Stanford University

Stanford University is supporting innovations around public interest technology in education, research, and community engagement. The university’s long-range vision promises new opportunities for curricular innovation and research at the intersection of ethics, society, and technology. One way it’s accomplishing this goal on the teaching front is through the Embedded EthiCS Initiative, a joint project of the Center for Ethics in Society, the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and the Computer Science department. The program leverages the knowledge and expertise of our postdoctoral scholars to incorporate ethics modules into core computer science courses. Further, in an effort to increase consideration of the ethical and societal implications of technology development, the Ethics and Society Review is helping researchers identify and mitigate for negative implications of their work on society. In collaboration with the Haas Center for Public Service and student organizations on campus, the Ethics, Society, & Technology Hub is also expanding experiential learning opportunities through its new PIT Summer Fellowship Program. Students are also building the PIT field on campus. Through undergraduate groups such as CS+Social Good and the Public Interest Technology Lab, students are exploring how technology can be applied to solve social problems and promote social impact.

President Marc Tessier-Lavigne

Career Pipeline/Placement

Summer Fellowship for Public Sector AI Governance (PS-AIG)

The RegLab Summer Fellowship for Public Sector AI Governance (PS-AIG) program aims to develop the next generation of public interest technologists to set standards for auditing, developing, and equitably adopting AI in the government and to directly engage on AI issues with federal and local agencies.

Principal Investigator

Daniel E. Ho, Professor of Law, Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research

Faculty and Institution Building

Developing An Ethics Review Board for Artificial Intelligence Research
Artificial intelligence (AI) research is routinely criticized for failing to account for its long-term societal impacts. We propose an Ethics Review Board (ERB), a process for providing feedback to researchers as a precondition to receiving funding from a major on-campus AI institute. Researchers write an ERB statement detailing the potential long-term effects of their research on society—including inequality, privacy violations, loss of autonomy, and incursions on democratic decision-making—and propose how to mitigate or eradicate such effects. The ERB panel provides feedback, iteratively working with researchers until the proposal is approved and funding is released. Our goal is to grow the ERB and help others in the PIT-UN create an ERB.

Principal Investigators

Michael Bernstein, Associate Professor of Computer Science and STMicroelectronics Faculty Scholar; Margaret Levi, Director, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment; and Debra Satz, Dean of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Ethics in Society, Honors Program Advisor

Faculty and Institution Building

Race and Technology Praxis Program
The Race and Technology Praxis Program links the research and practice of public interest technology through collaborations between Stanford faculty and community-based practitioner fellows – transforming research and accelerating practitioner impact to advance racial justice.

Principal Investigators

Jennifer DeVere Brody, Professor of Theater & Performance Studies, Faculty Director, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and Daniel Murray, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity

Career Pipeline/Placement

Stanford Cardinal Service PIT Career Pipeline Project

Stanford University will elevate Public Interest Technology (PIT) careers by expanding and deepening real world experiences that enable students to imagine careers that focus on using technology to benefit policy and forge solutions to pressing social and environmental issues.

Principal Investigators

Leslie Saul Garvin, Senior Program Director, Cardinal Careers, Haas Center for Public Service and Deborah Stipek, Peter E. Haas Faculty Director of the Haas Center for Public Service, Judy Koch Professor of Education, Graduate School of Education

Educational Offerings

Race and Technology Praxis Program

The Race and Technology Praxis Program links the teaching and practice of public interest technology through coursework and internships with practitioner fellows – training students, accelerating practitioner impact, and elevating discourse on race and technology at Stanford and in the PIT-UN.

Principal Investigators

Jennifer DeVere Brody, Professor of Theater & Performance Studies, Faculty Director, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity and Daniel Murray, PhD, Executive Director, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity