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The Tech Policy Lab (TPL) is a unique, interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Washington that aims to enhance technology policy through research, education, and thought leadership. Founded in 2013 by faculty from the University’s Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, Information School, and School of Law, the Lab aims to bridge the gap between technologists and policymakers and to help generate wiser, more inclusive tech policy.

The TPL puts together interdisciplinary teams to investigate cutting-edge research questions on emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotics, and the Internet of Things. The Lab also maintains ongoing projects, including its Global Summit initiative and Diverse Voices, a how-to guide for facilitating inclusiveness in tech policy. Research and work done at the Lab has had observable impacts on local and national policy. For example, work at the Lab has influenced new legislation on AI, including California’s bot disclosure bill and legislation proposing the creation of a federal advisory committee for AI. Lab members have shared research with the Congressional Research Service, national and state policymakers, and at Federal Trade Commission hearings. The Tech Policy Lab is also committed to building tech policy capacity and fluency through a variety of education initiatives, which aim to improve current technologists’ and policymakers’ understanding of tech policy issues, and to prepare the next generation of technologists conversant in policy and policymakers conversant in technology.

Global Summit
The Tech Policy Lab’s Global Summit initiative, which began in 2016, is a convening of approximately 20-30 thought leaders from around the world representing governance, policy, and technology. The Summit, held biennially, aims to frame and begin progress on pressing grand challenges for tech policy, providing opportunities for designers, ethicists, lawyers, policymakers, technologists, and others from around the world to collaborate on global and local issues.

Telling Stories: On Culturally Responsive Artificial Intelligence
The 2018 Global Summit structured conversation around grand challenges for developing and disseminating artificial intelligence technologies that maintain respect for and enhance culture and diversity of worldview. Telling Stories: On Culturally Responsive Artificial Intelligence is a collection of short stories that encapsulates the wisdom from these conversations in the form of 19 short stories which can be told and retold.

The book gathers stories from authors around the world-experts in art, ethics, policy, political science, and technology from the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as North and South America. Their stories cover a broad range of topics, such as the appropriation of technology, the anthropomorphism of robots, and the role of identity in AI development. Intended for a wide audience, including policy makers, technologists, educators, and community organizers, the stories aim to build an enduring bridge between communities and to shape wise and inclusive policymaking in a way other media might not.

Telling Stories is available online and includes all 19 stories written during the 2018 Global Summit, as well as author biographies and detailed information about the story-writing process.

Diverse Voices
All too often, policy development for emerging technology neglects under-represented populations. In response to this challenge, the UW Tech Policy Lab developed the Diverse Voices method in 2015. The method uses short, targeted conversations about emerging technology with experiential experts from under-represented groups to provide feedback on draft tech policy documents. This process works to increase the likelihood that the language in the finalized tech policy document addresses the perspectives and circumstances of broader groups of people – ideally averting injustice and exclusion. Current Diverse Voices panels include Accessibility, Currently/Formerly Incarcerated, Women, Youth, and Non-Car Drivers.

The Diverse Voices guide is available online and offers step-by-step instructions for each of the main stages of the Diverse Voices method: 1) Selecting a tech policy document 2) Surfacing relevant under-represented groups 3) Assembling a panel of experiential experts who represent those groups to examine and respond to the tech policy document 4) Synthesizing panel feedback and 5) Providing panel feedback to tech policy document author.

The Diverse Voices method is intended to solicit feedback that can improve the inclusivity of emerging technologies at a low time-cost to both document authors and expert panelists. The success of the method can be determined by the number and substance of insights provided by panelists and by changes to the tech policy document that the author makes in response to the received feedback. If the quality of the technology policy document is positively affected by the diverse perspectives offered by panelists and the process is resource-efficient, then the Diverse Voices method has been successful.

Faculty Directors

 * Ryan Calo
 * Batya Friedman
 * Yoshi Kohno

Staff

 * Alex Bolton: Program Manager
 * Pardis Emami-Naeini: Postdoctoral Scholar
 * Lassana Magassa: Postdoctoral Scholar

Faculty Associates

 * Emily M. Bender
 * Alan Borning
 * Howard Chizeck
 * William Covington
 * David Henry
 * Franziska Roesner
 * Jan Whittington

Funding
The Tech Policy Lab has previously received funding from the following sources: Challenge Seattle, City of Seattle, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft, National Science Foundation IIS-1621492, Rose Foundation Consumer Privacy Rights Fund, Silicon Valley Community Foundation - Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Fund.

External links section
Tech Policy Lab Website Diverse Voices Guide/Toolkit Telling Stories: On Culturally Responsive Artificial Intelligence