicles

Introducing some of the AV strategies and initiatives that governments around the world are employing to navigate the challenges of AVs.

Publication
Jul 13, 2018

A Smart Move? 24 Essentials Of A SWOT Analysis Policymakers Need To Consider

a Policy Paper on Autonomous Vehicles

Analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis) facing governments as they design comprehensive AV policy.

News
Jul 11, 2018

Global Governance and Inclusion

Reframing the Global Debate Around AI

A look at lessons we’ve learned in our work as part of the Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative,

News
Jun 26, 2018

Morality in the Machines

Researchers at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society are collaborating with MIT scholars to study driverless cars, social media feeds, and criminal justice…

News
Jun 21, 2018

Data Commons Version 1.0

A Framework to Build Toward AI for Good

The increased use of AI for purposes ranging from health to food security to global infrastructure has resulted in a greater interest in how we should manage big data.

Event
May 31, 2018 @ 9:00 AM

Symposium on Trust in Autonomous Vehicles

A symposium that brings together scientists, engineers, lawmakers, and car manufacturers to discuss ethical considerations and trust in autonomous vehicles.

Event
May 22, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Art that Imitates Art

Computational Creativity and Creative Contracting

Copyright in AI-generated works, the need for a shared understanding of what is and isn’t up for grabs in a license, and how forward-thinking contracts can prevent AI developers…

Publication
May 8, 2018

AGTech Forum Briefing Book: State Attorneys General and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is already starting to change our lives. Over the coming decades, these new technologies will shape many of our daily interactions and drive dramatic…

Event
Apr 23, 2018 @ 4:00 PM

Blockchain and the Law

The Rule of Code

Blockchain technology is ultimately a dual-edge technology that can be used to either support or supplant the law. This talk looks at the impact of blockchain technology of a…

Event
Apr 17, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

Honoring All Expertise: Social Responsibility and Ethics in Tech

featuring Kathy Pham & Friends from the Berkman Klein Community

Learn more about social responsibility and ethics in tech from cross functional perspectives featuring social scientists, computer scientists, historians, lawyers, political…

News
Mar 20, 2018

AI is more powerful than ever. How do we hold it accountable?

Trying to understand advanced AI is like trying to understand the inner workings of another person’s mind.

Event
Mar 6, 2018 @ 5:30 PM

metaLAB + friends openLAB

Please join us for metaLAB’s 2018 openLAB, showcasing work by metaLAB and friends.

Event
Mar 6, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

The Accuracy, Fairness, and Limits of Predicting Recidivism

featuring Julia Dressel

COMPAS is a software used across the country to predict who will commit future crimes. It doesn’t perform any better than untrained people who responded to an online survey.

News
Feb 28, 2018

Your Guide to BKC@SXSW 2018

Headed to SXSW this year? If so, be sure to check out some of these panels and discussions led by members of the Berkman Klein community.

News
Feb 22, 2018

Why Inclusion Matters for the Future of Artificial Intelligence

The development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies hold tremendous promise for much of the world, including the Global South.

News
Feb 22, 2018

New Website Draws on International Perspectives to Highlight Issues related to Inclusion and Artificial Intelligence

This new suite of resources aims to establish key themes, questions, and opportunities for ensuring that voices and perspectives from diverse populations help shape the future of…

Publication
Feb 9, 2018

Follow-up Letter to the Members of the Massachusetts Legislature Regarding the Adoption of Actuarial Risk Assessment Tools in the Criminal Justice System

The following open letter — signed by Harvard and MIT-based faculty, staff, and researchers — is directed to the Massachusetts Legislature to inform its consideration of risk…

Event
Jan 30, 2018 @ 12:00 PM

The “Monkey Selfie” Case: Can Non-Humans Hold Copyrights?

featuring a panel of experts on copyright, cyber law, and intermediary liability issues

Can non-human animals own copyrights? Can artificial intelligence machines? Join the Berkman Klein Center, the Harvard Law School Animal Law & Policy Program, and the HLS Student…

News
Jan 26, 2018

Global AI Dialogue Series: Beijing

Observations from the China-US Workshop in Beijing, December 2, 2017

In December 2017, the Berkman Klein Center co-hosted an exploratory workshop in Beijing, China with Tsinghua University’s School of Public Policy and Management and the MIT Media…

Event
Jan 19, 2018 @ 6:00 PM

MACHINE EXPERIENCE II

Art Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence

A showcase of works by metaLAB artists exploring the emotional effects of algorithms, the uncanny experiences of sensor-enabled computers, and what intelligent machines might…

News
Dec 12, 2017

Announcing the 2018 Assembly Cohort

At the Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab

We are thrilled to announce the 2018 cohort for the Assembly program at the Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab! Read more to learn about the twenty-one individuals who will be…

Event
Dec 12, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

A Pessimist’s Guide to the Future of Technology

featuring Dr. Ian Bogost, Professor of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology

Two decades of technological optimism in computing have proven foolhardy. Let’s talk about new ways to anticipate what might go right and wrong, using a technology that has not…

News
Dec 1, 2017

When a Bot is the Judge

What happens when our criminal justice system uses algorithms to help judges determine bail, sentencing, and parole?

News
Nov 30, 2017

Charting a Roadmap to Ensure AI Benefits All

An international symposium aimed at building capacity and exploring ideas for data democratization and inclusion in the age of AI.

Publication
Nov 27, 2017

Accountability of AI Under the Law: The Role of Explanation

The paper reviews current societal, moral, and legal norms around explanations, and then focuses on the different contexts under which an explanation is currently required under…

News
Nov 22, 2017

A Legal Anatomy of AI-generated Art: Part I

This Comment, published in the JOLT Digest, is the first in a two-part series on how lawyers should think about art generated by artificial intelligences, particularly with regard…

Publication
Nov 20, 2017

A Layered Model for AI Governance

​AI-based systems are “black boxes,” resulting in massive information asymmetries between the developers of such systems and consumers and policymakers.

Publication
Nov 9, 2017

An Open Letter to the Members of the Massachusetts Legislature Regarding the Adoption of Actuarial Risk Assessment Tools in the Criminal Justice System

This open letter — signed by Harvard and MIT-based faculty, staff, and researchers— is directed to the Massachusetts Legislature to inform its consideration of risk assessment…

Event
Oct 24, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

How the Networked Age is Changing Humanitarian Disasters

How is technology changing humanitarian crises? Is information humanitarian aid? Do we need a new Geneva Convention for cyberwarfare?

Event
Oct 18, 2017 @ 4:00 PM

Deep Mediatization: Social Order in the Age of Datafication

Social order - what counts as order in the social world - is changing in the digital era, the era of deep mediatization. How can social theory help us understand this shift, and…

Event
Oct 10, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

HUBweek 2017: Programming the Future of AI

Ethics, Governance, and Justice

How do we prepare court systems, judges, lawyers, and defendants to interact with autonomous systems? What are the potential societal costs to human autonomy, dignity, and due…

Event
Sep 29, 2017 @ 10:00 AM

How to Watch Them Watching You

Researching Social Media, Online Platforms, and Algorithmic Systems From the Outside

Join us at the University of Michigan for a discussion with Eric Gilbert, Cedric Langbort, Jeff Larson, Casey Pierce, and Christo Wilson on how researchers can navigate and…

Event
Sep 28, 2017 @ 4:00 PM

The Computer Says No

The Bad News About Online Discrimination in Algorithmic Systems

Join us at the University of Michigan for a discussion with Solon Barocas, J. Nathan Matias, H. V. Jagadish, and Christian Sandvig on the potential for discrimination and digital…

Event
Sep 19, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

The Line Between Hate and Debate

featuring Monika Bickert, Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management in conversation with Professor Jonathan Zittrain

As society figures out what is acceptable and what is harmful, can technology play a role in improving online debate?

Event
Sep 12, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Technology for the Social Good

featuring Jonathan Zittrain

If you’re interested in connecting with the Berkman Klein Center's research, community, and events, or are just generally interested in digital technologies and their impact on…

News

Artificial Intelligence's Fair Use Crisis

In the United States, the copyright law mechanism most likely to facilitate machine learning’s uses of protected data is the fair use doctrine. However, current fair use doctrine…

Sep 7, 2017
News
Aug 25, 2017

Algorithms in the Criminal Justice System

Assessing the Use of Risk Assessments in Sentencing

This paper focuses on the incorporation of risk assessment software into the criminal sentencing process, and offers a set of key considerations and questions for further research…

News
Aug 16, 2017

Partisan Right-Wing Websites Shaped Mainstream Press Coverage Before 2016 Election, Berkman Klein Study Finds

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University today released a comprehensive analysis of online media and social media coverage of the 2016 presidential…

Publication
Aug 16, 2017

Partisanship, Propaganda, and Disinformation: Online Media and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

In this study, we analyze both mainstream and social media coverage of the 2016 United States presidential election.

News
Aug 8, 2017

Harmful Speech Online: At the Intersection of Algorithms and Human Behavior

A workshop exploring how algorithms and human behavior can both enable and prevent harmful speech online

How do algorithms and human behavior intersect to impact the spread and study of harmful speech online?

Event
Aug 7, 2017 @ 10:00 AM

MACHINE EXPERIENCE

metaLAB AI Art Exhibition, Lightbox Gallery, Harvard Art Museums

metaLAB exhibits five new artistic projects playfully and critically engaging different aspects of Artificial Intelligence at Harvard Art Museum's Lightbox Gallery from August 8…

Course

Compliance and Computation Overview

What is the role of the law and of lawyers in a machine learning/AI world?

Event
Jul 11, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Weapons of Math Destruction

How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy

Please join us for a timely discussion of the role of data science in public life. All are welcome at this free event open to the public!

News
Jul 10, 2017

The Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund Commits $7.6 Million to Support the Development of AI in the Public Interest

With the Berkman Klein Center and  MIT Media Lab as academic anchor institutions, the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund announced today funding for nine…

News
Jun 27, 2017

AI and the Law: Setting the Stage

We as a society are only beginning to understand the ethical, legal, and regulatory challenges associated with AI, as well as develop appropriate governance models and responses.

News
Jun 20, 2017

Join Our 2018 AI Assembly Cohort!

At the Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University and the MIT Media Lab are excited to announce the launch of the 2018 Assembly program, a program…

News
Jun 1, 2017

AI Advance

A Community Convening at Harvard Law School to advance the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Initiative

Reflecting and engaging on the societal challenges of AI and related technologies

Event
Apr 11, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

AI & Society

featuring Joi Ito and Iyad Rahwan of the MIT Media Lab

ISIS. Trump. Uber. The 1%. What if all these phenomena reflect the same forces? What if you could understand those forces?

