September 21, 2014

Co-Director Batya Friedman Discusses “Can We Build A Safer Internet?” in The New York Times

The New York Times

In a recent article the New York Times asked "Can We Build a Safer Internet?" They examined whether the harassment and hateful internet of today could one day change for the better and discussed the issue with Co-Director Batya Friedman: "The question for designers of online communities, she said, is 'how do we either create virtual norms that are comparable, or how do we represent those things so that people are getting those cues, so they modulate their behavior?'"

September 16, 2014

Co-Director Calo’s New Robotics Paper Receives National Coverage

Washington Post and Slate

Lab Director Ryan Calo’s new paper, “The Case for a Federal Robotics Commission,” has received recognition from both the Washington Post and Slate. The paper is part of a series hosted by Brookings that attempts to anticipate and address the legal issues that will arise as civilian robots become more common.

September 12, 2014

EFF Thanks Franzi Roesner for Her Help With “Privacy Badger”

Recently, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released a new browser add-on that prevents ads, social widgets, and hidden trackers. Tech Policy Lab alum Franzi Roesner was thanked by the EFF “for exceptional work in enhancing Privacy Badger’s widget-handling algorithms.”

August 13, 2014

Robotics, Law, and Policy: A Burgeoning Field

Robots are on the rise. From Amazon Prime Air to the new crowd-sourced family robot JIBO, intelligent machines and systems are gaining attention in both the public and academic sectors. The Pew Research Center’s recent report, “AI, Robotics, and the Future of Jobs,” serves as an example for the topic’s growing popularity. The paper details […]

July 17, 2014

Moral Hazards and Legal Conundrums of Our Robot Filled-Future – Director Calo in Wired

Wired

Lab Director Ryan Calo was recently on a robotics panel at UC Berkeley that has been featured on Wired.

Could Jibo Developer Cynthia Breazeal Be The Steve Wozniak of Robots? (Forbes Cross-post)

Bill Gates once predicted we would have a robot in every home to go with our personal computer. James Temple of is calling Jibo—a new personal robot to be sold commercially in 2015—“one of the most ambitious and affordable robots for the home that [he has] seen.” I agree. Developed by social robotics pioneer and […]

July 7, 2014

Consumer Subject Review Boards: Co-Director Ryan Calo on NPR Marketplace

NPR

Following the news about a Facebook study on the effects of changing the positive or negative comments on a user's News Feed, many articles have taken Facebook to task for experimenting on their users. Others have pointed out that this study is in line with using algorithms to tailor content, and suggest new processes for companies to handle such research. Recently, Co-Director Ryan Calo was interviewed on NPR's Market Place Tech about his 2013 suggestion for Consumer Subject Review Boards.

July 5, 2014

Lab Member Tamara Bonaci talks with Geekwire about Brain-Computer Interfaces and Privacy

Geekwire

GeekWire talked to Tamara Bonaci and Howard Chizeck about Brain-Computer Interfaces and Privacy recently: "The past couple of years have brought a series of revelations about the lack of privacy online — all the ways that companies and the government can use our activity on the Internet and mobile devices to collect and capitalize on personal details about our lives. So what happens when we start hooking our brains up to these devices? That’s our topic on the GeekWire radio show and podcast this week, and it’s the focus of our two guests, who are conducting research into the privacy implications of brain-computer interfaces. We’re joined in the studio by Howard Chizeck, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington, and UW graduate student Tamara Bonaci."

July 3, 2014

Regulating Robots: Co-Director Ryan Calo’s Talk at Aspen Ideas Festival

Recently, Lab Co-Director Ryan Calo spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival and The Atlantic covered his talk and his latest article “Robotics and the New Cyberlaw“. “Law professor Ryan Calo believes that robots are soon going to constitute a more abrupt departure from the technologies that preceded them than did the Internet from personal computers […]

June 30, 2014

Bitcoin: Law and Policy

Answers to “What is Bitcoin” are not difficult to find, from the official Bitcoin.org website to CNN and Wikipedia, there are great videos to explain the tech definition. A short hand for the Bitcoin technical definition is an “open-source peer-to-peer decentralized cryptocurrency”. But what is Bitcoin to regulators? This piece will look at what the […]