What Happens If You Get Caught With a Fake ID at a Bar?

Organize Against the Machine: Labor’s Response to AI

Writer's Guild of America Strike Sign

Writer's Guild of America Strike SignJoin us for the inaugural installment of our Future of Work speaker series. This event will feature a panel discussion with labor and technology experts moderated by Caroline Egan, research associate at the Center for Social Solutions. The in-person discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and light refreshments.  

This discussion aims to explore the public release of AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bard, and DALL-E, and how so-called “creative work” has suddenly become automatable. Contemporaneously, robots and AI chatbots are being trained and deployed to serve as therapists, nurses, and emergency responders, suggesting that other forms of work may one day be threatened by automation as well. In response, workers have been organizing in anticipation of AI’s growing functionality and usability. WGA and SAG-AFTRA have made AI policy and regulation a central part of their demands. The AFL-CIO has convened a working group to discuss artificial intelligence policy and regulation. In a world where experts are warning about the advent of AI extinction, workers are already facing a choice: behave like a robot or be replaced entirely. How do we fight for the dignity of human workers in an automated world?

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Learn more about the future of work

Pics, Texts, and Tracking: Understanding and Addressing Digital Dating Abus

Relationship violence is still a common problem for young people today and while professionals may be familiar with common forms of power and control including verbal, emotional, and physical abuse, many adults are less familiar with the ways technology and social media can be used as tools of power and control in dating situations. This training will start by exploring the most common ways that technology and social media can be used in abusive situations and end with practical strategies that supportive adults can use to identify warning signs of digital dating abuse and have critical conversations with both survivors and perpetrators.

Are Smart Cities Smart Enough?

Shobita Parthasarathy

Shobita ParthasarathyJoin the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) Program for a Policy Talks @ the Ford School conversation with former New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio. In conversation with STPP Director Professor Shobita Parthasarathy, the discussion will explore how urban tech is shaping social policy in “smart cities” like New York and beyond. How can we ensure that emerging technology serves the public interest, and what role can local, state, national, and even international policy play?

Presented with support from the U-M Urban Technology program. 

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European energy crisis simulation

Energy Union

This diplomatic policy simulation will assess the economic and political impacts of the evolving energy crisis in Europe with a focus on U.S. foreign policy and the positions of key European nations. It will utilize the Council of Foreign Relations’ “Model Diplomacy” format that presents a “crisis scenario” that prompts a National Security Council (NSC) meeting, discussions and negotiations leading to actionable U.S. policy recommendations to the evolving crisis. Students will assume roles as specific European countries, NSC intelligence resource specialists, or other officials, and will draft recommendations to the European energy crisis and mini-briefs on key country positions. The simulation will focus on two priorities: protecting U.S. national security interests and the economic and political viability of our European partners. Students will have access to background information, roles, settings, and other generic NSC issues, along with issue- and country-specific materials.

Students must attend the introductory session on Monday, January 9 followed by the simulation on Friday, January 13.

The simulation will be led by John Fogarasi, who served as Senior Commercial Officer in U.S. embassies in Berlin, Germany; Seoul, South Korea; Budapest, Hungary; and Sofia, Bulgaria. In addition, Mr. Fogarasi was Regional Coordinator for the promotion of U.S. energy technology and services and expanding the public-private sector dialogue on energy issues in Europe and the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. He is being assisted by former Ambassador Robert Cekuta, who served in the State Department as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Resources, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy, Sanctions, and Commodities, and U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Azerbaijan. He established the Economic Policy Analysis and Public Diplomacy Office in the State Department’s Bureau for Economic and Business Affairs, and served on the boards of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative and the International Energy Agency, where he chaired the Standing Group on Long-term Cooperation charged with anticipating global energy developments.

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PODCAST: AI and the Gig Economy in the Global South

In this episode of Social Impact Design for Business, Jerry Davis of Michigan Ross’ +Impact Studio interviews Bama Athreya, Deputy Assistant Administrator with the Bureau for Development, Democracy and Innovation at USAID. Ms. Athreya discusses how the Global South has technologically leapfrogged past the expected little steps toward automation and straight to a gig economy where AI tracks employees, for good or for bad.