Description:

Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research and the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications are pleased to welcome:

Alondra Nelson, the Harold F. Linder Professor, Institute for Advanced Study, and Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress, who will speak on

"Governing the Future: On AI, Public Policy, and Democracy"

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Abstract: How should we approach the governance of artificial intelligence (AI) models and tools to steward their potential public benefit? Do we need new rules, regulations, and standards to accompany each new or emerging technology? Or is there another way? Drawing on the White House’s “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights,” a cornerstone of President Biden’s historic AI executive order, and a recent study from the AI Democracy Projects, Nelson will discuss how governing for the future paradoxically requires anchoring in long if imperfectly held democratic commitments, including civil rights and civil liberties; regulating toward prosocial outcomes rather than around technological objects–and doing both while advancing research and policy innovation. 

Additional lecture sponsors are Northwestern's Department of Sociology, the Science in Human Culture Program, and the Klopsteg Lecture Fund.

ABOUT ALONDRA NELSON
An award-winning scholar who served in the Biden administration, Alondra Nelson’s expertise sits at the intersection of science, technology, policy, and society.

Nelson’s research offers a critical and innovative approach to the social sciences in fruitful dialogue with other disciplines. Her major research contributions are situated at the juncture of racial formation and social citizenship, on the one hand, and emerging scientific and technological phenomena, on the other.
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She was formerly deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). In this role, Nelson was the first African American and first woman of color to lead U.S. science and technology policy. At OSTP, she spearheaded the development of the "Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights," provided guidance to expand tax-payer access to federally funded research, served as an inaugural member of the Biden Cancer Cabinet, strengthened evidence-based policymaking, and galvanized a multisector strategy to advance equity and excellence in STEM, among other accomplishments.

Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She was named to Time Magazine’s list of the “100 Most Influential People in AI” in 2023.