INTRODUCING THE AI & SOCIETY COLLEGE AND RESEARCH CENTER

AI & Society: A conversation

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Conversation / Q&A

University at Albany

Multi-Purpose Room, Campus Center West

1400 Washington Avenue Albany NY 12222 - See map.

Join us for a public conversation with faculty from the University at Albany’s AI & Society College and Research Center, a bold initiative launched in 2025 to advance responsible, human-centered approaches to artificial intelligence. Grounded in a deep curiosity about the human experience and a belief that technology should enhance – rather than erode – what is most vital about it, the initiative brings together scholars from law, philosophy, political science, and technology. A cross-campus, inter-institutional model fosters collaboration to shape the future of AI, ethics, governance, and public life.

This evening offers the public an opportunity to explore how emerging technologies are reshaping democracy, education, and public services. The discussion will highlight the ethical frameworks and lived experiences that shape debates about bias, accountability, and human agency in the context of AI – and will ask how public dialogue itself might change in an AI-mediated world.

Cosponsored by the New York State Writers Institute and the AI & Society College and Research Center.

Panelists:

Raymond H. Brescia

Associate Dean for Research & Intellectual Life and the Hon. Harold R. Tyler Professor in Law & Technology at Albany Law School. His most recent book is The Private Is Political: Identity and Democracy in the Age of Surveillance Capitalism (2025), an exploration of the threats posed by unfettered surveillance to privacy, expression, and democracy itself.

Virginia Eubanks

Associate Professor of Political Science at the University at Albany and author of Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor (2018). Her work investigates the intersections of data-based discrimination, public services, and poverty in America.

Jason D’Cruz

Director of the AI & Society College and Research Center, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University at Albany, and Civil Discourse Fellow at the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. His research focuses on trust, character, and rationalization. He also serves as Principal Investigator of Trustworthy AI from a User Perspective, a multi-year project funded by the SUNY-IBM AI Research Alliance.

Moderator: Elizabeth Gray

Associate Director of the AI & Society Research Center at the University at Albany. She leads strategic initiatives and collaborative programming across research, education, and public engagement at the intersection of technology and social impact.

Cosponsored by the New York State Writers Institute, the AI & Society College and Research Center, and UAlbany’s Graduate Student Association.