Center for an Informed Public

Tech policy could be smarter and less partisan if Congress hadn’t shut down this innovative program For years, the Office of Technology Assessment helped Congress see around corners on science and tech. Its 1995 shutdown left lawmakers flying blind.

Calo says that the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s Science, Technology Assessment, and Analytics unit doesn't have "anything like the capacity that the OTA had."

Read more in Fast Company: www.fastcompany.com/91378299/off...

“It was an impartial repository of interdisciplinary experts who would proactively assist Congress in understanding emerging technology,” Calo said, “and to do so at a time early enough in its life cycle that it had not become full of special interests that had not grown around it, like barnacles.”

Tech policy could be smarter and less partisan if Congress hadn’t shut down this innovative program For years, the Office of Technology Assessment helped Congress see around corners on science and tech. Its 1995 shutdown left lawmakers flying blind.

In a recent @fastcompany.com interview, @cip.uw.edu co-founder @rcalo.bsky.social reflected on the Office of Technology Assessment, which Congress shuttered 30 years ago. www.fastcompany.com/91378299/off...

Does your work explore mis/disinformation, scams, hate speech, or other forms of harmful information online?

We are convening a CSCW workshop to bring together a global community focused on information disorder. We welcome short submissions, due August 8th.

cscw2025infodisorder.netlify.app

The persuasive potential of AI-paraphrased information at scale Abstract. In this article, we study how AI-paraphrased messages have the potential to amplify the persuasive impact and scale of information campaigns. Bui

Excited to announce that my paper "The persuasive potential of AI-paraphrased information at scale" with my wonderful collaborators @yiweixu.bsky.social, @maddyjalbert.bsky.social, and @emmaspiro.bsky.social has been published at PNAS Nexus!

Link: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

My article on the stakes around mis/disinformation controversies is finally out at @poppublicsphere.bsky.social.
It is the product of my work at @eui-schuman.bsky.social with support from @stephofmann.bsky.social and inspiration from @cip.uw.edu.

Q&A: Ryan Calo on why 'we need to take a page from the Amish' Ryan Calo holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Information School and as the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger Professor at the UW School of La...

"There’s a pressing need for a generation of people who possess a technical understanding of the technology itself and also are informed about the methods and tools of regulation," @cip.uw.edu co-founder @rcalo.bsky.social said in an @ischool.uw.edu Q&A: ischool.uw.edu/news/2025/07...

Proud to have co-led this paper with @morganwack.bsky.social (and other coauthors @ikennedy.bsky.social @beeeeeers.bsky.social @emmaspiro.bsky.social @katestarbird.bsky.social) looking at the impacts of state-level election laws on uncertainty and election integrity rumors!

Really excited to draw attention to this dissertation by Melinda McClure Haughey (@melm.cc‬). Melinda's research explored collaborative infrastructure for supporting the "sensemaking" work of journalists working on high-stakes, fast-paced & often data-driven beats. www.melm.cc/research/dis...

In @lawfaremedia.org, @cip.uw.edu graduate research assistants @ashlynba.bsky.social and @sprochas.bsky.social explore how "fringe election fraud rumors are becoming legal drama — weaponized lawsuits and policies that present fiction as fact on social media." www.lawfaremedia.org/article/how-...

How Minnesota shooting conspiracy theories took over social media feeds Before a suspect was ever named in the shootings, conspiracy theorists and opportunists jumped at the chance to blame their political opponents.

“The design of social media platforms facilitates and even incentivizes this kind of rumoring and political point-scoring in the wake of crisis events,” @cip.uw.edu co-founder @katestarbird.bsky.social said in an interview with @nbcnews.com. www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...

We need more AI oversight, not less | Op-Ed The chance that states could be forbidden from regulating artificial intelligence is one that should alarm us all.

In a @seattletimes.com opinion article, Danica Noble, a @cip.uw.edu community fellow and antitrust attorney, writes that Congress should not silence the states on AI oversight: "We need every tool available to protect ourselves as AI gets more powerful." www.seattletimes.com/opinion/we-n...

Great opportunity for practitioners to learn and collaborate with academic partners on projects about resisting strategic misinformation, promoting an informed society, and strengthening democratic discourse.

Our team at the UW Center for an Informed Public is recruiting for our next class of Community Fellows (for the 2025-2026 school year). Learn more about the program, apply, and/or pass our call along to folks you think might be a good fit for our next cohort!

Community Fellowship Visit the post for more.