Event
Apr 4, 2017 @ 12:00 PM

Algorithmic Consumers

with Professors Michal Gal, University of Haifa, and Niva Elkin-Koren, Visting Professor of Law at HLS

Hate shopping? The next generation of e-commerce will be conducted by digital agents, based on algorithms that will not only make purchase recommendations, but will also predict…

News
Jan 10, 2017

Berkman Klein Center and MIT Media Lab to Collaborate on the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence

Supported by the Knight Foundation, Omidyar Network, LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Hewlett Foundation, and more

Several foundations and funders today announced the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, which will support interdisciplinary research to ensure that AI develops…

News
May 9, 2016

Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society

A summary of the second “Computers Gone Wild: Impact and Implications of Developments in Artificial Intelligence on Society” workshop, which took place on February 19, 2016 at…


Community 398

The Conversation

The apocalypse that wasn’t

AI was everywhere in 2024’s elections, but deepfakes and misinformation were only part of the picture

Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders observe that AI's role in 2024 elections wasn't as disastrous as some had feared.

Dec 2, 2024
The Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence

Towards Real Diversity and Gender Equality in AI

Paola Ricaurte Quijano, expert committee member, and colleagues at the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence launch the report "Towards Substantive Equality in Artificial…

Nov 27, 2024
theAnalysis.news

AI Border Surveillance Tech Profits Soar, Human Rights Across the Board Sink

Petra Molnar highlights how surveillance technology firms profit from harsh anti-immigration policies in the US, Canada, and the EU.

Nov 27, 2024
New America

Benefits of Open-Source AI

Ben Brooks cautions that the risks of AI systems depend on more than models themselves.

Nov 21, 2024
The Roko Report

SEO for AI

SEO wizards are quietly reshaping AI's digital playground, warns Sean Harvey.

Nov 17, 2024
IEEE Spectrum

Meta Opens Its AI Models for the (U.S.) Military

But will the second Trump administration see AI as a friend or foe?

Ben Brooks weighs in on Meta's decision to allow the U.S. government to use its Llama LLM for national security purposes.

Nov 17, 2024
Tech News World

AI Search Threatens Digital Economy, Warns Researcher

Ben Brooks warns that the AI search industry threatens to disrupt the digital economy.

Nov 12, 2024
Technical.ly

How hackathon winner ‘Curious GeorgePT’ works to reduce AI bias

Jay Beck weighs in on Curious GeorgePT, an AI model developed to allow for more targeted responses to prompts.

Nov 11, 2024
Bloomberg Law

AI Workers Seek Whistleblower Cover to Expose Emerging Threats

Larry Lessig calls for more direct governmental regulation of AI companies.

Nov 4, 2024
EdTech Magazine

How Personhood Credentials Could Impact Higher Education

This new type of identity verification aims to separate humans from artificial intelligence.

Tom Zick weighs in on the utility of personhood credentials for combatting AI in higher education.

Nov 4, 2024
The New Yorker

The Artificial State

Can American politics reckon with the age of AI? Larry Lessig raises a warning flag.

Nov 4, 2024
The New Yorker

The Artificial State

Larry Lessig cautions that our political systems aren't well-equipped for AI integration.

Nov 4, 2024
Tech Policy Press

What Kafka Can Teach Us About Privacy in the Age of AI

How should privacy law protect consumers from AI?

Nov 3, 2024
SSRN

Prediction and Punishment

Critical Report on Carceral AI

Dasha Pruss, Petra Molnar, and Marissa Gerchick critique carceral uses of AI and offer suggestions for mitigating this technology's use.

Nov 1, 2024
MIT Technology Review

AI Search Could Break the Web

Developers should act before governments fall back on blunt tools.

The future of AI-powered search engines is at stake in an emerging suit against Perplexity AI.

Oct 31, 2024
Slate

A.I. and ChatGPT

A student punished for cheating is suing their school. Now what?

When does students' A.I. use constitute a violation of existing plagiarism policies?

Oct 26, 2024
Tech Won't Save Us

The Threat of Data Colonialism

Ulises Mejías and Nick Couldry propose data colonialism as a paradigm for understanding Big Tech's data practices.

Oct 24, 2024
Tech Policy Press

The Critical Role of Research in the Fight for Algorithmic Accountability

Marissa Gerchick and Olga Askelrod detail the ACLU's complaints against Aon, a hiring technology company.

Oct 23, 2024
Prospect Magazine

The Amish approach to AI

Artificial intelligence is unavoidable. But can we resist some of its progress?

Ethan Zuckerman calls for a revaluation of the Luddite ethos.

Oct 21, 2024
EL PAÍS

Paola Ricaurte, researcher: ‘Large technology companies are allies of authoritarian governments’

Paola Ricaurte Quijano explores how AI development tracks and reinforces gaps in social capital.

Oct 19, 2024
The American Prospect

The SEC Whistleblower Program Is Dominating Regulatory Enforcement

Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders warn that AI will complicate the SEC's financially cutting in whistleblowers.

Oct 18, 2024
Politico

Tonight’s strange debate with an AI congressional candidate

Nathan Sanders weighs in on a debate between two Virginia congressional candidates and an AI bot.

Oct 17, 2024
Lawfare Daily

Controlling AI Agents

BKC director Jonathan Zittrain explains what AI agents are, and why we need to regain control of them.

Oct 17, 2024
Carnegie Endowment

Transnational AI and Corporate Imperialism

Chinmayi Arun studies the impact of AI tools on the Majority World, arguing that it constitutes a form of global imperialism.

Oct 8, 2024
World Economic Forum

Governance in the Age of Generative AI

A 360° Approach for Resilient Policy and Regulation

Urs Gasser and Mark Esposito contributed to a white paper giving policymakers and regulators implementable strategies for AI governance.

Oct 8, 2024
Marketplace Tech

What do generative AI and social media have in common? A lack of regulation.

Teens' use of AI may be cause for concern.

Oct 1, 2024
Georgetown Law Journal

Artificial Intelligence, Afrofuturism, and Economic Justice

Ifeoma Ajunwa argues that we can apply Afrofuturist principles to ensure that AI is being harnessed for the collective good.

Sep 24, 2024
The Atlantic

AI Could Still Wreck the Presidential Election

We could soon see the fallout from a hands-off approach to AI regulation.

Sep 24, 2024
Foreign Policy Magazine

What the Global AI Governance Conversation Misses

The perspectives and needs of global majority countries have not been fully accommodated.

"As developers and stewards of AI technology, we have a critical responsibility. We must advance AI capabilities and simultaneously develop robust safeguards to protect users,…

Sep 19, 2024
Yale Journal of Law & Technology

Limitations and Loopholes in the EU AI Act and AI Liability Directives

What This Means for the European Union, the United States, and Beyond

Concrete recommendations for how the EU's AI Act can be fortified.

Sep 18, 2024
Connected by Data

Global Citizen Deliberation on Artificial Intelligence

Options and design considerations

How could global citizen deliberation shape the future of artificial intelligence?

Sep 18, 2024
Foreign Policy

A Realist Perspective on AI Regulation

Experimentation is the right strategy—as long as regulators can learn from one another.

Is the way the internet has been regulated over the last three decades a cautionary tale?

Sep 16, 2024
The Nation

Big Tech Is Very Afraid of a Very Modest AI Safety Bill

Despite claiming to support AI safety, powerful tech interests are trying to kill SB1047.

"It’s like saying that a bill addressing wildfire risks should be rejected because it doesn’t address flooding risks."

Aug 30, 2024

Cyberlaw Clinic Supports Public Interest Patent Law Institute w/Comment to USPTO re: Patents and Artificial Intelligence

The Cyberlaw Clinic aided the Public Interest Patent Law Institute in filing comments stressing the importance of human inventorship and urging the USPTO to remain vigilant about…

Aug 22, 2024
AI Snake Oil

AI companies are pivoting from creating gods to building products. Good.

Turning models into products runs into five challenges.

What mistakes have AI companies made, and what challenges should they anticipate?

Aug 19, 2024
Public AI Network

Public AI

Infrastructure for the Common Good

SJ Klein and colleagues call for AI infrastructure built for the public good.

Aug 8, 2024
Communication Research

When an AI Doctor Gets Personal

The Effects of Social and Medical Individuation in Encounters with Human and AI Doctors

Joseph B. Walther and colleagues find that AI doctors are most effective when they draw from patients' social information, and enable privacy controls.

Aug 2, 2024
Bloomberg Law

European AI Act Training Disclosures Expose US Copyright Risks

Ruth Okediji notes that the EU's AI Act codifies value differences between the EU and the US.

Jul 31, 2024
The Economist

Not all AI Models should be Freely Available, Argues a Legal Scholar

The more capable they are, the greater the risk of catastrophe, reckons Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig argues highlights important differences between AI models and other sorts of software more amenable to open-source principles.

Jul 29, 2024
Harvard Business Review

AI Has a Revolutionary Ability to Parse Details. What Does That Mean for Business?

David Weinberger examines the business world's engagement with AI through four key examples: strategy, talent management, leadership roles, and supply chain management.

Jul 29, 2024
Fast Company

AI written obituaries are compounding people's grief

Bridget Todd highlights the harms that AI-written, automatically-generated obituaries do to grievers.

Jul 26, 2024
Computer Says Maybe

What the FAccT? Evidence of bias. Now what?

Dasha Pruss and co-author Marta Ziosi discuss their paper, "“Evidence of What, for Whom? The Socially Contested Role of Algorithmic Bias in a Predictive Policing Tool."

Jul 12, 2024
e-flux Journal

The Hacking of Culture and the Creation of Socio-Technical Debt

Bruce Schneier co-writes that the increased prominance of data and algorithms have shifted power and culture from nations to corporations. 

Jun 27, 2024
Prospect Magazine

Are there any humans left on the internet?

Ethan Zuckerman writes about the relationship between human-generated content and AI models on the internet.

Jun 24, 2024
IAIED

Seiji Isotani elected president of the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society

BKC Faculty Associate Seiji Isotani has been elected president of the International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society (IAIED).

Jun 24, 2024
Yale Journal of Law and Technology

Two AI Truths and a Lie

Woodrow Hartzog argues "if lawmakers do not address the dynamics of dangerous extraction, harmful normalization, and adversarial self-dealing, then AI systems will likely be used…

Jun 20, 2024
Medium

Global AI Regulation: Protecting Rights; Leveraging Collaboration

Policy experts from Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America outlined next steps for global AI regimes and networked capacity building

BKC Senior Director of Programs and Strategy Lis Sylvan and former BKC Research Assistant Niharika Vattikonda summarize the Global Network of Internet and Society Research Center…

Jun 13, 2024
Belfer Center for International Affairs

Seeing Like a Data Structure

Bruce Schneier writes about data and technology in human society.

May 23, 2024
TIME

The Deadly Digital Frontiers at the Border

Petra Molnar discusses AI surveillance at the border.

May 21, 2024
Integrity Institute

Workplace ethics and activism with Nadah Feteih

Nadah Feteih discusses tech ethics and activism from within the tech industry, particularly from trust and safety team members.

May 5, 2024
The Georgetown Law Journal

Data as Likeness

Zahra Takhshid argues that personal data should be protected by the privacy tort of appropriation.

May 1, 2024
Bloomberg

Adobe’s ‘Ethical’ Firefly AI Was Trained on Midjourney Images

Rebecca Tushnet spoke to Bloomberg about the training of Adobe's AI tool Firefly

Apr 12, 2024
The Harvard Gazette

Why AI fairness conversations must include disabled people

Maitreya Shah spoke about his work centering experiences of people with disabilities. 

