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For the past six decades, Berkeley’s Sociology Department has consistently been ranked among the world’s top sociology departments. Our graduate program is ranked #1 in the latest U.S. News and World Report, and our undergrad degree is currently the best in the US according to College Factual and features on Grad Reports’ Best College List 2020.
Prof. Einstein served graduate students as a model of prudence in remaining unfashionably true to the grand…
Making Hispanics
How Activists, Bureaucrats & Media Constructed a New American
Departmental Colloquium Series
Tina Law, "Public Deliberation and Governance of AI in the U.S."
Monday October 6th, 2025 at 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Blumer Room - 402 Social Sciences Building and via zoom
Abstract:
AI technology is currently developed and deployed in the U.S. at an unprecedented pace,
generating important social, political, and economic consequences but guided by little to no
public input. How can the public shape AI technology and its growing influence in their lives? In
this talk, I will draw on two studies to explore a set of dynamics that define current AI policy
debates: (1) the continuing dominance of a market-based approach to policymaking that defers to
tech firms and does little to check their growing power, and (2) the new proliferation of publicly
accessible AI expertise that largely promotes individual consumerism. As I will show, ensuring
that the development and application of AI technology is democratic and equitable will require
deeper shifts in the logic of policymaking and the practice of expertise, with distinct implications
for universities and social scientists.