Stanford Tech Impact and Policy Center

Inside the marketplace powering bespoke AI deepfakes of real women New research details how Civitai lets users buy and sell tools to fine-tune deepfakes the company says are banned.

“Civitai...is letting users buy custom instruction files for generating celebrity #deepfakes. Some of these files were specifically designed to make pornographic images banned by the site, a new analysis has found.”

Read more ⤵️

Inside the marketplace powering bespoke AI deepfakes of real women New research details how Civitai lets users buy and sell tools to fine-tune deepfakes the company says are banned.

@technologyreview.com profiled a new study by TIP Center Postdoctoral Scholar Matt DeVerna and co-authors examining the generative #AI platform Civitai and its “Bounties” feature, which allows users to commission the generation of content in exchange for payment.

Join us today at noon PT, in person or online!

🚨New WP: Can an AI voter guide (grounded in information from a nonpartisan, fact-checked source) help voters’ decision making? 🚨

We built and evaluated an LLM-based chatbot that provided voting info in CA & TX (N=2,474) right before the 2024 election. 🧵👇

Professor G'sell advances a central proposition: #blockchain systems reconfigure—rather than eliminate—traditional structures of authority, and remain only partially decentralized in practice.

Explore the preliminary draft for a sneak peek at the findings. ⤵️

Is #blockchain technology delivering on its promise to redistribute authority away from centralized institutions?

A forthcoming report by @flogsell.bsky.social analyzes the legal and regulatory challenges posed by decentralized blockchain systems.

Metaphors of AI indicate that people increasingly perceive AI as warm and human-like - Communications Psychology Analyzing 12,000 metaphors of AI from a year-long U.S. survey, this study introduces a scalable framework for quantitatively analyzing implicit perceptions from open-ended language and shows that Amer...

A new paper by Tech Impact and Policy Center Postdoctoral Fellow Angela Lee, Director Jeff Hancock, and co-authors explores the public perception of #AI and how it informs people’s #trust and willingness to adopt AI technologies.

Read via Communications Psychology ⤵️

Presenter Application: Trust and Safety Research Conference 2026 The Stanford Tech Impact and Policy Center's two day Trust and Safety Research Conference focuses on research in trust and safety for those in academia, industry, civil society, and government. The co...

Apply by April 30 to present your work at #TSRConf through a presentation, lightning talk, poster, participant-organized panel, or workshop.

Don’t miss this opportunity to share your #TrustAndSafety research with a community dedicated to making the internet safer for everyone.

👉 bit.ly/4agUJ0f

📢 Call for proposals for #TSRConf 2026 📢

Mark your calendars! The Trust and Safety Research Conference returns on October 1–2, 2026, bringing together 500+ professionals from academia, industry, civil society, and government to tackle the most pressing questions in #TrustAndSafety research.

Guilherme Lichand | The Educational Impacts of School Phone Bans Evidence from Brazil

Join us on February 10 to explore one of the key questions around tech impact and policy in today’s K-12 schools: the educational effects of #SchoolCellphoneBans.

Guilherme Lichand will present evidence that phone restrictions in schools *causally* boost K–12 learning outcomes.

Details & RSVP ⤵️

January 27 | AI, Automation, and Augmentation

Will #AI replace human workers or will it empower them?

Join us for a talk by @robreich.bsky.social, who will examine the distinction between #automation & #augmentation and discuss how design choices, policy decisions, and adoption patterns will determine AI's effects on labor and society.

RSVP ⤵️

Empowering users to discern fact from fiction in the age of AI A new project will explore interventions that help individuals effectively use AI while building literacy to avoid scams and abuse.

Expanding on the Stanford Social Media Lab's research on digital literacy, the project will design and test interventions to help users harness the powers of #AI while building the literacy they need to avoid scams and other abuse.

Learn more👇

Empowering users to discern fact from fiction in the age of AI A new project will explore interventions that help individuals effectively use AI while building literacy to avoid scams and abuse.

The Stanford Report profiled the Empowering Diverse Digital Citizens research project, which is spearheaded by Tech Impact and Policy Center Director Jeff Hancock and supported by @stanfordimpactlabs.bsky.social.

#AILiteracy #DigitalLiteracy

AI is intensifying a 'collapse' of trust online, experts say From Venezuela to Minneapolis, the rapid rollout of deepfakes around major news events is stirring confusion and suspicion about real news.