Apr 3, 2024
Jacobin

The Grim High-Tech Dystopia on the US-Mexico Border

Petra Molnar writes about the AI technology incorporated at the southern border and the human rights implications.

Mar 28, 2024
ABC AU

Developing a responsible use of AI policy

BKC Affiliate Rumman Chowdhury emphasizes the importance of community engagement while engaging a conversation on responsible integration of AI.

Mar 25, 2024
TIME

The Next Tech Backlash Will Be About Hygiene

Jonnie Penn argues that the increased incorporation of AI into our lives may harm our basic hygiene.

Mar 18, 2024
MIT Technology Review

Let’s not make the same mistakes with AI that we made with social media

BKC Affiliates Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier argue that the unregulated evolution of social media over the past few decades provides lessons for the AI revolution.

Mar 13, 2024
AI Snake Oil

AI safety is not a model property

BKC Faculty Associate Arvind Narayanan and Sayash Kapoor argue that current safety efforts are limited because AI safety is not a model property.

Mar 12, 2024
The Atlantic

What to Do About the Junkification of the Internet

Nathaniel Lubin writes about internet "junkification."

Mar 12, 2024
Tech Policy Press

Can AI Rescue Democracy? Nope, It’s Not Funny Enough

Susan Benesch writes about how online debate should not be outsourced to AI

Mar 11, 2024
Tech Policy Press

The Race to Detect AI-Generated Content and Tackle Harms

Sameer Hinduja, Nighat Dad, and coauthors detail the troubling proliferation of deepfakes and the various legal, technological, and even user-education-focused interventions…

Mar 11, 2024
arXiv

Seamful XAI

Operationalizing Seamful Design in Explainable AI

Can AI errors help users?

Mar 5, 2024
Brookings Institute

How public AI can strengthen democracy

Nathan Sanders, Bruce Schneier, and Norman Eisen advocate for a public AI to counterbalance private AI and promote tech that benefits all people, not just corporate interests.

Mar 4, 2024
Harvard Law Today

Gauge against the machine

BKC Affiliate Maroussia Lévesque facilitated a conversation between Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella and BKC Director Martha Minow on equity, equality, and fairness in the time of…

Feb 29, 2024
.coda

How tech design is always political

BKC Alumnus Ellery Roberts Biddle ruminates on social media companies' past mistakes and the potential to continue making such mistakes with the AI revolution.

Feb 29, 2024
Jacobin

How the “Frontier” Became the Slogan of Uncontrolled AI

BKC Affiliates Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier argue that big tech uses the conception of AI as a new "frontier" to excuse exploitation and a lack of oversight or accountability.

Feb 27, 2024
Tech Policy Press

Ensuring Digital Services Act Audits Deliver on Their Promise

BKC Affiliate Hilary Ross, Jason Pielemeier, and Ramsha Jahangir critique the EU DSA audits.

Feb 19, 2024
Philosophies

The Rise of Particulars

AI and the Ethics of Care

David Weinberger views machine learning through a feminist ethical framework.

Feb 16, 2024
Cyberlaw Clinic Blog

Clinic Supports Finale Doshi-Velez, Elena L. Glassman in Submitting AI Comment to NIST

Professors Finale Doshi-Velez and Elena Glassman, with assistance from the Cyberlaw Clinic, submitted an administrative comment on AI to the National Institute of Standards and…

Feb 4, 2024
Fortune

Forget the Turing Test. AI needs to pass the Summer Camp Test before it can take over the world

BKC Affiliate Kathy Pham draws on her own experience enrolling her children in summer camp to shed light on AI's current shortcomings: despite the hype, AI is not well equipped to…

Feb 2, 2024
UCLA Law Review

Can AI Standards Have Politics?

BKC Faculty Associate Alicia Solow-Niederman analyzes real world examples of standards to show an inconvenient truth: that standards are neither objective nor neutral.

Feb 2, 2024
Reuters

At tech companies, let’s share the reins

BKC Affiliate Kathy Pham argues that Large Language Models and other AI systems will only reach their full potential when a broader set of people build them.

Feb 1, 2024
Center for Democracy & Technology

From Our Fellows – From Automation to Agency: The Future of AI Ethics Education

BKC Affiliate Ashley Lee and Victoria Hsieh discuss the future of ethics as a component of education on AI.

Jan 29, 2024
The Washington Post

AI is destabilizing ‘the concept of truth itself’ in 2024 election

Aviv Ovadya speaks to The Washington Post about AI and the 2024 elections across the country. 

Jan 22, 2024
The Atlantic

Don’t Talk to People Like They’re Chatbots

Bruce Schneier co-authors a piece in The Atlantic discussing human interactions and the impacts of AI on them.

Jan 17, 2024
Prospect Magazine

Two warring visions of AI

BKC Faculty Associate Ethan Zuckerman argues that the power struggle between AI “doomers” and AI “accelerationists” will define the way this world-changing technology evolves.

Jan 16, 2024
WIRED

AI Needs to Be Both Trusted and Trustworthy

Bruce Schneier explains the need for a rethinking of trust and governance to prepare for the future of AI.

Jan 8, 2024
Foreign Policy

What AI Will Do to Elections

“It just makes the generation and dissemination of very realistic deepfakes and realistic-seeming deepfakes much, much easier,” Rumman Chowdhury told Foreign Policy when…

Jan 3, 2024
The Conversation

AI could improve your life by removing bottlenecks between what you want and what you get

Bruce Schneier writes about the potential for AI to remove bottlenecks.

Dec 21, 2023
CNN

Experts call for more diversity to combat bias in artificial intelligence

Andres Lombana-Bermudez, Faculty Associate at BKC, discusses the issue of lack of diversity and representation in technology fields.

Dec 15, 2023
CNN

Experts call for more diversity to combat bias in artificial intelligence

Andres Lombana-Bermudez spoke to CNN about how more diversity can help to combat bias in AI

Dec 15, 2023
Harvard Magazine

“Artificial Worldviews”

BKC Affiliate Kim Albrecht discusses his project to map ChatGPT's knowledge base. Albrecht chose to focus on ChatGPT's outputs to learn about the chatbot's worldview.

Dec 13, 2023
Techtonic

Techtonic: AI’s inequality problem

Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury discusses the worry that we are giving the keys to our society to a small group of companies that have shown they cannot be fully trusted.

Dec 11, 2023
LPE Project

Seven Reactions to Biden's Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence

On the Law and Political Economy Project blog, Salomé Viljoen, Ifeoma Ajunwa, and Elettra Bietti are among a group of scholars who provide initial reactions to President Biden's…

Dec 4, 2023
CIGI

Boardroom Drama at OpenAI Portends a Looming AI Monoculture

BKC Affiliate Maroussia Lévesque connects the recent OpenAI boardroom drama to a larger lurking problem: the tremendous concentration of power in the artificial…

Nov 29, 2023
Belfar Center

AI and Trust

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier discusses the complicated relationship between trust and AI and the need for building trustworthy AI.

Nov 27, 2023
UNESCO

Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence in an Era of Generative AI

Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury explores technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) in an era of generative AI.

Nov 16, 2023
Medium

Preserving Social Connections against the Backdrop of Generative AI

BKC Affiliate Alexa Hasse examines how they might change trust in our human social relationships.

Nov 9, 2023

When AI Systems Fail: The Toll on the Vulnerable Amidst Global Crisis

RSM Employee Fellow Nadah Feteih argues that reactive measures to address biased AI features and the spread of misinformation on social media platforms are not enough.

Nov 7, 2023
Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center

Ten Ways AI Will Change Democracy

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier explores beyond AI generated disinformation to detail other novel ways in which AI might alter how democracy functions.

Nov 6, 2023
Medium

Building Knowledge about Generative AI with Mobile Populations

BKC Faculty Associate Petra Molnar challenges us to consider the potential impact of generative AI on the surveillance of borders and of migrants.

Nov 2, 2023
Harvard Business Review

Azeem's Picks: How to Practice Responsible AI with Dr. Rumman Chowdhurry

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury discusses how to act responsibly with AI development.

Nov 1, 2023
The Harvard Gazette

How facial-recognition app poses threat to privacy, civil liberties

BKC Director Jonathan Zittrain and BKC Alumnus Kashmir Hill discuss Hill's new book, "Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It."

Oct 26, 2023
UAE MOCA

Global Future Councils tackles job protection in the era of AI

BKC Affiliate Micaela Mantegna joins a World Economic Forum discussion on the new world of work brought on by digitalization and the development of AI.

Oct 17, 2023
Tech Policy Press

We Need A Policy Agenda for Rural AI

BKC Faculty Associate Jasmine McNealy explains why rural communities must be included in the development of policies related to artificial intelligence. 

Oct 16, 2023
Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center

Who's accountable for AI usage in digital campaign ads? Right now, no one.

BKC Affiliates Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders explore the patchwork of organizations charged with regulating AI usage in political campaign ads.

Oct 11, 2023
ESWA

Toward Safer Intimate Features: Recommendations for Tech Platforms to Reduce Image Based Sexual Abuse

With the European Sex Workers Rights Alliance, BKC Faculty Associate Elissa M. Redmiles provides recommendations for tech platforms to reduce image based sexual abuse. 

Sep 21, 2023
Jacobin

The US Government Should Be Bold in Regulating AI and Data Collection

Russell Newman, Nick Couldry, Velislava Hillman, Mitzi László and Gregory Narr discuss the comments to the US Federal Trade Commission's Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on…

Sep 18, 2023

Threats like AI-aided bioweapons confound policymakers

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury comments on the EU’s Digital Services Act.

Sep 12, 2023
WIRED

Nervous About ChatGPT? Try ChatGPT With a Hammer

BKC Affiliates Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders opine on the great power that AI will have once it is capable of using real-world tools and urge that companies and regulators…

Aug 29, 2023
Journal of Free Speech Law

Is it a Platform? Is it a Search Engine? It's Chat GPT! The European Liability Regime for Large Language Models

BKC Faculty Associate Beatriz Botero Arcila examines the question of how to regulate large language models to minimize risks while still allowing for potential benefits to be…

Aug 25, 2023
The Washington Post

Meet the hackers who are trying to make AI go rogue

BKC Affiliate Rumman Chowdhury explains how embedded harms and biases complicate AI system red teaming efforts.

Aug 8, 2023
Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research

ChatGPT for Social Work Science: Ethical Challenges and Opportunities

BKC Faculty Associates Desmond Patton and Siva Mathiyazhagan, and Aviv Landau describe the potential use of ChatGPT in social work science.

Aug 1, 2023
MIT Technology Review

Six ways that AI could change politics

BKC Affiliates Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders propose six milestones that will bring in a new era of AI driven democratic politics.

Jul 28, 2023
New York Times

Researchers Poke Holes in Safety Controls of ChatGPT and Other Chatbots

BKC Affiliate Aviv Ovadya comments on a new report exposing holes in the guardrails of AI chatbots.

Jul 27, 2023
Government Technology

Can You Trust AI? Here’s Why You Shouldn’t

BKC Affiliates Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders write about the potential risks and biases of AI.

Jul 20, 2023
WIRED

Meta Ran a Giant Experiment in Governance. Now It’s Turning to AI

BKC Affiliate Aviv Ovadya writes about Meta's approach to governance of generative AI.

