The Schwartz Reisman Institute has appointed internationally recognized digital culture and AI literacy scholar Kaitlyn Regehr as its inaugural Global Fellow. Regehr will lead a large-scale initiative to build broad understanding around how AI is shaping society—particularly its impacts on children, young people, and their futures.

SRI Research Lead Anna Su is convening a working group to examine how human rights frameworks are being impacted by AI systems. Expressions of interest are now open, with a deadline of September 17, 2026.

What can the steam engine, telegraph and railroad teach us about artificial intelligence? Quite a lot. In a new U of T history course, SRI Faculty Affiliate L.K. Bertram is helping students understand today’s AI revolution through the technological upheavals that came before it — exploring how new technologies can reshape power, infrastructure and society.

A three-year, US$3.6M project co-led by SRI Research Leads Karina Vold and Ashton Anderson with Purdue University’s Louis Tay explores how AI systems might be designed to support long-term human well-being, not just short-term user satisfaction.

SRI researchers are heading to Seoul this July for ICML 2026, and they're arriving with a lot to share. Across 24 papers, seven position papers, and a co-organized workshop, 21 members of our community are presenting work spanning machine learning theory, AI safety, clinical AI, legal compliance, and more.

SRI researchers will present 13 accepted papers and one workshop session at FAccT 2026, showcasing the Institute’s research in responsible AI, algorithmic governance, alignment, privacy, and the impacts of socio-technical systems.

AI is everywhere. But can we trust it? A new SRI white paper led by Beth Coleman reframes trust in AI as a multidisciplinary challenge—not just a technical one—and charts a path forward.

A team of researchers at the University of Toronto, including SRI Faculty Affiliate Nicolas Papernot, has discovered a new class of cyberthreat that gives hackers more power and reach at far less cost. It can be built with free AI models.

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society is pleased to announce its cohort of 2026–27 graduate fellows, bringing together fifteen exceptional U of T researchers exploring the societal implications of AI and emerging technologies.

Can AI-powered chatbots help young voters better understand politics? SRI Faculty Fellow Semra Sevi and her colleagues tested an interactive voting advice chatbot with nearly 2,900 politically unaffiliated voters under 35—and found significant gains in political knowledge, even if party loyalty remained unchanged.

In his new book Humans of AI, anthropologist Joseph Wilson draws on extensive fieldwork to show how artificial intelligence is not inevitable or autonomous, but built, shaped, and sustained by the people behind the machines.

A new partnership co-led by Karina Vold is confronting racism in AI systems—highlighting how tools like facial recognition and LLMs disproportionately harm Black and racialized communities, and calling for greater public awareness and equitable governance of AI in Canada.