The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society (SRI) works to develop novel and practical solutions to the social, political, and economic challenges posed by advanced technologies.

What does the global landscape of AI standards look like, and can we identify key areas to leverage standards for AI assurance? What would a robust AI certification ecosystem look like, and how can we work towards building it? How might we overcome data access obstacles in healthcare in order to unlock major public benefit to patients and clinicians alike? 

SRI’s public policy research investigates the crucial regulatory and legislative challenges of the artificial intelligence era—proposing solutions for how governments, citizens, and organizations can navigate this uncertain new terrain with appropriate guidelines. This work considers, evaluates, and proposes innovative public policy frameworks that aim to foster technological innovation, harness AI for social good, and protect citizens, societies, and economies from harm.

Our workshops use design thinking and other innovative tools to move rapidly from problem analysis to idea generation to prototyping, in the process building bridges between academic researchers and stakeholders across industry, government, and civil society to tackle today’s most urgent problems in the social impacts of technology. They bring together different partners to tackle pressing issues, test and try methods, tools, and measures of success, and build a best-in-class model that takes this work beyond traditional research and into the world of deep societal impact.

Overall, this work aims to move beyond the current conversation that focuses on principles, ethics, and guidelines to develop real solutions. New models are needed—models that reimagine the relationship between citizens, government, and the private sector. The goal is to generate and evaluate smart, novel, and concrete ideas with attention to the practicalities of implementation, leveraging the expertise of the Institute's research community and beyond.

• SRI partnered with Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) Toronto to provide mentorship support to start-ups commercializing technologies that enable and expand the responsible use of AI. Through this partnership, ventures in CDL-Toronto’s AI stream gained access to SRI’s research expertise in fairness, bias and ethics, regulatory innovation, data privacy, model explainability, and model robustness.

• SRI collaborated with the Rockefeller Foundation and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University on Innovating AI Governance (2020–2021), an initiative exploring novel approaches to evolve legal and regulatory systems to meet the challenges of AI. The outcomes of our sessions yielded multiple prototypes, including Stanford’s AI Audit Challenge. Explore materials relating to our 2020 symposium with CASBS.

• SRI led a collaborative workshop with MaRS Discovery District and the Toronto Region Board of Trade in 2021 to explore the risks, value, and feasibility of a proposed data collection tool to facilitate COVID-19 contact tracing and interrogate the use of commercial data for public good.

• SRI led a collaborative workshop with Diabetes Action Canada in 2020 which convened stakeholders from government, non-profit health informatics organizations, hospitals, law firms, research outfits, the private sector, and more to brainstorm improving access to and analysis of data stored in Ontario’s health system.