Jul 18, 2023
POLITICO

Bias in AI is real. But it doesn’t have to exist.

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury shares thoughts about her hopes and fears for AI.

Jul 14, 2023
POLITICO

5 questions for Rumman Chowdhury

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury answers questions about technology and the future.

Jul 7, 2023
Politico

Artificial Intelligence Can’t Work Without Our Data

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier and Barath Raghavan argue that the American people should receive compensation for their data, the very data that AI companies rely on to innovate.

Jun 29, 2023
The Harvard Law Bulletin

How to think about AI

BKC Directors Rebecca Tushnet and Jonathan Zittrain comment on legal and ethical challenges that are associated with the development of AI.

Jun 27, 2023
CNBC

A.I. has a discrimination problem. In banking, the consequences can be severe

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury comments on how the AI systems in banking are biased against marginalized communities.

Jun 23, 2023
Open Global Rights

When human rights turned into an AI-driven game of lottery

BKC Affiliate Juan Ortiz Freuler asserts that the adoption of AI is fueling a probabilistic shift in worldview.

Jun 22, 2023
The Conversation

AI could shore up democracy – here’s one way

BKC Affiliate Nathan Sanders writes about the drawbacks and the opportunities AI can provide to strengthen democracy.

Jun 20, 2023
The Conversation

Generative AI is a minefield for copyright law

BKC Assistant Director of the Cyberlaw Clinic Jessica Fjeld writes about the challenges that arise in the realm of copyright law due to the increased use of generative AI. 

Jun 15, 2023
The Hill

Artificial intelligence doesn’t have to be inhumane

Sue Hendrickson and BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury write about the role of global governance alongside the development of AI.

Jun 14, 2023
Foreign Policy

Build AI by the People, for the People

BKC Affiliates Bruce Schneier and Nathan Sanders write about the need for AI investment to be taken out of the hands of private companies.

Jun 12, 2023
WIRED

Apple Ghosts the Generative AI Revolution

BKC Affiliate Micaela Mantegna discusses Apple's AI philosophy and approach to the Vision Pro which largely ignored generative AI applications.

Jun 6, 2023
Slate

Big Tech Isn’t Prepared for A.I.’s Next Chapter

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier writes about the open-source future of generative AI.

May 30, 2023
The Guardian

‘I do not think ethical surveillance can exist’: Rumman Chowdhury on accountability in AI

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury is interviewed about bridging the gap between people and technology.

May 29, 2023
Nature

Create an IPCC-like body to harness benefits and combat harms of digital tech

BKC Affiliate Joseph Bak-Coleman, BKC Director James Mickens, and BKC Faculty Associate Zeynep Tufekci write to advocate for an intergovernmental panel to synthesize the evidence…

May 17, 2023
The Indian Express

A call for algorithmic justice for SC/STs

BKC Affiliate Siva Mathiyazhagan writes about the need to eradicate caste and to build a safe, inclusive, just digital India.

May 14, 2023
CyberScoop

Rethinking democracy for the age of AI

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier delivers a keynote speech during the RSA Conference in San Francisco on April 25, 2023 about the risks and promise of AI for democracy.

May 10, 2023
Cyberbullying Research Center

Generative AI as a Vector for Harassment and Harm

BKC Faculty Associate Sameer Hinduja warns about the myriad ways generative AI can be used to harass and harm others. 

May 10, 2023
KQED

Artificial Intelligence is Booming, How Should it Be Regulated?

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury discusses ideas for regulating AI with KQED. 

May 8, 2023
Gizmodo

Can We Build Trustworthy AI?

BKC Affiliates Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier write about the trustworthiness of AI technologies and their corporate owners.

May 4, 2023
PIT Cases

Public Interest Tech Principles Can Shape the Future of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence

BKC Affiliate Afua Bruce writes about the intersection of data science, AI, and public interest technology.

May 1, 2023
AI & Society

How we can create the global agreement on generative AI bias: lessons from climate justice

BKC Faculty Associate Yong Jin Park writes about how global regulation of generative AI can be modeled on climate justice.

Apr 28, 2023
The Atlantic

Just Wait Until Trump Is a Chatbot

BKC Affiliates Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier write about how AI will change the nature of campaigning.

Apr 28, 2023
CIGI Online

AI Regulation Should Not Be a Blank Cheque for Government

BKC Affiliate Maroussia Lévesque and BKC Faculty Associate Florian Martin-Bariteau write about Canada’s federal regulation of AI and data.

Apr 27, 2023
Slate

How Artificial Intelligence Can Aid Democracy

BKC Affiliates Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier write about AI's potential to advance the public good by helping democracy.

Apr 21, 2023
WIRED

AI Desperately Needs Global Oversight

BKC Responsible AI Fellow Rumman Chowdhury advocates for global oversight of AI. 

Apr 11, 2023
WIRED

Brace Yourself for a Tidal Wave of ChatGPT Email Scams

BKC Affiliate Bruce Schneier predicts a future wave of email scams that will take advantage of generative AI.

Apr 4, 2023
The New York Times

What’s the Future for A.I.?

BKC Affiliate Aviv Ovadya comments on the need for cross-cutting, international regulation of AI.

Mar 31, 2023
Marketplace

GPT-4 needs more robust testing, “red team” member says

BKC Affiliate Aviv Ovadya speaks about the need for more robust testing for GPT-4. 

Mar 29, 2023
SSRN

ChatGPT3 in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Threat or an Opportunity?

BKC Faculty Associate Greg Gondwe writes about the use of ChatGPT3 in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Mar 19, 2023
Internet Policy Review

Let me tell you, ChatGPT-like AI will not change our world

BKC Rebooting Social Media Visiting Scholar Yong Jin Park cautions against hype around generative AI, warning that celebrations and fears around the technology are both overblown.

Mar 17, 2023
MIT Technology Review

How AI could write our laws

BKC Affiliates Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier write about the potential influence of ChatGPT and generative AI on lobbying.

Mar 14, 2023
Miami Herald

Photographs have always been manipulated. Will AI make things worse?

BKC Fellow Juliana Castro-Varon writes as a graphic designer about the effect AI image generators will have on a potentially unsuspecting public who might not understand how the…

Mar 9, 2023
Lawfare

On AI-Generated Works, Artists, and Intellectual Property

BKC Affiliate Ryan Merkley writes about the relationship between generative AI, art, and intellectual property law.

Feb 28, 2023
TechCrunch

Can ‘we the people’ keep AI in check?

"Emad [CEO] at Stability [AI, the open-source AI company,] says he’s ‘democratizing AI.’ Well, wouldn’t it be nice to actually be using democratic processes to figure out…

Feb 17, 2023
Science Friday

ChatGPT And Beyond: What’s Behind The AI Boom?

"...what are the kinds of harms and stereotypes that exist in society that these machines can pick up on? These models are simply reflecting the data that is being put into them,…

Feb 10, 2023
PBS NewsHour

Expert warns of AI tools’ potential threat to democracy

"Democracy is fundamentally a human way of organizing ourselves, and where an AI, whether it's a ChatGPT that is writing human text or another AI that is figuring out human…

Feb 4, 2023
Mashable

ChatGPT could be a useful AI tool. So how are we regulating it?

"My observation would be that the serious legislation that's been successfully passed for regulating machine learning in general has been painfully slow and insufficient to keep…

Feb 2, 2023
Buzzfeed News

Meet The Three Artists Behind A Landmark Lawsuit Against AI Art Generators

Jessica Fjeld is quoted discussing the viability of lawsuits involving generative AI alleged to infringe upon artists' copyright claims. "It’s a little hard to predict how…

Jan 20, 2023
The New York Times

How ChatGPT Hijacks Democracy

"So while it’s impossible to predict what a future filled with A.I. lobbyists will look like, it will probably make the already influential and powerful even more so." BKC…

Jan 15, 2023
SSRN

Toward A More Cooperative Web3

"A group of researchers, builders and activists came together to discuss platform cooperativism and the intersection with the web3 movement. We touched on some of the key…

Dec 27, 2022
The New York Times

What Would Plato Say About ChatGPT?

BKC Faculty Associate Zeynep Tufekci writes about conversational AI ChatGPT’s role in an evolving society.  “As Plato was wrong to fear the written word as the enemy, we…

Dec 15, 2022
Hard Fork

Can ChatGPT Make This Podcast?

On the Hard Fork podcast, Aviv Ovadya speaks about ChatGPT, its potential, and related concerns.

Aviv Ovadya, BKC Affiliate, speaks about ChatGPT, its potential, and related concerns. It’s writing podcast scripts, finishing students’ homework and correcting mistakes in…

Dec 9, 2022
Nature

AI bot ChatGPT writes smart essays — should academics worry?

Sandra Wachter, BKC Faculty Associate, discusses ChatGPT and its concerns for academics and education.  “The situation both worries and excites Sandra Wachter, who studies…

Dec 9, 2022
Vox

We don't need another Twitter

BKC Faculty Associate Judith Donath speaks about Twitter’s demise and the potential of any possible replacements. Whatever rises up to become the new major widespread…

Dec 7, 2022
Forbes

Amazon Alexa Wants To Put Your Child To Bed With Generative AI Storytelling

BKC Fellow Sandra Cortesi discusses generative AI storytelling. “Sandra Cortesi, a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, says…

Dec 7, 2022
The Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

How do people react to AI failure? Automation bias, algorithmic aversion, and perceived controllability

In a new paper, RSM Visiting Scholar Yong Jin Park and co-author S. Mo Jones-Jang explore the response of human users to AI failures, and how those failures impact the…

Nov 22, 2022
Council of Europe

The impact of the blockchains for Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law

BKC Fellow Florian Martin-Bariteau assembled a report to the Council of Europe on blockchain opportunities. "The impact of the blockchains for Human Rights, Democracy…

Nov 15, 2022
Poetics

Digital assistants: Inequalities and social context of access, use, and perceptual understanding

Yong Jin Park, RSM Visiting Scholar, analyzes the digital inequality in AI.  "This study focuses on digital divide in the context of access, use, and perceptual…

Sep 15, 2022
The Law Bytes Podcast

The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 139: Florian Martin-Bariteau on the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act

BKC Fellow Florian Martin-Bariteau speaks about the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act on the Law Bytes podcast.  “Bill C-27, Canada’s privacy reform bill introduced in…

Aug 15, 2022
IEEE Internet Computing

Algorithms and Institutions: How Social Sciences Can Contribute to Governance of Algorithms

Virgílio Almeida takes a look at the relationship between algorithms and institutions. “Societies are experiencing a transition in which automation increases its role in daily…

Apr 1, 2022
Just Tech

Impact Assessment of Human-Algorithm Feedback Loops

Nathan Matias and Lucas Wright provide useful tools to understand how adaptive algorithms can make an impact on individuals and society.

Mar 1, 2022
Science

AI unmasks anonymous chess players, posing privacy risks

In a Science article outlining the risks surrounding software that can identify anonymous chess players, Alexandra Wood says that it's part of a bigger issue: “Privacy threats are…

Jan 12, 2022
CNN Business

Facebook's success was built on algorithms. Can they also fix it?

