AI and Society
Leading responsible AI education and research that benefits society and innovation
Monitoring AI and society issues
As a global leader in the development of AI technology as well as research into the ethics, policies and practices around its use, UC Berkeley experts such as CDSS Dean Jennifer Chayes are at the forefront of this rapidly changing technology. “Major technology paradigm shifts like AI come with significant benefits and risks, and I expect AI will become ever more part of our daily lives,” said Chayes. "Conversations about the responsible and ethical use of AI should be prioritized across sectors and civil society. We must work collaboratively to mitigate AI’s potential harms and find inclusive ways to empower people. Our challenge is to apply AI to advance knowledge, expand understanding and benefit humanity.”
Endowed professor in AI focuses on inequality
Emma Pierson was named the Zhang Family Endowed Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. Pierson’s research has many practical applications, including the development of machine learning methods to improve healthcare and public health. “I want to make sure students realize that AI is a deeply human endeavor,” she said. “The goal is to improve people’s lives, and these algorithms have powerful applications in doing that.” Hao Zhang, M.A. ’05, Ph.D. ’07, provided a gift to CDSS to establish the endowment and support junior faculty working on artificial intelligence.
“I want to make sure students realize that AI is a deeply human endeavor. The goal is to improve people’s lives, and these algorithms have powerful applications in doing that.”
— Emma Pierson, the Zhang Family Endowed Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, UC Berkeley
Leading AI education
As AI continues advancing at a breakneck pace, UC Berkeley faculty are optimizing computer science courses to keep undergraduate students informed and prepared for changing careers in the tech industry and beyond.
“In industry, some people are treating all of these models as if they are off-the-shelf, black box programs that they directly call and do the inference on, but not actually contribute to their development or understand what’s going on behind the scenes,” said Narges Norouzi, CDSS’ associate dean for students and EECS associate teaching professor. “The experience of training a neural network allows students to get real-life experience in understanding generative AI.”
EECS associate professor Joseph Gonzalez agrees: “Our goal at UC Berkeley isn’t just to prepare students for what’s now, but maybe more critically, we want to help students learn how to quickly adapt to challenging new concepts.”
Informing AI policy
As policymakers consider how to govern artificial intelligence technology, Berkeley researchers have joined with others to recommend opportunities to develop evidence-based AI policy.
Co-authors on a Policy Forum article in the journal Science proposed mechanisms to address the opportunities and challenges of “increasingly powerful AI.” The article followed a June 2025 report developed by the Joint California Policy Working Group on AI Frontier Models, which was co-led by CDSS Dean Jennifer Chayes.
In examining the best available evidence on AI, the working group report proposed key policy principles to help inform the use, assessment and governance of frontier AI in California. The report was cited by Governor Gavin Newsom when he signed the first state legislation on AI into law in September 2025, and has informed legislation in other U.S. states and beyond.
Considering AI legal and economic challenges
AI-powered chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Llama have seen a proliferation of users in recent years. The companies developing these generative AI products have also been hit with lawsuits that challenge, among other concerns, the training of proprietary large language models (LLMs) on massive amounts of data that includes copyrighted content. A panel conversation at UC Berkeley considered these legal challenges, as well as the economic impacts of AI. Pamela Samuelson, Berkeley Law School professor and copyright law expert, suggests the application of fair use exceptions is what's really being debated by legal scholars and judges considering related U.S. copyright law cases. “Fair use is definitely a limit that provides breathing room for next generation creation, and fair use has also become a very important way for copyright to adapt in a time of rapid technological change,” she said.
Photo credits — 1: Blvdone via Adobe Stock; 2: Brittany Hosea-Small; 3, 4: Eric Xie/ UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society; 5: Sundry Photography; 6: Nathan Phillips