December 19, 2025

Focusing on Democracy and Technology

Our anthology Keywords of the Datafied State — produced in collaboration with global scholars and edited by former Director of Research Jenna Burrell, Senior Researcher Ranjit Singh, and Associate Director of Research Patrick Davison — presented essays on concepts that are central to understanding the relationship between government and technology.

In their primer Enrolling Citizens, Singh and affiliate Wanheng Hu considered what approaches can ensure that citizens have meaningful involvement in the development of AI. Just this week in Tech Policy Press, ‪Director of Research Alice Marwick and TechTonic Justice Founder Kevin De Liban explained why using AI in the name of “government efficiency” is likely to create more problems than it solves — with vulnerable communities paying the steepest price. And writing with Ami Fields-Meyer in Foreign Policy, Executive Director Janet Haven examined AI’s alarming trend toward illiberalism.

Tracking the Relationship Between Tech and the Environment

We endorsed the AI Environmental Impacts Act of 2024, an unusual move for our independent research institute, because of its potential to help advance a rigorous and empirical understanding of AI’s impacts on the environment. Climate, Technology, and Justice Program Director Tamara Kneese explained more in Tech Policy Press, and spoke to The Washington Post about how AI is taxing the power grid.

Plus: We’ve previewed the launch of a new research project focused on AI’s environmental impacts, led by Kneese — stay tuned for much more next year, including a formal announcement in January.

Advancing a Sociotechnical Perspective

In a pair of explainers, Policy Director Brian Chen; AI on the Ground Program Director Jacob Metcalf; Senior Policy Analyst Serena Oduro; and Climate, Technology, and Justice Program Director Tamara Kneese laid out what a sociotechnical perspective is and why it matters in policy — and why AI governance needs sociotechnical expertise.

Coverage in Politico explained why “AI needs the non-quants, too,” while in Tech Policy Press Chen argued that without a sociotechnical perspective, policy interventions on AI will inevitably fall short. On Points, Senior Researcher Ranjit Singh outlined how we can all think like sociotechnical researchers, and why it matters.

Challenging Hype About Generative AI and Labor

A primer by Labor Futures Program Director Aiha Nguyen and Researcher Alexandra Mateescu challenged AI hype to show what it will really take to understand how these technologies impact work. And our series of events exploring generative AI’s labor impacts featured interdisciplinary conversations that shed light on how new technological systems are impacting worker agency and power.

Plus: Edited by Nguyen and D&S affiliate Murali Shanmugavelan, The Formalization of Social Precarities explored platformization from the point of view of precarious gig workers in India, Brazil, and Bangladesh.

Investigating Trust and Mistrust

With trust widely in decline, our Trust Issues workshop brought together people investigating trust and digital technologies from different angles, disciplinary traditions, and global perspectives. In a public conversation, panelists discussed how practitioners, theorists, and community members approach trust inside and outside institutions.

Our upcoming workshop, Connective (t)Issues, which builds on these themes in physical, social, and political contexts, is open to applications through January 17 — and look out for more from our Trustworthy Infrastructures team as they explore how communities are responding to technology’s entrance into the most intimate parts of our lives.

Plus: In a four-part series, members of our research network reflected on their influential work on mis- and disinformation in the context of today’s challenges, and laid out some essential questions and insights to bolster public discourse in these fraught times.

Exploring Technologies of Health and Care

In Doing the Work: Therapeutic Labor, Teletherapy, and the Platformization of Mental Health Care, Researcher Livia Garofalo examined the changing realities for mental health professionals in the US as therapeutic labor is restructured by teletherapy services and digital platforms. Watch an animated preview of the report, and video of our related event.

In Establishing Vigilant Care: Data Infrastructures and the Black Birthing Experience, Research Analyst Joan Mukogosi put the risks of digital health technologies at the forefront of considerations about where, how, and by whom maternity care is delivered to Black birthing people. She discussed these issues further in an online Databite, and wrote for Yes! Magazine about the importance of protecting Black pregnant patients’ “right to joyful pregnancy, data privacy, and freedom of choice.”

Strengthening AI Accountability

In a year of constant news and hype about automated technologies, our Algorithmic Impact Methods Lab (AIMLab) has been experimenting with what it looks like to assess how algorithms impact people’s lives, choices, and access to essential services.

“Auditing Work: Exploring the New York City Algorithmic Bias Audit Regime,” by AI on the Ground Program Director Jacob Metcalf, AIMLab Researcher Briana Vecchione, Lara Groves, Alayna Kennedy, and Andrew Strait, won Best Paper at this year’s FAccT Conference. The paper examines NYC’s Automated Employment Decision Tool law (known as Local Law 144), the first to require algorithmic fairness audits for commercial systems. Look out for more on this from Data & Society in the coming year.

Celebrating Our First Decade — And Looking to the Future

This year marked Data & Society’s tenth anniversary, a milestone we celebrated with a special event attended by our incredible network of alumni, friends, and supporters. We left that gathering — which featured remarks from our leadership, lightning talks, and an expert panel reflecting on what’s next for tech research and policy — feeling tremendously inspired and hopeful about the future we are building together. You can watch video of the whole event!

Plus: In a video we launched this year, D&S leadership, staff, and advisors explained our approach to tech research and policy in the public interest — and why our work is needed more than ever.