James Mickens and Hilary Ross discuss the drawbacks and potential solutions of social media algorithms.

Oct 10, 2021
Future

A Novel Framework for Reputation-Based Systems

Jad Esber and Scott Kominers offer a framework for designing reputation-based systems to encourage quality contributions and participation on platforms.

Sep 30, 2021
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research

Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Evidence from a Survey of Machine Learning Researchers

Baobao Zheng and colleagues explore how researchers view topics in artificial intelligence

Aug 1, 2021
openDemocracy

How government algorithms can pose societal problems

Nani Jansen Reventlow explains the dangers of automating government services

Jul 14, 2021
Harvard Negotiation & Mediation Clinical Program

Convergence, Episode 4: Jess Fjeld

Jessica Fjeld describes the increasing relevance of AI in our lives and reflects on the importance of self-compassion.

Jun 28, 2021
News@Northeastern

Who is at fault when systems powered by AI put humans in danger?

Woodrow Hartzog shares his "theory of fault" for autonomous system failures

Jun 24, 2021
MIT Sloan Management Review

Starting Now On Technology Ethics: Elizabeth Renieris

Elizabeth Renieris is interviewed about her work in AI ethics.

Jun 22, 2021
Insider

'Every smile you fake' — an AI emotion-recognition system can assess how 'happy' China's workers are in the office

Sandra Wachter weighs in on the ethical implications of a computer tracking workers’ emotions.

Jun 15, 2021
Slate

The False Comfort of Human Oversight as an Antidote to A.I. Harm

Ben Green opines that people may put too much faith in human oversight of AI.

Jun 15, 2021
CBS News

Artificial Intelligence Evolves to Creating Art

Jessica Fjeld offers legal insights on art created by artificial intelligence.

Jun 12, 2021
Harvard Business Review

The Coming AI Hackers

Bruce Schneier is interviewed about the future of AI hacking.

Jun 9, 2021
Digital Freedom Fund

How Artificial Intelligence Impacts Marginalised Groups

Nani Jansen Reventlow writes about the impact of AI on marginalized groups.

May 29, 2021
The Washington Post

‘Grassroots’ bot campaigns are coming. Governments don’t have a plan to stop them.

Bruce Schneier and colleague argue AI software can easily pass for real public comments

May 20, 2021
CNN

People of color have a new fight: techno-racism

Mutale Nkonde discusses techno-racism and facial recognition software with CNN.

May 11, 2021
HBS Digital Initiative

Laura N Montoya on the global cultural lens of AI

Laura Montoya featured by HBS Digital Initiative

May 11, 2021
BKC Medium Collection

Sexism in Facial Recognition Technology

Shreya Tewari on facial recognition technology

May 5, 2021
Slate

There’s No Such Thing as Flawless Facial Recognition Technology

Nani Jansen Reventlow warns of the limitations of facial recognition technology

Apr 24, 2021
Wired

Hackers Used to Be Humans. Soon, AIs Will Hack Humanity

Bruce Schneier says that AIs will grant our wishes, and then hack them, exploiting our social, political, and economic systems

Apr 19, 2021
BKC Medium Collection

Between Games and Apocalyptic Robots

Tom Zick considers the near-term societal risks of reinforcement learning

Apr 16, 2021
The Belfer Center

The Coming AI Hackers

Paper from Bruce Schneier explores the implications of AI hackers

Apr 15, 2021
University of British Columbia

Micaela Mantegna on A.I. & I.P.

2020-2021 affiliate discusses AI copyright and trademark law

Mar 28, 2021
Politico

Europe’s artificial intelligence blindspot: Race

Politico speaks with Nani Jansen Reventlow about algorithmic harms and governance

Mar 16, 2021
Politico

Automated racism: How tech can entrench bias

Nani Jansen Reventlow says the Dutch benefits scandal highlights need for EU scrutiny

Mar 2, 2021
NPR

Why Tech Companies Are Limiting Police Use of Facial Recognition

Mutale Nkonde talks with NPR about facial recognition technology.

Feb 18, 2021
BUToday

Can an Ancient African Philosophy Save Us from AI Bias?

Sabelo Mhlambi speaks with BUToday

Feb 11, 2021
BKC Medium Collection

Why the resignation of the Dutch government is a good reminder of how important it is to monitor and regulate algorithms

Doaa Abu Elyounes argues for high standards of transparency and supervision for algorithms

Feb 10, 2021
Vice

This Company Wants to Replace Therapy With Wearable Tech

Sandra Wachter describes issues with technology that claims to help with mental health.

Jan 25, 2021
Coda Story

The dark side of open source intelligence

David O’Brien discusses open source intelligence

Jan 15, 2021
Digital Privacy News

Facebook content moderators want better working conditions

Shagun Jhaver discusses challenges with using AI for content moderation with Digital Privacy News.

Dec 2, 2020
Harvard Gazette

AI revolution in medicine

Jonathan Zittrain compares AI to asbestos

Nov 11, 2020
MIT Technology Review

Why kids need special protection from AI’s influence

MIT Technology Review cites “Principled AI” Report

Sep 17, 2020
The Boston Globe

Getting the First Amendment wrong

Woodrow Hartzog and Neil Richards argue that Clearview AI is wrongfully trying to use the First Amendment to ensure a freedom to surveil at will.

Sep 4, 2020
VentureBeat

The term ‘ethical AI’ is finally starting to mean something

VentureBeat cites paper from Elettra Bietti

Aug 23, 2020
Ted

The new invisible workforce

"We are living through the tech-enabled unraveling of full-time employment itself”

Jul 21, 2020
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

From Rationality to Relationality: Ubuntu as an Ethical and Human Rights Framework for Artificial Intelligence Governance

Sabelo Mhlambi uses ubuntu as a frame to examine artificial intelligence

Jul 8, 2020
Vox

How can we ban facial recognition when it’s already everywhere?

Mutale Nkonde speaks with Vox about facial recognition technology

Jul 3, 2020
GovTech

Ethics in the Balance: AI’s Implications for Government

BKC’s Ethics & Governance of AI Initiative works with government officials, stakeholders

Jul 1, 2020
BKC Medium Collection

Contribution to a European Agenda for AI

Improving Risk Management, Building Strong Governance, Accelerating Education and Research

Jun 26, 2020
NPR

Tech Companies Are Limiting Police Use of Facial Recognition. Here's Why

Mutale Nkonde talks to NPR about facial recognition

Jun 23, 2020
LawBytes

Mutale Nkonde on Racial Justice, Bias, and Technology

Mutale Nkonde a guest on LawBytes Podcast

Jun 15, 2020
MIT Technology Review

The two-year fight to stop Amazon from selling face recognition to the police

Mutale Nkonde discusses IBM’s letter to the Congressional Black Caucus

Jun 12, 2020
Slate

How Amazon’s Moratorium on Facial Recognition Tech Is Different From IBM’s and Microsoft’s

Are we ready to have a conversation about racial and social justice in relation to technology? Asks Nani Jansen Reventlow

Jun 11, 2020
Coda Story

When surveillance tech has ties to white supremacy

Mutale Nkonde discusses the impact of surveillance technology on minority communities

Jun 11, 2020
The New York Times

IBM quits facial recognition, joins call for police reforms

Mutale Nkonde weighs in on IBM’s decision

Jun 9, 2020
HKS Journal of African American Policy

Automated Anti-Blackness

An essay by Mutale Nkonde

May 31, 2020
With a Side of Knowledge

Mutale Nkonde on AI and bias

Mutale Nkonde discusses AI, algorithmic bias, and why we need humans on Notre Dame’s With a Side of Knowledge Podcast

May 28, 2020
People + AI Research

Q&A: Sabelo Mhlambi on what AI can learn from Ubuntu ethics

David Weinberger interviews Sabelo Mhlambi

May 6, 2020
Voices in AI

A Conversation with David Weinberger

Weinberger joins “Voices in AI” to discuss his views on AI

Apr 30, 2020
Harvard Business Review

The Case for AI Insurance

BKC’s Ram Shankar Siva Kumar joins Frank Nagle to explore Adversarial Machine Learning's impact on businesses.  “Most major companies, including Google, Amazon, Microsoft,…

Apr 29, 2020
Open Democracy

We can’t let tech companies use algorithms to police us after COVID-19

The pandemic has demonstrated the risks of relying on algorithms to remove harmful content.

Apr 24, 2020
The Hill

How human-centered tech can beat COVID-19 through contact tracing

Mary Gray proposes several ways that technology can aid in the fight against COVID-19 that help rather than replace healthcare workers.

Apr 21, 2020
PBS

Artificial Intelligence: The Global Race for the New Frontier

BKC fellow Baobao Zhang appeared in the PBS documentary series "Great Decisions" on the possibilities and dangers of AI

Mar 20, 2020
TED Radio Hour

How Do We Build Systems Of Trust Online?

Zeynep Tufekci says to rebuild trust in the internet, we need to entirely restructure how it operates.

Mar 20, 2020
The Harvard Gazette

The good, bad, and scary of the Internet of Things

BKC faculty associate Francine Berman on the question that keeps her up at night: Is the Internet of Things a future utopia, or is it a future dystopia?

Feb 25, 2020
Medium

Is the Smart City a Good City?

An overview of smart cities and whether they can be forces for good.

Feb 13, 2020
Workflow

Q&A: Can AI be virtuous?

Jessica Fjeld, lead author of Principled AI, answered questions about the report and its implications

Feb 12, 2020
Cornell Chronicle

Ajunwa to Congress: Help stop employers’ AI-fueled bias

Ifeoma Ajunwa testifies in front of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor

Feb 11, 2020
Slate

Which Tech Companies Are Doing the Most Harm?

Mutale Nkonde joined Slate's technology podcast What Next: TBD to discuss Alphabet and inherent bias.

Jan 24, 2020
Fast Company

Google and Microsoft shouldn’t decide how technology is regulated

Jessica Fjeld warns that giving too much credence to Big Tech is like “asking the fox for guidance on henhouse security procedures.”

Jan 23, 2020
New Books in Technology Podcast

The Smart Enough City

Ben Green joins Jasmine McNealy on the New Books in Technology podcast

Jan 20, 2020
Venture Beat

Meta analysis shows AI ethics principles emphasize human rights

A team of researchers from BKC recently released a white paper and visualization that mapped AI principles and guidelines to find consensus. 

Jan 17, 2020
News

Q&A: Jessica Fjeld on a New Berkman Klein Study of AI Ethical Principles

Lead author Jessica Fjeld discusses new paper "Principled Artificial Intelligence: Mapping Consensus in Ethical and Rights-based Approaches to Principles for AI"

Jan 15, 2020
Interpreting India

Applications and Ethics of AI with Chinmayi Arun

Chinmayi Arun in conversation about the applications of AI and the ethical debates surrounding its use on the podcast Interpreting India.

Jan 8, 2020
Brookings

Public opinion lessons for AI regulation

How public opinion will likely shape the regulation of three applications of AI in the US

Dec 10, 2019
Centre for International Governance Innovation

The “Ghost Workers” Underpinning the World’s Artificial Intelligence Systems

Mary Gray on the need for a better social contract when it comes to the rights of informal workers

Dec 9, 2019
Fast Company

Portland's facial recognition ban could be the strictest yet

Mutale Nkonde warns of companies using biometric data

Dec 2, 2019
Wired

AI Innovators Should Be Listening to Kids

Urs Gasser makes the case for including young people in our conversations about artificial intelligence.