For more details about the CIP Community Fellowship program, eligibility, qualifications, application requirements and key dates and timeline, check out our program page: www.cip.uw.edu/community-fe...

For the 2025-26 cohort, the Community Fellowship program is structured around two separate tracks: A project-based track and an educator cohort track designed for educators in Washington state, including those in K-12 schools, higher education and libraries.

Launched in 2023, the Community Fellowship program fosters and grows a network of practitioners with the goal of building collaboration, sharing ideas, creating new initiatives and nurturing a more interconnected community that is passionate about the CIP’s mission.

CIP accepting applications for Community Fellowship 2025-26 cohort The University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public is accepting applications for the CIP Community Fellowship program’s 2025-26 cohort through June 20.

Do you work in journalism, education, technology, librarianship, government, community organizing or law? We're currently accepting applications for the 2025-26 cohort for our @cip.uw.edu Community Fellowship program. The application deadline is June 20.

www.cip.uw.edu/2025/05/27/c...

The End of Trust and Safety?: Examining the Future of Content Moderation and Upheavals in Professional Online Safety Efforts | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Syst...

Thrilled to be at the CHI conference this week where PhD student @schafer.bsky.social will present our paper — co-authored w/ Rachel Moran (1st author) & @mertcanbayar.bsky.social — titled, "The End of Trust and Safety?" dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Although the internet is awash in phony movie trailers, “[i]t doesn’t matter if 99.999% of them never stick," West, an @ischool.uw.edu professor, said. "All you need is one to really take off.”

Fake movie trailers were an art form. Then came the AI slop. Fake movie trailers have been around for decades. But in the age of AI generators, are they still a delight of fans?

"If something sounds too good to be true or looks too good be true, it probably is," @cip.uw.edu co-founder @jevinwest.bsky.social told @washingtonpost.com in an article where he shared tips for being able to spot fake AI-generated movie trailers.

Gift link: wapo.st/3S8fRgi

The End of Trust and Safety?: Examining the Future of Content Moderation and Upheavals in Professional Online Safety Efforts | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Syst...

The open-access article, "The end of trust and safety?: Examining the future of content moderation and upheavals in professional online safety efforts," is available in the Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

The CIP researchers, Rachel Moran-Prestridge, @schafer.bsky.social, @mertcanbayar.bsky.social and @katestarbird.bsky.social, also examined current perspectives of content moderation and broader strategies for maintaining safe digital environments.

In a newly published research article in the Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, a team of @cip.uw.edu researchers interviewed trust and safety professionals and explored upheavals within the T&S industry.

Podcasts in the periphery: Tracing guest trajectories in political podcasts Social networks structure the flow of political information that is critical for civic participation and individual decision making, simultaneously op…

Timely new paper from UW Center for an Informed Public's PhD student @sydneydemets.bsky.social & current Director @emmaspiro.bsky.social looking at "trajectories" of guests acoss political podcasts, showing how many move from the periphery into the center. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Learn how to spot misinformation & build trust in community health! Join our April workshop series starting April 16, led by Dr. Rachel Moran from @cip.uw.edu

Free registration → bit.ly/P4HEApril2025Workshop #Partners4HE

Fantastic paper by @mertcanbayar.bsky.social, a postdoc at the UW Center for an Informed Public, examining how conspiracy theories drive political action in the U.S. and Turkey — and revealing key differences between partisan vs. non-partisan conspiracy theories.

Preparing Informed Citizens in an AI-Powered World Experts will share insights into how AI is reshaping education, research and civic engagement.

Coming up April 22, 5-6 p.m. (Pacific): UW Impact and @cip.uw.edu are co-hosting a webinar, "Preparing informed citizens in an AI-powered world," featuring @shahanmemon.bsky.social @katypearce.bsky.social and @jevinwest.bsky.social.

Event and registration info: www.washington.edu/alumni/event...

"Verification is challenging (and slow), in part because it's often hard to determine the original source of a particular claim," Starbird told NPR.

How a false X post about pausing tariffs led to multitrillion-dollar market swings What began as a misquoted Fox News interview led to a flood of false and misleading posts on X. Before it was corrected, stock markets rallied then plummeted again.

"Our social media systems — and X in particular — are designed in such a way that rumors spread extremely quickly, while corrections lag far behind," @cip.uw.edu co-founder @katestarbird.bsky.social told @bobbyallyn.bsky.social of @npr.org in an interview.

www.npr.org/2025/04/07/n...