Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to technologies that perceive, learn and reason in ways that simulate human cognitive abilities. TAP scholars consider AI’s effects on labor, business, policing, law, medicine, war, free speech, privacy and democracy, and discuss potential solutions to mitigate harms.
The most powerful algorithms being used today "haven’t been optimized for any definition of fairness. They have been optimized to do a task." — Deirdre Mulligan, Associate Professor in the School of Information, University of California, Berkeley
"What concerns me most is the idea that we’re coming up with systems that are supposed to ameliorate problems [but] that might end up exacerbating them." — Kate Crawford, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research
"Put simply, AI works well when the trading objective is obvious. But when it is complex and hard to describe, there is no substitute for human judgment." — Joshua Gans, Professor of Strategic Management, University of Toronto
"Social evolutions are messy and may follow a crooked path, but in the same way that tobacco went from king of cool to social misfit, there is plenty of reason to believe we can find ways to enjoy the personal connections and information sharing while learning to limit the antisocial influences." — Evan Selinger, Professor of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology
"There are a bunch of players in this space, and if you are Microsoft you want to be seen as trusted. Any sufficiently transformative technology is going to require new laws." — Ryan Calo, Professor of Law, University of Washington
"It’s not because the technology is lagging. It really has to do with the organizational side, the culture, and the co-invention of business processes that takes a lot longer." — Erik Brynjolfsson, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"There will be a substantial impact on the military because the capabilities of all kinds of systems will change and there will be an introduction of automation on a lot of different functions." — Edward Felten, Director, Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University
"We should have equivalent due-process protections for algorithmic decisions as for human decisions." — Kate Crawford, Co-founder, AI Now
"Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming part of the information infrastructure we rely on every day. Early-stage AI technologies are filtering into everything from driving directions to job and loan applications. ... Error-prone or biased artificial-intelligence systems have the potential to taint our social ecosystem in ways that are initially hard to detect, harmful in the long term and expensive—or even impossible—to reverse." — Kate Crawford, Co-founder, AI Now
"Autonomous systems are already deployed in our most crucial social institutions, from hospitals to courtrooms. Yet there are no agreed methods to assess the sustained effects of such applications on human populations." — Kate Crawford, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research and Ryan Calo, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Washington
Select an Issue
TAP Academics
View all academics with expertise in Artificial Intelligence
TAP Blog
In this second part of Professor Théodore Christakis and Mathias Becuywe’s article delving into the EU’s draft proposal for artificial intelligence regulation, the authors focus on the rules proposed to regulate the use of remote biometric identification (RBI) in publicly accessible spaces for the purpose of law enforcement.
May 13, 2021
View all blog posts about Artificial Intelligence
Upcoming Events
Tenth Annual We Robot Conference
September 23, 2021,
View all upcoming events about Artificial Intelligence
Fact Sheets
Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to technologies that perform learning and reasoning in ways that simulate human cognitive abilities.
Featured Article
Federal and state agencies increasingly use automation and software to carry out their responsibilities, resulting in a loss of due process and accountability. However, some agencies use technology effectively.
March 9, 2020
View all articles on Artificial Intelligence