Emerging Technology & Industry Practice

Who we are and what we do

Emerging Technology & Industry Practice builds evidence on the impacts of new AI and data-driven technologies on affected communities, studies the effectiveness of emerging AI governance and accountability practices, and ensures this evidence is reflected in AI policy debates. We want to help ensure that the benefits of these new technologies are distributed equitably and that potential harms are prevented.

Our work focuses on these core questions:

• What are the societal implications of new and emerging technologies? How might these technologies impact different individuals and groups of people in positive and negative ways?
• How can developers and deployers of AI technologies be held more accountable for the impacts their technologies will have on people and society?
• What practices can policymakers and regulators put in place to ensure developers of AI technologies are accountable to the people impacted by their technologies?

We conduct research into emerging technology areas, business models and industry trends, regularly working with industry labs as a site of study. We also produce recommendations for industry and policymakers on better practices and processes for ensuring AI systems operate safely and legally. We use working groups and expert convenings, public deliberation initiatives, desk-based research and synthesis, policy and legal analysis, surveys, qualitative interviewing and ethnographic methods in our research.

The following principles guide our engagement with industry:

• Openness and transparency: We conduct open and transparent research. If necessary, our convenings and research may grant anonymity to participating organisations and individuals, but our research, findings and recommendations will always be made public.
• Independence and balance: Because we are independent of government and industry, we can determine the focus and content of our work and take a long-term view, mapping, observing and critically examining complex systems. We do not accept funding from, provide consultancy for, or act as contractors to the private sector.
• Proximity to those affected: We work to close the gap between designers and developers of technologies and members of the public who are affected by them, particularly communities that are traditionally underrepresented and minoritised. We are increasingly using public participation research to acknowledge and account for the asymmetries of power between those building technologies and those affected by them.

Through our work, we build awareness and understanding within national governments of the risks of emerging technologies and what mitigations they can put in place to address potential harms. We develop and evaluate practices and interventions for improving accountability over AI and data-driven systems with key actors in the public and private sector.  And we shape norms and discourse in the technology industry around the societal impact of AI and data-driven systems.

What we are working on

We are currently working on the following projects: