Colleen Chien

New paper: Bridging Research Gaps b/w Academic Research & Legal Investigations of Algorithmic Discrimination, for AI, Ethics & Society 2025. @irenetrampoline.bsky.social, Anna Zink & I review civil enforcement actions & find 5 ways algorithmic research can better support enforcers; comments welcome!

My new article, "Clean Slate, Dirty Data," audits automatic non-conviction record clearance laws in 5 states, finds good but imperfect compliance, suggesting 1) automation can succeed where petitions fail, 2) accountability in implementation is needed.(NC L. Rev 2025)
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Dear journalists:

The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her.

Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.

We Are All Lisa Cook Nobody is safe from weaponized government

We Are All Lisa Cook
open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

Despite backlash to DEI, our paper, w/ Jillian Grennan and Jason Sandvik, just presented @nber.org, suggests targeted mentorship boosts firm-wide innovation. Tracking 7 cohorts, 633 mentees & 20K+ employees, we find real ROI for well-designed mentoring.

📄 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Registration for our 4/16 AI & Education event featuring
@ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Education Prof Zach Pardos
and CS Prof Gireeja Ranade now open: berkeley.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Series website: ai-and-society.github.io

Curated by @rajiinio.bsky.social and @irenetrampoline.bsky.social

Thanks for checking it out. We hope to add streaming soon, so stay tuned!

Just posted: working paper on the impact of drivers license suspension reform laws on employment w/ @bobapel.bsky.social. We find increases in statewide employment when people can drive & that the quality of reform matters. It’s an early draft, welcome your comments! paperprisons.org/news-blog.ht...

We've launched a biweekly AI & Society salon at Berkeley w/ @rajiinio.bsky.social & @irenetrampoline.bsky.social! This week, sociologist marionf.bsky.social joined EECS’ beenwrekt.bsky.social to discuss The Ordinal Society. Up next, on April 16th: AI & Education. Join us at ai-and-society.github.io

YouTube video by KPBS Public Media Part 1: Investigation reveals stark racial differences in past sentencing of robbery murder cases

Part 1: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_hG...
Part 2: www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtsV...
Our tool and related papers: www.paperprisons.org/RJA

Excited to see @kpbssandiego.bsky.social spotlight the Paper Prisons Racial Justice Act tool in their mini-series on racial disparities in the justice system. We’ve been humbled by the reception from people seeking to connect lived experience to data and welcome collaboration.

📑 Slide decks
Federal AI Primer: drive.google.com/file/d/118M9...
Federal Panel slides: drive.google.com/file/d/11LIk...
🎥 Recordings & full slides from the conference: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Conference website: www.law.berkeley.edu/event/28th-a...

Focus: protect rights → advance industrial policy;
Agency AI inventories, personnel (Lynne Parker, M. Kratsios), AI Safety Institutes, US-dominated innovation;
Biden EO rescinded, OMB M-Memo revision, CTO/CAIO roles shifted to political appts;
AI Action Plan soon—Fed. Reg. comment period closes 3/15

What’s happening in Federal AI law, policy & governance? We discussed @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social's recent conference, covering AI EOs across Trump I & II and Biden, the M-Memo, & agency shifts. Some highlights from my primer and the panel of computer & social scientists and lawyers I moderated:

18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated shortly after midnight. Read our letter to the American people:
18f.org

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Technological Developments & Tools in the Criminal Legal System. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. We are thrilled to welcome UC Berkeley Law educators Colleen Chien (Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology), Catherine Crump (Robert Glushko Clinical Professor of...

Will be recorded, reach out to aliviamd@berkeley.edu to get on the list.

Event page www.law.berkeley.edu/event/techno...

Register sccgov-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Today at noon PST - Tech Devt’s & Tools in the Criminal Legal System webinar (qualifies for CA tech CLE) - I’ll be talking about Paper Prisons projects in AI, automation, & data re the California Racial Justice Act & Clean Slate w/ Andrea Roth, Chesa Boudin, Rebecca Wexler, and Jake Rhodes.

20 recent ISSUES covers, designed by Fabio Cutro.

ISSUES is thrilled to join the Bluesky community! ⁠

A brief introduction: We’re a digital and print opinion journal published by @nationalacademies.org and Arizona State University. We provide a forum for discussion of public policy related to science, technology, and society. ⁠1/ issues.org

25th Annual Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute Paul Brest Hall, Munger Building Stanford University

The 25th Annual Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute is only 10 days away!

Seats are still available at the nation's premier patent law event. Register now!

@pamelasamuelson.bsky.social @jenniferurban.bsky.social

www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bcl...

Blog: paperprisons.org/blog.html?ke...
Berkeley coverage: law.berkeley.edu/sidebar/pape...
Video at the RJA Symposium: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOpS...

Built by Santa Clara and Berkeley teams, including William Sundstrom, W. David Ball, Akhil Raj, Du Yabo, Bennett Cyphers, Chesa Boudin, Varun Gujarathi, and inspired by public defenders and Ash Kalra's Act. Your feedback is welcome!

Our papers detail our data, tool, and the RJA's "significant difference" test:

1️⃣ Proving Actionable Disparity under the RJA:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
2️⃣ The Paper Prisons RJA Data Tool:
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

By providing data for evaluating RJA claims, we aim to level the field for those seeking discovery/relief based on disparity evidence. Analyze your case against broader patterns; see our LA County burglary analysis (2013-2014).

📣 New Racial Justice Act tool/paper alert! Our Paper Prisons tool offers CalDOJ data on racial disparities by county, charge, prosecution stage, and sentence in all 58 CA counties.

Tool: rja.paperprisons.org

Excited to share UC Berkeley's new cluster hire in AI, Inequality, and Society including five T/TT positions at Berkeley Law, @berkeleyischool.bsky.social, UC Berkeley CDSS, and the departments of EECS and Sociology.

Please consider applying / spread the word!
aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04498

Studies highlight gender and race-based gaps in patent applications Disparities contribute to income inequalities and influence who receives funding for invention, researchers say

This @financialtimes.com article provides an overview of several studies by Diversity Patents Initiative researchers including @patentscholar.bsky.social's & my piece in Science & a paper I co-authored with Chris Cotropia on the role of GenAI in improving patent quality:

www.ft.com/content/feb1...

Some say Maryland’s mass marijuana pardons don’t go far enough This week Maryland Gov. Wes Moore pardoned 175,000 people with marijuana convictions. But some advocates say pardons might not be enough to remove the barriers faced by people with a criminal record.

Last week, I spoke on @npr.org's Morning Edition on the importance of policy delivery, not just fanfare, in reference to @govwesmoore.bsky.social's sweeping and ambitious pot conviction pardons; the TL;DR: good start, keep going.

www.npr.org/2024/06/19/n...

Great to talk inclusive innovation with US Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce Derrick Brent last week at USPTO headquarters. Check out the agency's National Strategy for Inclusive Innovation, for getting people off the bench and into the innovation game.

uspto.gov/about-us/new...

Recording from inspiring California GenAI summit focusing on how to best harness GenAI for empowerment, not inequality, now available.
cdss.berkeley.edu/JointCASummi...
Check out the Governor's GenAI EO, toolkit, procurement guidance, and other regs.
cdt.ca.gov/technology-i...

@djpatil.bsky.social

Guest post by Gugliuzza, Goodman & Rebouché: Inequality and Intersectionality at the Federal Circui... Lisa Larrimore Ouellette's Patent & IP Blog, Reviewing Recent Scholarship on Patent Law, IP Theory, and Innovation

New Diversity Pilots Initiative blog posts:

Gugliuzza, Goodman & Rebouché on Inequality and Intersectionality at the Federal Circuit
writtendescription.blogspot.com/2023/12/gues...

Heath, Seegert & Yang on Open-Source Innovation and Team Diversity
writtendescription.blogspot.com/2023/12/gues...