“That’s going to be the big challenge, is that for a while people are really going to not trust things they see in digital spaces.”

Jeff Hancock spoke with NBC News about the shifting dynamics of trust and media literacy as deepfakes and other AI-generated images flood digital ecosystems.

Read ⤵️

Why People Create AI “Workslop”—and How to Stop It With the rise of gen AI tools, offices have had to contend with a new scourge: “workslop” or low-effort, AI-generated work that looks plausibly polished, but ends up wasting time and effort as it offl...

Is making more time and space for being *human* the key to making #AI work in the workplace?

In a follow-up to their groundbreaking article on AI #workslop, Jeff Hancock & co-authors share insight on what's driving the rise in workslop—and how organizational leaders can prevent it.

Read @hbr.org ⤵️

Starting soon—join us online!

👉 stanford.io/49ott0x

How can we shift from seeing #AI as a cheating tool to a pedagogical partner that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and personalization?

Join us in person or online for the next talk in our #WinterSeminarSeries, featuring Peter Norvig of @stanfordhai.bsky.social!

RSVP ⤵️
stanford.io/49ott0x

YouTube video by Stanford Tech Impact and Policy Center January 13 | How Tech Has Enabled Survey Research and Undermined It

Next was an excellent talk by Jon Krosnick on the history of tech-enabled survey research at @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social. I loved the review of industry and academia's fraught relationship with honestly communicating methodological limits. Highly recommend www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y4B... (7/8)

New Report on AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material Insights from Educators, Platforms, Law Enforcement, Legislators, and Victims

Read the full research report ⤵️

Opinion | There’s One Easy Solution to the A.I. Porn Problem

In light of Grok's ongoing deepfake nude scandal, Riana Pfefferkorn of @stanfordhai.bsky.social wrote an op-ed for @nytopinion.nytimes.com sharing research she published with Tech Impact and Policy Center last year that found legal risk is impeding AI companies from better safeguarding their models.

Coming up today at 12PM PT — join us!

Join us on Tuesday for the launch of our #WinterSeminarSeries!

Award-winning Stanford professor, research psychologist, and public opinion expert Jon A. Krosnick will discuss the role of #SurveyResearch in modern life and its evolution in the digital era.

RSVP: stanford.io/4qHo626

Join us today at 12pm PT as our #FallSeminarSeries wraps up with a discussion on school smartphone bans. ⤵️

AI rivals humans in political persuasion New research reveals that people find AI-delivered political arguments convincing. This could help bridge political divides – or fuel polarization.

@robbwiller.bsky.social, Director of our #AI and the Future of #SocialScience program, spoke with the Stanford Report about his recent research showing that AI-generated political messages can be as persuasive as those developed by humans.

Learn more ⤵️

What does the early evidence tell us about school #SmartphoneBans?

Don’t miss the final seminar in our fall series, featuring Hunt Allcott, professor at @stanforddoerr.bsky.social.

RSVP to join us in person or online on Tuesday, December 2!
🔗 stanford.io/47Sb7o3

One week left! Submit your paper for the Journal of Online Trust & Safety’s Spring 2026 general issue. ⤵️

🗓 Key Dates

➤ Peer-reviewed research articles due: December 1, 2025
➤ Commentaries due: March 1, 2026
➤ Publication date: April 2026

👉 Submit Your Paper
bit.ly/4oi8b97

#JOTS #TrustAndSafety

Angela Lee of the Stanford Social Media Lab Earns Doctorate for Social

At the core of Angela’s doctoral research is an exploration of the ways we talk about social media's role in society—especially through metaphors like the "digital town square," and how different framings influence well-being and perceptions of overall social cohesion.

Learn more on our blog:

The Tech Impact and Policy Center is proud to celebrate Dr. Angela Lee, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “Beyond the Digital Town Square: Identifying and Correcting Social Media Distortion Effects,” last week! 🎉

Read about our workshop on #AICompanions bringing together academic researchers, civil society experts, and members of industry to consider guidelines for the responsible deployment of #AI roleplaying chatbots and companions. ⤵️

I gave a talk at Stanford @techimpactpolicy.bsky.social on Tuesday, about my book "The Secret Life of Data" (written w @jesgilbert.bsky.social).

Check it out here: