Session Abstract
In many religious traditions, as well as in the history of poetry, the notion of “mysticism” plays an News reports, litigation and public debates highlight the risks that data-driven technologies--from social media platforms to Artificial Intelligence--pose to democratic values, including civil and human rights, and democratic institutions. Harms can stem from the unintentional, but often foreseeable, risks created by corporate product design choices or result from specific anti-democratic uses. From censorship to surveillance, election interference to algorithmic discrimination, evidence of technologies' capacity to undermine the conditions and institutions that sustain democracies abound. But technology can be designed and governed to support democratic values and institutions. The Biden-Harris Administration broke with a decades long laissez-faire approach to governing the information and communication technology sector in the US, to establish AI policies that centered the public's rights and safety, created new institutions to address AI risks, and brought sociotechnical experts into government to support sound use and governance of AI. Mulligan, who served as Principal Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Biden-Harris Administration, will draw on her research to explain how these efforts are well suited to build a digital future that supports democratic values and democratic institutions.
Speaker Bio
Deirdre K. Mulligan is a Professor at the School of Information at the University of California at Berkeley and a Faculty Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. She served as Principal Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy during the Biden-Harris Administration. In that role, Mulligan led the Tech Division within OSTP, working to ensure that digital technologies benefit all Americans and advance democratic values. Mulligan's research focuses on protecting values including privacy, equity, and freedom of expression in sociotechnical systems. Prior to joining the School of Information, Mulligan was the first Director of the Samuelson Law and Technology Clinic and a Clinical Professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. She is a founding board member of the Partnership on AI, a founding member of the Global Network Initiative, and a former Commissioner on the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission. She helped start the Center for Democracy and Technology, where she worked on key tech policy issues during the emergence of the commercial internet.