Rosalie Wang, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Jason Plaks, and Anna Su join the Schwartz Reisman Institute to expand research on AI-enabled assistive and rehabilitation technologies, moral psychology and human-computer interaction, data practices in the Global South, and international human rights.

SRI Research Leads Lisa Austin and David Lie are part of a multidisciplinary team behind a new global study that explores the privacy expectations and behaviour of smartphone users.

SRI Research Lead Wendy H. Wong examines the issues at stake around facial-recognition technology, and their impacts on human rights and consent. Wong argues data alters basic conceptions of autonomy and dignity in ways that “profoundly change human experience”—leading to a need to reconsider the framework of human rights for the digital era.

How are algorithms influencing the production and consumption of culture? A new white paper on AI, music recommendation, and cultural consumption released by the Schwartz Reisman Institute argues their impacts are profound and far-reaching.

Are you a U of T researcher who is passionate about ensuring new technologies are effective, safe, ethical, and fair? The Schwartz Reisman Institute welcomes faculty and graduate fellowship applications from U of T researchers from all academic disciplines spanning the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

In the second of two posts, Leslie Regan Shade, Monica Jean Henderson, and Katie Mackinnon explore research on children’s and youth’s experiences of online spaces, their needs for privacy protection, and how conceptions of digital tools and the corporations that make them can be better informed through digital literacy.

In the first of two posts, Leslie Regan Shade, Monica Jean Henderson, and Katie Mackinnon explore the implications of Bill C-11 in terms of impacts on digital privacy for youth and children. The authors reflect on the need to balance online risks and opportunities for minors in the context of their research with The eQuality Project.

When we say that something is good or bad, is that a claim about objective facts, or something dependent on our perspective? Guest blogger Cory Travers Lewis reflects on Denis Walsh’s way of thinking about norms—one which treats them as both objective facts and as dependent on the perspective of particular living things.

SRI Graduate Fellow Shabnam Haghzare reflects on Joanna J. Bryson’s seminar about AI ethics, AI as human-authored tool, and the need for AI regulation in the service of public good. Bryson is professor of ethics and technology at the Hertie School in Berlin.

SRI Faculty Affiliate and Fellow Nisarg Shah has been named one of 10 outstanding young scholars to watch in the field of artificial intelligence by IEEE Intelligent Systems. Situated at the intersection of AI and economics, Shah’s research on computational social choice examines the theoretical foundations of fairness in algorithmic decision-making.

As the first generation to grow up with the internet, millennials are more likely to be well-versed in digital technology. New research by Kristina McElheran shows that older workers who struggle with software may lose out when software investment in firms increases. Learn more about this detailed analysis of over a decade of U.S. Census Bureau data. 

Meet the Schwartz Reisman inaugural group of faculty and graduate fellows, whose areas of research and proposed projects vary widely in scope and subject matter but are united in their focus on ensuring powerful new technologies are effective, safe, ethical, and fair. SRI is pleased to support the innovative work conducted by these stellar U of T researchers across all three campuses.