🎥 The January DSxHE Download: Carrie Alexander (UC Davis) 🎥

We were delighted to host Carrie Alexander, for the latest instalment of our monthly informal meetup - The DSxHE Download.

Title: AI Governance as a Knowledge Game

The recording is just the presentation part of the session - this was followed by discussion and Q&A which we did not record.

AI Ethics and Governance frameworks have proliferated in recent years, accompanied by criticism from hard law advocates who argue, for instance, that AI ethics frameworks are “useless” because they are “toothless”—meaning they lack enforcement mechanisms that theoretically would help to curtail unethical practices in the development of AI algorithms and AI-based technologies. However, my research, including interviews and surveys conducted with AI researchers and industry stakeholders along with combing literature from multiple fields and industries, reveals that even passing regulation with greater enforcement mechanisms may face similar problems. So even if part of the solution for AI governance is better regulation, I explain the way AI governance functions as a knowledge game that requires radically different approaches to augment traditional soft and hard law governance mechanisms.

Speaker Bio

Carrie Alexander is a postdoctoral scholar with the UC Davis Department of Public Health Sciences in the School of Medicine, in partnership with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), working on AI applications and education in health systems. For the four years prior to her current role, she was the postdoctoral scholar for Socioeconomics, Ethics, and Policy at the USDA-NIFA/NSF AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS). She is also a lecturer in Science and Technology Studies at UC Davis teaching STS102: AI in Society. She has also founded the AI Game and Gov(ernance) Lab where she and her students build and play simulation-based games and other projects to expand research and public knowledge and participation in the governance of AI technologies. Her research areas include AI technologies and policy, food system adaptation, corporate law, liability frameworks, negotiation, risk, and governance in contexts of intense cultural and technological change and high-stakes political and economic decision-making. Drawing on computational and qualitative methods including regression and topic modeling, textual analysis, interviews, focus groups, and surveys, she works across disciplinary lines and sectors to identify, define, and propose solutions for pressing societal problems. She is a prior Mellon Public Scholar and a research consultant for the State of California. She has lectured, published, and presented on AI technologies, law and policy, negotiation strategies, cultural and technological change, and built and natural environments.

Email Charlotte at info@datasceinceforhealthequity.com if you want to host next time & share your work or anything interesting that you've encountered lately. Or, if you're looking for some inspiration on what to share, why not have a look at the DSxHE Library?

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