The University of Michigan’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program at the Ford School of Public Policy held a panel discussion Tuesday afternoon about the importance of technical experts working with civil society organizations to serve the public. The webinar, titled “Making Technology Work For Everyone: Empowering Civil Society and Technologists to Work Together to Shape our Future,” was hosted by Shobita Parthasarathy, Public Policy professor and STPP program director, as well as STPP managing director Molly Kleinman.
Parthasarathy began the webinar with an overview of the STPP program, which provides educational initiatives for students interested in learning how science and technology relate to policy, politics and public interest. Some of STPP’s offerings include various undergraduate opportunities like the Student Research Corps and the Community Partnerships Initiative. Parthasarathy said one goal of the program is to help political organizations better understand the workings and implications of growing technologies such as artificial intelligence.
“A wide range of welfare services are now automated or using AI technologies, and so it’s increasingly important for our large infrastructure of social service organizations, civil society organizations and governments to have deep understanding, not just of the technical details, but also of the implications of those technologies,” Parthasarathy said. “Much of what we do at STPP is provide training to help (these groups) engage in those conversations.”
After Parthasarathy spoke, Kleinman described additional examples of STPP research, such as their Broadening Horizons report, Artificial Intelligence Handbook for Local Government and Community Partnerships Playbook. Kleinman said the program’s Community Partnerships Initiative is designed to incorporate community insight and feedback into this work by identifying emerging technologies that may pose challenges to STPP community partners.
“Often we know that the people most likely to be harmed or left behind by technological advancement are the people who are least likely to be in the room designing those technologies, making decisions about those technologies,” Kleinman said. “So the goal of the Community Partnerships Initiative is to facilitate bringing that expertise into those rooms and supporting community organizations engaging in these topics the way that they want to.”
Rackham student Divya Ramesh, STPP graduate certificate program member, told the panel her interest in policy grew after working at a startup that built computer vision technology aiming to help those with visual impairments. Ramesh said the increased use of artificial intelligence within the company made her consider how to best incorporate community voices into that work.
“Often, there’s a huge distance between the technologists who build the solutions and the communities that we claim we would like to benefit,” Ramesh said. “For me, it’s about building (the) grid differently, starting to bring the communities into the room, exploring processes by which we can bring both technologists and community experts on the same page, and then start to envision technologies differently.”
During the panel, U-M alum Annabella Vidrio discussed her experience with the Community Partnerships Initiative, such as writing a memo with Detroit Action about the dangers of tenant screening algorithms and working with We The People Michigan to write contracts between the Detroit Police Department and surveillance technology companies. Vidrio said this work increased her awareness of the intersection between community needs and technology.
“In both these instances, the technology, I realized, was not made with the community well-being in mind, and in doing so had negative consequences,” Vidrio said. “So in doing this work with the Community Partners Initiative, I really learned the importance of a humanities-driven tech perspective, and how we can use this to empower communities rather than to impede them.”
U-M alum Trevor Odelberg told the panel he appreciated the STPP program for giving him the opportunity to engage in large-scale policy conversations despite majoring in electrical engineering. Odelberg said he now applies his understanding of both the technical and social aspects of technology in his current role as a U.S. congressional fellow sponsored by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
“It’s relatively easy to find experts in the sciences, it’s relatively easy to find experts in policy,” Odelberg said. “It’s very, very hard to find people who can speak both those languages and can bridge that nuance. So I can just really say that this skill set is really valued, at least in Washington, and we need a lot more people like this as well.”
Daily Staff Reporter Aanya Panyadahundi can be reached at aanyatp@umich.edu.