Nov 26, 2019
The Wall Street Journal

Robots Are Taking Over (the Rental Screening Process)

Landlords are using artificial intelligence to vet prospective renters

Nov 21, 2019
NiemanLab

What should newsrooms do about deepfakes? These three things, for starters

Researchers argue the dangers of deepfakes are overblown, but they will still require journalists to give thought to how they handle unconfirmed information.

Nov 20, 2019
MuckRock

The U.S. needs to “get AI right” — and fast — says government group

Ryan Budish discusses a report from the National Security Commission on AI

Nov 19, 2019
DEFCON

Don’t Red Team AI Like a Chump

Ariel Herbert-Voss on attacking machine learning systems

Nov 15, 2019
Harvard Business Review

Is AI Bias a Corporate Social Responsibility Issue?

Improving algorithms isn’t just good for your company, Mutale Nkonde says

Nov 4, 2019
WBUR

Your AI Interviewer Will See You Now

Ifeoma Ajunwa joins WBUR to discuss the use of AI in hiring processes

Oct 30, 2019
Medium

Why Do Companies and Cities Invest in AI Ethics and Governance?

Meeri Haataja outlines motivations for companies to address AI

Oct 30, 2019
Financial Times

Can you believe your eyes? How deepfakes are coming for politics

Mutale Nkonde discusses the need to regulate deepfakes

Oct 24, 2019
Public Books

Designing AI with Justice

How the design of sociotechnical systems can be one means of dismantling or transforming systems of oppression

Oct 23, 2019
Medium

Introducing AI Blindspot: A Call for Tech to Think Holistically and Spot Risks

How can teams prevent structural inequalities and their unconscious biases from affecting AI systems?

Oct 22, 2019
Cyberlaw Clinic

Cyberlaw Clinic teams with Cathy O’Neil for HUD Comment

The comment concerns proposed revisions to the so-called “disparate impact” rule

Oct 21, 2019
MEEDIA

How Journalists Can Reveal Algorithm Maladies

Mutale Nkonde discusses how algorithmic decisionmaking systems reproduce structural racism

Oct 18, 2019
MIT Technology Review

Can you make AI fairer than a judge?

Mutale Nkonde contributed to courtroom algorithm game from MIT Tech Review

Oct 17, 2019
The New York Times

What Happens When Employers Can Read Your Facial Expressions?

The benefits do not come close to outweighing the risks, writes Woodrow Hartzog

Oct 17, 2019
Medium

Establishing a Commission in MA re: Use of AI in State Government

Testimony shared with the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight of the Massachusetts Legislature

Oct 15, 2019
The New York Times

Beware of Automated Hiring

How do we make sure that automated hiring platforms do not worsen employment discrimination?

Oct 8, 2019
WIRED

The Ties That Bind Facebook's Libra

Facebook says its cryptocurrency will be managed by an independent group, but an analysis finds more than half of the members have links back to the social media giant.

Oct 7, 2019
MIT Technology Review

This is how you kick facial recognition out of your town

Mutale Nkonde says a federal ban is unlikely

Oct 4, 2019
The Harvard Gazette

Is technology evil?

HubWeek discussion looks at the ethics of individuals and an industry

Oct 4, 2019
Hack the Process

David Weinberger Encourages Us to Embrace Chaos on Hack the Process Podcast

What machine learning has to teach the experts in business strategy, and more

Sep 30, 2019
OneZero

Why You Can’t Really Consent to Facebook’s Facial Recognition

While the social media platform’s latest approach to facial recognition appears to respect user’s choices, the offer is so tainted we can’t truly agree to it

Sep 30, 2019
Fast Company

5 simple rules to make AI a force for good

BKC fellow Mutale Nkonde shares suggestions for making A.I. a force for good

Sep 20, 2019
Mind the Product

Product, Society, and Ethics

Kathy Pham reflects on the importance of asking societal and ethical questions in product organizations

Sep 20, 2019
SSRN

No Rage Against the Machines

Threat of Automation Does Not Change Policy Preferences, finds Baobao Zhang

Sep 19, 2019
MIT Technology Review

A facial recognition ban is coming to the US, says an AI policy advisor

Mutale Nkonde discusses potential federal restrictions on the use of facial recognition technology

Sep 18, 2019
Harvard Gazette

Harvard students explore ethics in tech

Assembly Student Fellowship convenes students to tackle the biggest issues in tech today.

Sep 1, 2019
BBC

The ‘ghost work’ powering tech magic

Armies of workers help power the technological wizardry that is reshaping our lives – but they are invisible and their jobs are precarious.

Sep 1, 2019

Emerging Technology & Human Rights

Domain experts from MIT, Harvard, and RightsCon offer insight into the intersection of emerging tech and human rights.

Aug 31, 2019
ZDNET

Teaching Machines to Autonomously Write Stories

An interview with David Weinberger

Aug 30, 2019

Ethical Implications of AI and Ubuntu as an Intervention

BKC fellow proposes guidelines to build better tools that can safeguard society

Aug 29, 2019
SmartCitiesWorld

Take off your tech goggles

Ben Green offers insights into why technology is not an end in itself

Aug 16, 2019
The New York Times

A.I. Is Learning From Humans. Many Humans.

Inside the labor-intensive process that enables AI’s creation.

Aug 16, 2019
Medium

Training the next generation of ethical techies

Tech, policy, and ethics training should begin in undergraduate studies, Zuckerman says

Aug 14, 2019
The Washington Times

Women, men sharply divided on driverless cars

Women are far less enthusiastic about the prospect of driverless cars than men, recent studies show.

Aug 13, 2019
Tech Crunch

Why AI needs more social workers

BKC Faculty Associate Desmond Patton shares his perspective

Aug 9, 2019
Vox

Trump wants to “detect mass shooters before they strike.” It won’t work.

Predictive AI is too flawed — both technically and ethically — to prevent another El Paso or Dayton.

Aug 7, 2019
Wired

Why Some Cities Are Banning Facial Recognition Technology

BKC’s Gretchen Greene talks about the controversy surrounding facial recognition technology

Aug 6, 2019
Communications of the ACM

Embedded EthiCS: Integrating Ethics Across CS Education

Embedded EthiCS employs a distributed pedagogy that makes ethical reasoning an integral component of courses throughout the standard computer science curriculum.

Aug 6, 2019
Wired

Facial Recognition Is Suddenly Everywhere. Should You Worry?

The rapid adoption of the technology by the government has triggered a debate about the algorithms’ trustworthiness and how they are being used.

Aug 6, 2019
Medium

Intellectual Debt: With Great Power Comes Great Ignorance

What Technical Debt Can Teach Us About the Dangers of AI Working Too Well

Jul 24, 2019
The New Yorker

The Hidden Costs of Automated Thinking

Jonathan Zittrain argues that overreliance on artificial intelligence may put us in intellectual debt

Jul 23, 2019

Technical Flaws of Pretrial Risk Assessments Raise Grave Concerns

Twenty-seven prominent researchers from MIT, Harvard, Princeton, NYU, UC Berkeley and Columbia have signed an open statement of concern regarding the use of actuarial risk…

Jul 17, 2019
Medium

Takeaways from the Ethical Tech Industry Workshop

What could an industry standard for socially responsible, ethically-attuned technologies look like?

Jul 15, 2019
The Harvard Gazette

Palo Alto event showcases Harvard tech startup scene

Jonathan Zittrain delivers an energetic presentation on the ethical responsibilities of tech companies toward consumers in the era of artificial intelligence.

Jul 11, 2019
AAMC News

Will artificial intelligence replace doctors?

Exploring AI’s role in the medical field

Jul 9, 2019
Present Value

Ethical Challenges with Technology in the Workplace

Ifeoma Ajunwa discusses the interplay of law and technology in the multiple stages of an employee’s journey

Jul 8, 2019
The Guardian

Could ‘fake text’ be the next global political threat?

An AI fake text generator that can write paragraphs in a style based on just a sentence has raised concerns about its potential to spread false information

Jul 4, 2019

Berkman Klein team launches Moral Labyrinth website

Moral Labyrinth is an art installation, workshop, and website inspired by the Value Alignment Problem in AI

Jun 27, 2019
MIT Technology Review

Rediet Abebe named to MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35

BKC affiliate Rediet Abebe uses algorithms and AI to improve access to opportunity for historically marginalized communities.

Jun 26, 2019
Irish Tech News

How Technology Affects Our Ideas

A Q&A with BKC’s David Weinberger, author of “Everyday Chaos”

Jun 25, 2019
Diversity in Action

The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

Separating fact from fiction in the new Wild West of technology

Jun 21, 2019
STAT News

What if AI in health care is the next asbestos?

Artificial intelligence is often hailed as a great catalyst of medical innovation, a way to find cures to diseases that have confounded doctors and make health care more efficient…

Jun 19, 2019
The New York Times

Singapore’s Governing Framework for Artificial Intelligence

BKC Executive Director Urs Gasser comments on Singapore’s Framework for AI

Jun 18, 2019
The Sociable

AI can assist in parenthood but it cannot replace parents

BKC’s Judith Donath lends insight into the role of AI in parenting

Jun 13, 2019
Lawfare

Safety and Security in a Digital World

Chinmayi Arun hosts a discussion with Microsoft President during 2019 Verify Conference

Jun 12, 2019
Medium

Navigating AI’s Moral Labyrinth at MozFest

Sarah Newman discusses her Moral Labyrinth installation

Jun 10, 2019
WUWM

The Quest For Inclusive & Ethical Technology

Sabelo Mhlambi discusses why technology cannot be neutral

Jun 10, 2019
SSRN

AI and the Global South: Designing for Other Worlds

Chinmayi Arun on how AI affects, and will continue to affect, the Global South

Jun 9, 2019
MIT Technology Review

The AI gig economy is coming for you

The AI industry runs on the invisible labor of humans working in isolated and often terrible conditions—and the model is spreading to more and more businesses.

May 31, 2019
Fast Company

Want to fix big tech? Change what classes are required for a computer science degree

When people learn to code, they should also learn about ethics, humanities, and equity. Then perhaps they’ll be more prepared to predict the unintended consequences of their work,…

May 28, 2019
MIT News

Algorithmic fairness tools explored at MIT Policy Hackathon

A BKC team tasked hackathon participants with developing a new resource for policymakers

May 21, 2019
TechTarget

Surveillance technology under fire, amid growing societal concerns

As San Francisco halts city use of facial recognition technology, CIOs could see more regulatory actions against surveillance technology -- and more limits on their use of data.

May 21, 2019
Wired

Some US Cities Are Moving into Real-Time Facial Surveillance

Gretchen Greene lends insight into the adoption of facial recognition technology in police departments across the U.S.

May 17, 2019
Medium

The Bizarre Accuracy of Online Ads

A Case Study of Trackers on the Internet

Ad tracking services are disturbingly effective.

