How Tech is Supercharging ICE
March 12, 2026, from 6:00-7:00pm, UMass Downtown
With Fran Berman Director of the Public Interest Technology Initiative, Stuart Rice Honorary Research Professor and Laura Haas Professor and former Dean, Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences at UMass
Facial recognition, AI, and data analysis are powerful tools that are being used by ICE to target both immigrants and protestors. Join UMass faculty Francine Berman and Laura Haas for an exploration of how these technologies are enabling ICE and what societal guardrails might contain them. The session will start with a short presentation on the technology, followed by discussion and Q&A.
Sponsored by the Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences and the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass.
PIT Faculty Fellows’ AI Speaker Series | AI as Normal Technology with Arvind Narayanan
March 23, 2026, from 3:30 – 5:00 pm, In-person CSL, E120 (refreshments provided) and Zoom
With Arvind Narayanan, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University
Arvind will be joining us over zoom and we have a room in the new computer science building where participants can gather to watch and participate in person. Register to attend here and let us know if you will be in-person or online.
In this talk, based on an essay and ongoing book project with Sayash Kapoor, Arvind Narayanan will articulate a vision of artificial intelligence as “normal technology,” in contrast to both utopian and dystopian visions that treat AI as a potentially superintelligent entity. Our framework predicts that the impacts of advanced AI, even if transformative, will unfold slowly, making a critical distinction between AI methods, AI applications, and AI adoption. I will discuss a potential division of labor between people and AI in the world with advanced AI and examine the implications of AI as normal technology for AI policy, AI safety, and human progress.
Arvind Narayanan is a professor of computer science at Princeton University and the director of the Center for Information Technology Policy. He is a co-author of the book AI Snake Oil, the essay AI as Normal Technology, and a newsletter of the same name which is read by over 60,000 researchers, policy makers, journalists, and AI enthusiasts. He previously co-authored two widely used computer science textbooks: Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Technologies and Fairness in Machine Learning. Narayanan led the Princeton Web Transparency and Accountability Project to uncover how companies collect and use our personal information. His work was among the first to show how machine learning reflects cultural stereotypes. Narayanan was one of TIME’s inaugural list of 100 most influential people in AI. He is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Presented by the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass and co-sponsored by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences AI and Us Series
PIT Faculty Fellows’ AI Speaker Series | with Timnit Gebru
April 1, 2026, from 1:00 – 2:30pm, In-person CSL E144 (refreshments provided) and Zoom
With Timnit Gebru, founder and executive director of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR) and co-founder of Black in AI
Timnit will be joining us over zoom and we have a room in the new computer science building where participants can gather to watch and participate in person. Register to attend here and let us know if you will be in-person or online.
Dr. Timnit Gebru is the founder and executive director the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). Prior to that she was fired by Google in December 2020 for raising issues of discrimination in the workplace, where she was serving as co-lead of the Ethical AI research team. Timnit also co-founded Black in AI, a nonprofit that works to increase the presence, inclusion, visibility and health of Black people in the field of AI, and is on the board of AddisCoder, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching algorithms and computer programming to Ethiopian and Jamaican highschool students. She has received a number of accolades including being named one of Nature’s Ten people who helped shape science and one of TIME 100’s most influential people. She is currently writing a memoir + manifesto arguing for a technological future that serves our communities instead of one that is used for surveillance, warfare, and the centralization of power by Silicon Valley.
Presented by the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass and co-sponsored by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences AI and Us Series and Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies.
PIT Faculty Fellows’ AI Lightning Talks | AI & Us
April 21, 2026, from 12:00 – 2:00 pm, In-person and Zoom
This session of the AI & Us SBS Series will showcase the work of the 2025–2026 PIT Faculty Fellows as they present early outcomes from their Responsible AI seed-funded projects. Each team will deliver a 15-minute lightning talk, followed by 5 minutes of audience Q&A. Lunch will be provided.
- Youngbin Kwak and Mohommad Atari, College of Natural Sciences – Cross-cultural human–AI collaboration: trust, communication styles, and decision-making across diverse populations
- Chaitra Gopalappa & Mohammad Derakhshi, College of Engineering – Integrating social determinants of health into AI-driven epidemic modeling to improve equitable public health strategy design
- Joe Pater & Virginia Partridge, College of Humanities and Fine Arts and College of Information and Computer Science – Developing AI tools for automatic, accurate transcription into the International Phonetic Alphabet using speech-recognition technologies
Presented by the Public Interest Technology Initiative at UMass and co-sponsored by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences AI and Us Series
Investing in the Age of Intelligence: What AI Means for Your Future
TBD – being rescheduled due to snow.
With Chris Gardner, General Partner at Underscore, ’88, UMass Amherst
AI is reshaping every sector, and investment trends reveal where the next decade of innovation is heading. This keynote highlights the hottest areas in AI venture funding and the skills the market is rewarding most. Students will leave with a roadmap for building resilient, meaningful careers in an AI-driven economy.
Chris Gardner ’88, UMass Amherst, is a General Partner at Underscore in Boston, MA, an early-stage venture capital firm. Chris spent nearly three decades at Boston-area tech companies in marketing, product management, and engineering roles. Prior to becoming a VC, Chris was an executive at PayPal after Paydiant, the company he co-founded, was acquired by PayPal in 2015.
Sponsored by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences AI and Us Series