EVENTS
Brown Bag Guest Speaker
Dr. Renkai Ma, Assistant Professor, School of Information Technology, University of Cincinnati
ABSTRACT
AI is reaching children faster than the rules meant to protect them. Schools are pushed
toward
early AI exposure, chatbot safety rules lag behind, and families of young people with
autism and
intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) often wait longest for support.
This talk asks who
gets a say in the AI built for young people and their families, and when. I examine
three settings,
and each one brings families in earlier. The first is platform governance for young
children. When
YouTube implemented children’s privacy law through a “Made for Kids” label, content
creators had
to classify their own videos, and parents stepped in mostly for the harms they could
see. Creators
and parents carried the costs after the rules were set. The second is safety by design
for
teenagers. We built MOSafely, a teen-centered online risk detection tool, and asked
33 online
safety experts to review it before it reached teens. The experts found that to protect
teens’
messages, the tool must read them. The third is AI support for families with special
needs. With
caregivers of young adults with autism and IDD, we co-designed AI support for the
workplace and
found that such support can make workers too visible to employers. Across the three
settings,
families move from carrying the costs of technology to shaping its design. I close
with a question
for my next five years. Who decides when AI is ready for a family’s home?
DATE and Time: Wednesday, November 11 at 12 PM
PLACE: "Old" Computer Science (behind Javits), room 1310
Wednesday's Brown Bag Lunch series starting October 2026
Faculty and graduate students are welcome to join us every Wednesday at 12:00 noon for knowledge sharing, professional development and community building.
Sign up on our Google sheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Nb_JRRz5T1VkOBlbjp0WyviJCixlYJSpw41KM_feYV0/edit?usp=sharing
Recorded Virtual Open House for PhD Applicants
PhD, TPI Admissions Recorded Information Session - Fall 2027
Discover the PhD program in Technology, Policy and Innovation and its interdisciplinary research opportunities. Meet faculty, explore current research areas and potential mentorship opportunities, learn what makes a successful PhD applicant, and get guidance on finding the right research fit.
The PhD Information Session was recorded and is available to view at the Zoom link listed below:
Zoom link:
Passcode: .p?A+R$6
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