Policy Topics

Science and technology

Showing 61 - 90 of 637 results
In the Media

AI will 'turbocharge' inequalities in health care - Parthasarathy

Mar 16, 2023 Bridge Michigan
Shobita Parthasarathy, Bridge Michigan: "Health care systems don't even know what data they're missing. That (AI) gets integrated into medical care as a mechanism for achieving efficiency. But they do that without realizing that it's going to...
In the Media

Parthasarathy on AI technology perils

Feb 28, 2023 Business Insider
Business Insider: Run-ins with users show some of the potentially troubling outcomes to expect when companies experiment with the public on new AI technologies, said Shobita Parthasarathy, a public policy professor at the University of Michigan, who...
Publication

Automated License Plate Readers widely used, subject to abuse

Feb 22, 2023
Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are being used by a growing number of public and private entities to track drivers’ movements and location. The use of the technology is almost entirely unregulated and can be subject to abuse, so some...
News

Gerber creates XR-enhanced online course on Future of Mobility

Feb 9, 2023
The University of Michigan's Center for Academic Innovation and Coursera have launched the first three in a set of 10 planned online learning opportunities that integrate extended reality technologies into the learning experience.  This launch is...
In the Media

Parthasarathy weighs in on implications of ChatGPT

Feb 6, 2023 Nature
Shobita Parthasarathy, Nature: "Besides directly producing toxic content, there are concerns that AI chatbots will embed historical biases or ideas about the world from their training data, such as the superiority of particular cultures, says...
In the Media

Stevenson links technological advancement to income inequality

Jan 20, 2023 The Economist
Betsey Stevenson, The Economist: "I think that's a fair assessment, and I think the question is, why? And that's where the complications come in. Some of that is from what economists call skill-biased technological change. So we've seen the wages of...
News

Announcing winter 2023 Ford School events

Jan 11, 2023
 The Ford School is pleased to announce an exciting lineup for the winter 2023 Policy Talks @ the Ford School series and other special public events hosted with partners from across campus. Events are free and open to the public unless otherwise...
News

Green discusses the fairness of algorithms at Harvard University

Jan 10, 2023
Postdoctoral scholar Ben Green recently joined Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society for a webinar focused on what fairness means in the context of algorithms and how fairness can be measured. Joined by other scholars...
News

Ford School STPP scholars receive inaugural Quad Fellowships

Jan 3, 2023
Two graduate certificate students in the Ford School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program have been selected for the inaugural cohort of the Quad Fellowship, a program designed to spur interdisciplinary scientific and...
News

Ford School faculty launch open online courses

Dec 19, 2022
Three Ford School faculty have developed exciting new online courses to equip learners and professionals around the globe with interdisciplinary skills that help them engage in and inform complex public policy decision-making processes. Elisabeth...
State & Hill

Diversity, equity, and inclusion highlights

Dec 19, 2022
The University of Michigan is currently in an interim period between its strategic plans for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with the next plan set to launch in early fall 2023. The Ford School community did not pause, however, and is hard...
News

Parthasarathy discusses implications of Large Language Models

Nov 7, 2022
Large Language Models (LLMs) are artificial intelligence tools that can read, summarize and translate texts and predict future words in a sentence letting them generate sentences similar to how humans talk and write. Shobita Parthasarathy, professor...
In the Media

El-Sayed dives into the evolution of misinformation

Nov 1, 2022 America Dissected
Abdul El-Sayed, America Dissected: "Today, millions of Americans have yet to receive a first dose of a safe, effective vaccine that has saved millions of lives, all because they’ve been victims of the virality of information. And that leaves them...
Publication

Green discusses "substantive algorithmic fairness"

Oct 19, 2022
Ford School assistant professor Ben Green, and an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, says that if algorithms are to improve society, focusing only on whether they’re mathematically “fair” won’t get us...
In the Media

Ali advises on how to react to a data breach

Oct 16, 2022 Governing
Javed Ali, Governing: "You may want to protect, or not completely reveal, either the attack method or even how the attack was detected. Knowing the sources and methods can give adversaries insight and...
News

U-M online course explores the future of mobility

Oct 4, 2022
How can rapidly evolving technology and public policy help make transportation safer, cleaner, and more equitable? In a new, six-week Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled People, Technology & Future of Mobility, participants will learn about...
In the Media

Parthasarathy comments on new ARPA-H director

Sep 13, 2022 Nature
President Joe Biden recently named Renee Wegrzyn as the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a new agency tasked with finding innovative solutions to biomedical problems. Nature asked Shobita...