Understanding AI with Data & Society | Reorienting AI for the Public Interest
October 29 @ 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
The New York Public Library and Data & Society present “Understanding AI,” a four-part live event series exploring the social implications of artificial intelligence and its impacts on democracy, the environment, and human labor. Featuring key figures in the AI ethics field, these events will take place in person at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL) in New York City as part of the library’s 7 Stories Up program, and will also be available to watch via livestream. This series of conversations will demystify the AI discourse and equip library patrons and the public with practical ways of understanding the current landscape.
For the October 29 event, Data & Society Executive Director Janet Haven hosts a critical discussion about AI accountability and the public interest, featuring professor Charlton McIlwain, journalist Julia Angwin, and civic technologist Catherine Bracy.
The concentration of power and lack of regulation in the technology industry directly shapes how AI is designed and deployed, and whose interests it serves. That means decisions about these tools often reflect corporate priorities over public benefits. While AI is often held up as a tool to increase “efficiency,” it is essential to ask: efficiency for whom, and at what cost? What would it mean to create and oversee AI in the public’s best interest? How could these technologies be made more accountable to the people and communities they affect? And what is needed to create a future where AI works for everyone?
To join the event in person | Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission. All registered seats are released shortly before start time, and seats may become available at that time. A standby line will form 30 minutes before the program.
To join the event online | Whether you’re attending in person or online, you must register with your email address.The Zoom link will be sent to you by email approximately one day before the event. You will need a device with audio and/or video and an internet/cellular connection to join.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Janet Haven is the executive director of Data & Society. She has worked at the intersection of technology policy, governance, and accountability for more than twenty years, both domestically and internationally. From 2022 to 2025, Janet served on the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC), which advises the National AI Initiative Office and the executive branch on a range of issues related to artificial intelligence, and chaired the Rights, Trust, and Safety working group.
Julia Angwin is an award-winning investigative journalist, a bestselling author, a New York Times contributing Opinion writer and a Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. She is the founder of Proof News, a nonprofit journalism studio that launched in 2024.
Catherine Bracy is a civic technologist and community organizer whose work focuses on the intersection of technology and political and economic inequality. She is the founder and CEO of TechEquity and the author of World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy. She was previously Code for America’s Senior Director of Partnerships and Ecosystem and Director of Obama for America’s Technology Field Office in San Francisco. She is on the board of directors at the Data & Society Research Institute and the Terner Housing Lab.
Dr. Charlton McIlwain is Vice Provost for Faculty Development, Pathways & Public Interest Technology at New York University, where he is also Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication. He is the author of Black Software: The Internet & Racial Justice, From the Afronet to Black Lives Matter and the recent PolicyLink report Algorithmic Discrimination: A Framework and Approach to Auditing & Measuring the Impact of Race-Targeted Digital Advertising. McIlwain is the founder of the Center for Critical Race & Digital Studies, and is Board President at Data & Society Research Institute.