May 16, 2019
Wired

How Tech Companies Are Shaping the Rules Governing AI

Yochai Benkler shares concerns about industry’s influence on AI governance and research

May 16, 2019
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights

Unboxing Artificial Intelligence

10 steps to protect Human Rights

May 14, 2019
The Atlantic

The AI Supply Chain Runs on Ignorance

Tech companies often fail to tell users how their data will be employed. Sometimes, the firms can’t even anticipate it themselves.

May 14, 2019
GeekWire

‘Ghost Work’ explores the ups and mostly downs of the hidden gig economy

Siddharth Suri and BKC’s Mary Gray discuss their book “Ghost Work” with GeekWire

May 14, 2019
The Verge

How Silicon Valley’s successes are fueled by an underclass of ‘ghost workers’

The invisible labor that makes our technology run

May 13, 2019
Wired

Spend Part of the $2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan on Robots

Advances in robotics, hardware, and artificial intelligence have combined to make a new vision possible for how infrastructure maintenance and repair is carried out.

May 5, 2019
Harvard Magazine

Cities Too Smart for Their Own Good?

There is a lot of hype about “smart cities,” but Ben Green argues the tools may have darker potential.

May 2, 2019
Medium

Is Artificial Intelligence Good for Our Health?

Maintaining agency in a human augmented health system

Apr 29, 2019
Medium

Industry efforts aren’t about to disrupt tech’s ethics problem

Frameworks like Ethical OS are a step in the right direction, but are they enough?

Apr 26, 2019
SSRN

Beyond Bias: Re-imagining the Terms of "Ethical AI" in Criminal Law

Do predictive tools reflect and reinforce punitive practices that drive disparate outcomes? How do data regimes interact with the penal ideology to naturalize these practices?

Apr 25, 2019
Medium

Can algorithms themselves be biased?

The short answer is, “yes, but it doesn’t really matter when compared to the choice to use machine learning.”

Apr 24, 2019
Wired

Forget about artificial intelligence, extended intelligence is the future

We should challenge the cult of Singularity. AI won't take over the world

Apr 23, 2019
Medium

What Do We Owe to the Internet’s “First Responders?”

Experts share perspectives on the ethics and legality of how social platforms moderate content

Until AI catches up, tens of thousands of human content moderators all around the world will continue to ingest thousands of posts of potentially toxic posts on social media,…

Apr 17, 2019
Crossroads

Facial recognition is the plutonium of AI

"It's dangerous, racializing, and has few legitimate uses; facial recognition needs regulation and control on par with nuclear waste."

Apr 17, 2019
Boston Globe

Can predictive policing help stamp out racial profiling?

Some algorithms assume crime in one location leads to others nearby. Others identify specific people most likely to be involved in violence. Both can lead to discrimination.

Apr 17, 2019
The Christian Science Monitor

Is America’s media divide destroying democracy?

Fox News in the Trump Era has been labeled “state TV.” Conservatives have complained about liberal media bias for decades. Separate media spheres have created separate realities –…

Apr 16, 2019
Medium

Machine Learning Widens the Gap Between Knowledge and Understanding

“We’re beginning to accept that the true complexity of the world far outstrips the laws and models we devise to explain it.”

Apr 15, 2019
Redtail

A Talk with Smart City Skeptic, Ben Green

Ben Green's work as a data scientist in city governments informed his critical view of the "smart city" tech that could influence city life and society for decades to come.

Apr 14, 2019
StateScoop

'Smart city' technology alone cannot solve social problems, author argues

Ben Green argues that cities are adopting “smart” technology without thinking through the political ramifications of the technology.

Apr 12, 2019
The Boston Globe

So There Are People Behind Alexa’s Curtain. Will Anyone Care?

Making smart speakers and technologies smarter, but what about privacy?

Apr 11, 2019
MIT Press

The Smart Enough City

Putting Technology in Its Place to Reclaim Our Urban Future

Taking an exclusively technical view of urban life will lead to cities that appear smart but under the surface are rife with injustice and inequality

Apr 8, 2019
Just Security

The Pentagon Wants to Streamline Security Clearances by Using AI. That’s a Dangerous Idea.

Emerging AI and security clearance at the Department of Defense

Apr 8, 2019
NPR

Cornell Professor Ifeoma Ajunwa Discusses Artificial Intelligence Used In Hiring

Is it possible for AI to completely eliminate human bias in the hiring process? Ifeoma Ajunwa doesn't think so.

Apr 8, 2019
Digital Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School

Can Data Become Part of a Development Strategy?

Data should become an enabler of new models of cooperative growth

Apr 2, 2019
Sabelo.io

God in the image of white men: Creation myths, power asymmetries and AI

Dismantling inequality in AI with marginalized voices in leadership

Mar 29, 2019
Harvard Law Today

Medical AI systems could be vulnerable to adversarial attacks

With HMS and MIT faculty, Zittrain and Bowers co-author report in Science Journal

medical machine-learning systems may be uniquely susceptible to attacks

Mar 25, 2019
Wired

Machines Shouldn’t Have to Spy On Us to Learn

How do we expand the benefits of machine learning, while protecting privacy?

Mar 25, 2019
Medium

Why AI Needs Social Workers and “non-tech” Folks

Incorporating social work and values into community-based AI research

Mar 24, 2019
Spectrum

Bracing Medical AI Systems for Attacks

There’s new advice on how to handle tampering that fools algorithms and enables healthcare fraud

Laying groundwork for resilience against real-world adversarial attacks

Mar 22, 2019
New York Review of Books

Fall from Grace

"Network Propaganda" shines a light on the dark side of democracy.

Mar 21, 2019
Harvard Law Today

The “Smart Enough” City

Can the cities of tomorrow be both technologically advanced and socially just?

The promise of Smart Cities often fails to acknowledge the complex political and social factors of cities, which may cause short and long term harms to residents and democracy

Mar 21, 2019
News

Adversarial attacks on medical AI: A health policy challenge

Emerging vulnerabilities demand new conversations

Technical solutions alone aren't enough to address vulnerabilities in machine learning systems

Mar 21, 2019
LegalTech News

Harvard and MIT Fund Deepfake Detection, Government Transparency AI Tools

Awarding $750,000 to seven organizations, including ones that help detect deepfakes and promote open access of government data

AI and the News Announces winners

Mar 19, 2019
The Commons

What might someone else do in five years, when they’re sitting in your chair?

Stopping to think about the ethics and unintended consequences of new technology.

Mar 6, 2019
Metropolis

Cities Are Not Technology Problems: What Smart Cities Companies Get Wrong

Many companies equate new technology with innovation, but actual innovation in cities means using tech in concert with bureaucracy, on-the-ground awareness, and challenging political choices.

Innovation can mean more than just "use new technology."

Mar 4, 2019
The Hill

Machines don’t necessarily fix our biases, they mirror them.

We should not trust an algorithm unless it can be reviewed and audited in meaningful ways.

Feb 13, 2019
UNESCO

Artificial Intelligence and Creativity

Some artists now work with algorithms, and that's giving us a whole new view on human creativity

Feb 11, 2019
Working Paper

A User-Focused Transdisciplinary Research Agenda for AI-Enabled Health Tech Governance

A research agenda for stakeholders to proactively collaborate and design AI technologies that work with users to improve their health and wellbeing

Feb 4, 2019
Medium

Detain/Release

Simulating algorithmic risk assessments at pretrial

A legal education simulation puts students in the role of a county judge at a bail hearing, and prompts them to detain or release individual defendants pending trial.

Jan 8, 2019
sabelo.io

Ethics and Technology

How ethics embeds in technology

Jan 7, 2019
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy

Justice Matters with Vivek Krishnamurthy

Vivek Krishnamurthy discusses the complex challenges of the human rights movement in the face of emerging technology and artificial intelligence.

Dec 21, 2018
Medium

Law and Adversarial Machine Learning

A survey of existing legal remedies for attacks that have been demonstrated on machine learning systems, and suggests some potential areas of exploration for machine learning…

Dec 20, 2018
Resource

Embedded EthiCS

Embedded EthiCS is a collaboration between philosophers and computer scientists led by faculty from both fields

Dec 17, 2018
Harvard Magazine

Ethics and the dawn of decision-making machines

Even a thoughtfully designed algorithm must make decisions based on inputs from a flawed, imperfect, unpredictable, idiosyncratic real world

Dec 17, 2018
Undark

Don't Worry About Deepfakes. Worry About Why People Fall for Them.

There are good reasons to believe that deepfakes will not be a threat in the near future, and that they, in fact, may never pose a significant threat.

Dec 13, 2018
Washington Times

A.I. experts warn of loss of free will, need for morality

"By 2030, most social situations will be facilitated by bots"

Dec 11, 2018
Medium

Build first and ask questions later?

Three hidden vulnerabilities of artificial intelligence

Three dangerous properties of AI that could be setting us up for another painful process of self-correction

Dec 10, 2018
Video

Human Rights, Ethics, and Artificial Intelligence with Harvard Techtopia Students

Harvard students participating in Harvard's inaugural Techtopia group on human rights, ethics, and artificial intelligence.

Dec 9, 2018
sabelo.io

Technology and Development in an Anti-Black World

Technology and Development in an Anti-Black world for a better world require an inquiry into the nature of power.

Dec 8, 2018
Techtopia

Discussing Human Rights, Ethics, and Artificial Intelligence with Harvard Techtopia Students

Hear from students participating in Harvard's inaugural Techtopia group on human rights, ethics, and artificial intelligence.

Dec 6, 2018
News

Facebook leader sits down with Harvard’s Jonathan Zittrain

Professor Jonathan Zittrain discusses the social media giant’s ‘long year’ with Facebook's head of global policy management Monika Bickert.

Dec 5, 2018
How We Get to Next

What Our Tech Ethics Crisis Says About the State of Computer Science Education

If you work in tech and you’re not thinking about ethics, you’re bad at your job

The problem with “I’m just an engineer” isn’t the engineer’s inability to identify all relevant ethical implications — it’s that they don’t think it’s their job to do so.

Dec 5, 2018
Bloomberg

The Bloomberg 50: The People Who Defined Global Business in 2018

Rediet Abebe earns a place on the annual Bloomberg 50

Her research focuses on how algorithms can be applied to health, education, and housing.

Dec 4, 2018
Forbes

Why AI Needs To Reflect Society

Greater diversity within research communities can control for bias in this process.

Nov 29, 2018
scholar.harvard.edu

Disparate Interactions: An Algorithm-in-the-Loop Analysis of Fairness in Risk Assessments

How do people respond to the predictions made by pretrial risk assessments?

Nov 29, 2018
Digital HKS

Big Data, Meager returns?

There is no easy fix to the asymmetries existing between developing and developed countries.

Nov 28, 2018
The Economist

AI thinks like a corporation—and that’s worrying

Artificial intelligence was born of organisational decision-making and state power; it needs human ethics

Nov 26, 2018
Forbes Mexico

MIT awards Paola Villareal for translating the racial bias in the US into data

BKC affliate Paola Villareal wins the Inovators Under 35 Latam award for a tool that reversed 20,000 sentences based on discriminatory arrests

Nov 16, 2018
Boston Review

Selling Outrage

Yochai Benkler argues that the mainstream media is our best hope for tempering the radical right.

