Research Areas:
AI and Social Impacts

The Tech Policy Lab is committed to advancing artificial intelligence in the public interest through research, analysis, and education and outreach.

Project Resources

  • Tech Policy Lab Cited as Part of UW Law’s Technology Strategy

    An overview of University of Washington School of Law’s efforts to grow in the tech industry makes reference to the specialized work the Tech Policy Lab contributes toward inclusive tech policy.

    News

  • Regulating Bot Speech

    This article in the UCLA Law Review is the first to consider how efforts to regulate bots, while falling short of per se censorship, might nonetheless run afoul of the First Amendment. The article further considers how premature regulation of bot speech may inadvertently curtail a novel and still emerging form of expression.

    Research Paper

  • Data Statements for NLP: Toward Mitigating System Bias and Enabling Better Science

    In research published in Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, experts in information science and computational linguistics investigate data statements as a practice to address critical ethical and scientific issues that result when systems developed with data from certain populations are used in systems with other populations.

    Research Paper

  • Towards Culturally Responsive Artificial Intelligence

    In August 2018 the Lab convened our second Global Summit, bringing together a global network of ethicists, political scientists, artists, policymakers, and technologists from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America to surface implications of cultural responsiveness for artificial intelligence. To explore these questions, we focused on storytelling as a uniquely appropriate vehicle for discussing pressing issues around AI. The 19 stories authored by participants have been published in the book Telling Stories: On Culturally Responsive Artificial Intelligence.

    News

  • AI in Public Sector: Tool for inclusion or exclusion?

    Applications of Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the public sector are broad and growing, helping make decisions in welfare payments, immigration, fraud detection, healthcare, transportation, etc. However, the social equity and diversity implications of ML & AI in this realm are unclear. The panel will discuss the potential social and economic impact […]

    Video

  • Faculty Co-Director Ryan Calo Testifies Before German Parliament

    In June 2016 C0-Director Ryan Calo testified before the German Parliament, the Bundestag, as part of a hearing before the Committee on the Digital Agenda on "The Effects of Robotics on Economics, Labour and Society." He answered questions about the application of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence for economic growth; and identified a number of issues regulatory issues legislators will face.

    Press
More Project Resources

Past Events

  • Data Statements at NAACL 2019

    Faculty Associate Emily M. Bender will present work on Data Statements with Co-Director Batya Friedman at the 2019 Annual Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics.

    Event

  • Spring Distinguished Lecture with Kate Crawford | AI Now: Social and Political Questions for Artificial Intelligence

    In March 2018, Kate Crawford gave the Tech Policy Lab’s spring Distinguished Lecture on “AI Now: Social and Political Questions for Artificial Intelligence.”

    Event
    Video

  • Legal and Governance Implications of Artificial Intelligence

    In May 2016, the Lab and the UW School of Law co-hosted the first of four White House public workshops on artificial intelligence. Deputy CTO Ed Felton and other members of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy spoke on panels and were in attendance for the workshop.

    Event
    Video