Nov 12, 2018
Boston Magazine

Jonny Sun's New Art Project in Cambridge Is a Sitcom, Starring You

The Twitter celebrity's Laughing Room features a laugh track powered by artificial intelligence

Nov 9, 2018
Boston Globe

Want to be on a sitcom? Illustrator Jonny Sun is opening an interactive art exhibit in Cambridge

An immersive project that examines the intersection of art, technology, and privacy

Nov 8, 2018
Harvard Law Today

Algorithms and their unintended consequences for the poor

Algorithms may be intended to have a positive impact, but what happens when the opposite occurs?

Nov 7, 2018
Medium

Buying your First AI

or “Never Trust a Used Algorithm Salesman”

A skeptic's guide to the market for AI technologies, especially for government and policymakers

Nov 7, 2018
LA Times

How the 'propaganda feedback loop' of right-wing media keeps more than a quarter of Americans siloed

Why is there so often no overlap, no resemblance whatsoever between the news events reported in mainstream print and broadcast coverage?

Nov 7, 2018
Washington Post

Blame Fox, not Facebook, for fake news

"The highly asymmetric pattern of media ecosystems we observe on the right and the left, despite the fact that Facebook and Twitter usage is roughly similar on both sides,…

Nov 6, 2018
Voice of America

VR Project Highlights Social Media Policing

Police gather on social media in order to prevent and investigate criminal activity. But the clues found within aren't always conclusive

Nov 6, 2018
New Hampshire Union Leader

Deepfakes

the next threat to our elections?

Can fake doctored videos — known as “deepfakes” — impact elections?

Nov 3, 2018
Institute for New Economic Thinking

The Rise of Fake News

On the surge in misinformation since the 2016 elections

Nov 2, 2018
El Pais

Artificial intelligence forces us to revise our idea of ​​justice

Technological advances such as artificial intelligence applied to the Internet of things are allowing the machines not only to connect with each other, but also to create their…

Oct 27, 2018
Harvard Law Today

‘Network Propaganda’ takes a closer look at media and American politics

"Professional mainstream media — both in its professional centrist model, and in its highly commercially successful right-wing model — is the scaffolding on which everything else…

Oct 23, 2018
Engagement Lab

How do we make smart cities civic?

An open toolkit that helps make smart cities work for everyone

Oct 23, 2018
Medium

The Black Mirror Writer's Room

Teaching Technology Ethics through Speculation

Teaching technologists to think critically about responsibility and ethics is one way to keep our lives from into turning into a Black Mirror episode

Oct 15, 2018
News

It’s not enough for AI to be “ethical”; it must also be “rights respecting”

On the importance of thinking about both the human rights implications and the ethics of AI.

Oct 9, 2018

3 strategies journalists can use to uncover the effects of AI

Journalists have a new task at hand: to report on what information tech companies collect and to surface the extent to which public institutions use personal data

Oct 4, 2018
Statistics at a Crossroads

Please Stop Doing Explainable ML

Cynthia Rudin shares her 10 minute presentation, “Please Stop Doing Explainable ML.”

Oct 2, 2018
Cato Institute

Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics

Yochai Benkler at the Cato Institute in Washington, DC.

Sep 28, 2018
News

Evaluating the impact of artificial intelligence on human rights

Profiling six areas where current deployments of artificial intelligence are having an impact on human rights

Sep 27, 2018
The Tow Center for Digital Journalism

Network Propaganda

A discussion on how to think about technology, politics, and media in the post-truth moment

Sep 26, 2018
Video

Tech Leadership in an Era of Digital (Mis)Trust

New policies aim to protect the privacy and security of personal data. How can trust be strengthened in the digital economy?

Sep 20, 2018
DMEXCO

The Internet, AI and keeping Marketing Human

"We're all so aware of AI's tremendous power as a tool for manipulating customers and citizens that there are official calls to make AI dumber"

Sep 13, 2018
InfoQ

Ethics in Computing, from Academia to Industry

Considerations of ethics, social responsibility, and long-term impacts of software industry products

Aug 29, 2018
Medium

Filling the void Alex Jones left behind

How social media bans reshape the filter bubble

Aug 8, 2018
ITU News

Practical lessons for regulating autonomous vehicles

An interview with Aida Joaquin Acosta summing up key points from 4 new policy papers on autonomous vehicles

Aug 6, 2018
Wired

Why Westerners Fear Robots and the Japanese Do Not

How cultural differences account for our feelings about technology

Jul 30, 2018
Journal of Design and Science

Design Justice, A.I., and Escape from the Matrix of Domination

Listening to the voices of the most marginalized people "is essential if we want to make space for many worlds, many ways of being, knowing, and doing, in our visions of A.I. and…

Jul 27, 2018
Law and Political Economy blog

The Role of Technology in Political Economy

Yochai Benkler describes the limitations of the popular view of economic inequality and technology

Jul 25, 2018
Medium

You Are Entering an Ephemeral Bio-allowed Data Capture Zone

Regulating, not banning, facial recognition technology

Jul 23, 2018
Medium

Designing Frameworks that Allow for Intentions, Commitments and Exuberance in AI

How should we think about the ethical implications of AI-powered products and services?

Jul 2, 2018
CNN

When a robot writes your news, what happens to democracy?

In the not-so-distant future, we will be presented with the version of the news we wish to read -- not the news that some reporter, columnist or editorial board decides we need to…

Feb 27, 2018
Medium

Putting the J(ustice) in FAT

Ben Green calls for the disentanglement of the concepts of unfairness and injustice within the Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency movement.

Feb 26, 2018
Wired

Dont' Make AI Artificially Stupid in the Name of Transparency

In this Wired op-ed, David Weinberger discusses the implications around maximizing the benefits of machine learning without sacrificing its intelligence. A longer version of the…

Jan 28, 2018
Economic & Political Weekly

Interactions with the Right to Privacy: Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence and big data present new challenges to protecting our right to privacy both online and offline.

Dec 23, 2017

Data is power: Towards additional guidance on profiling and automated decision-making in the GDPR

In this article, the authors propose suggestions to contribute to the development of guidelines which provide the strongest protections for data subjects.

Nov 15, 2017
Medium

Is artificial intelligence a ticket to Borges’ Babylon?

A thought experiment under construction

How to think about A.I. through the lens of Jorge Luis Borges’ “The Lottery in Babylon”

Nov 8, 2017
Medium

Artificial Intelligence in Christian Thought and Practice

This series published by Christian computer scientists J. Nathan Matias, Lydia Manikonda, Scott Hale, and Kenneth Arnold introduces questions for Christians about AI and its role…

Oct 19, 2017
Medium

Algorithmic Consumer Protection

To manage the risks and benefits of AI, we need to look beyond the fairness and accuracy of AI decisions.

As society entrusts our safety and well-being to AI systems like this one, how can we ensure that the outcomes are beneficial?

Oct 9, 2017
News

Artificial Intelligence's Fair Use Crisis

In the United States, the copyright law mechanism most likely to facilitate machine learning’s uses of protected data is the fair use doctrine. However, current fair use doctrine…

Sep 7, 2017
Medium

The Robot Dog Fetches for Whom?

"A boy sits with his dog at the edge of a beautiful and serene lake. Under the blue sky, the far shore is visible, with a short wide beach and green woods behind it. The boy wears…

May 7, 2017
Video

Openness and Oversight of Artificial Intelligence

Jonathan Zittrain, faculty director of the Berkman Klein Center and Professor at Harvard Law School

Jonathan Zittrain discusses the role regulators and oversight groups might play as AI becomes more and more woven into the fabric of society

Jan 11, 2017
Video

The Geographic Opportunities and Challenges of AI

Malavika Jayaram of the Digital Asia Hub

Malavika Jayaram discusses the language we use to talk about Artificial Intelligence, and the impact of AI in Asia.

Jan 11, 2017
Video

Designing AI to Complement Humanity

Barbara Grosz of the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University

Barbara Grosz discusses how we are developing AI to complement, rather than displace, humanity

Jan 11, 2017
Video

AI and Human Development

Kate Darling of the MIT Media Lab at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society

Kate Darling discusses how interacting with artificially intelligent human agents can have impacts on human behavioral development

Jan 11, 2017
Video

Social and Ethical Challenges of AI

danah boyd of Data & Society

danah boyd of Data & Society discusses how society could engage AI to reduce, rather than exacerbate, existing social challenges.

Jan 11, 2017
Video

AI Threats to Civil Liberties and Democracy

Chinmayi Arun of the Centre for Communication Governance at National Law University, Delhi

Chinmayi Arun discusses the challenges unchecked AI development could pose to civil liberties in Asia.

Jan 11, 2017
Video

AI and Ethical Design

Beth Altringer of Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences & the Graduate School of Design

Beth Altringer discusses how to design AI systems with ethics in mind.

Jan 11, 2017

Projects, Programs, and Tools 15

Algorithms and Justice

The use of algorithms in the judiciary has already raised significant questions about bias and fairness, and looking ahead the moral questions become even more challenging.

Artificial Intelligence and the Law

This initiative focuses on new challenges and opportunities for the law created by the rise of AI.

Responsible Generative AI: Accountable Technical Oversight

Generative AI is at a tipping point of adoption and impact, much like that of machine learning and AI years ago. But this time the stakes, regulatory environment, potential social…

metaLAB (at) Harvard

Explores the digital arts and humanities through research, teaching, publications, and exhibitions

Past

AI: Autonomous Vehicles

As vehicles become more automated vehicles, we consider potential impacts on labor, questions about governance, bias, and inequality, and work to identify forms of transparency.

Past

AI: Educational Activities

The Berkman Klein Center has worked to build a robust community and institutional activities leveraging the University as an educational and bridge-building force that has a…

Past

AI: Global Governance and Inclusion

In a world challenged by growing domestic and international inequalities, policymakers face hard problems and difficult choices when dealing with AI systems.

Past

AI: Media and Information Quality

As autonomous systems play an increasing role in selecting the content we see online, questions arise about AI's influence on human judgment, opinions, and perceptions.

Past

AI: Transparency and Explainability

There are many ways to hold AI systems accountable. We focus on issues related to obtaining human-intelligible and human-actionable information.

Course

Applied Ethical and Governance Challenges in AI - Spring 2019

This course will pursue a cross-disciplinary investigation of the development and deployment of the opaque complex adaptive systems that are increasingly in public and private use.

Assembly: Disinformation

The Assembly: Disinformation Program brings together participants from academia, industry, government, and civil society from across disciplines to explore and make progress on…

Course

Compliance and Computation Overview

What is the role of the law and of lawyers in a machine learning/AI world?

Digital Ethics in Times of Crisis: COVID-19 & Access to Education and Learning Spaces

A global research sprint explores digital transformation at a pivotal moment in time

Past

Metaverse: Centering Inclusion

Bringing together experts from various sectors, conducing research to inform decision-making, and contributing to the development of a metaverse with thoughtful values and…

Past

Policy Practice

The Policy Practice is a public interest-oriented program that helps governmental, nonprofit, and private sector organizations implement best practices and turn principles into…


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