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Artificial intelligence is reshaping how nonprofits communicate, conduct research, and manage their diverse teams. As part of a collegial conversation series, Dr. Nathan C. Walker facilitated an interactive workshop for staff of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice. Together, they asked, what is AI, and what are the ethical and...
All Tech Is Human has just released its inaugural Responsible AI Impact Report, a crucial roadmap of the most urgent risks, emerging safeguards, and public-interest solutions shaping how AI will impact society in the year ahead. The lead author for the Responsible AI Impact Report is Rebekah Tweed. Strategic and editorial...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker will represent Rutgers University at the 2025 International Future AI Summit in London and deliver the talk “AI Ethics: From Smart to Wise Technology.” The event is hosted by Telescope AI, in strategic partnership with BAU Global, AWS, Intel, Telescope, Skyloop, and Future Campus. The summit offers...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker was honored to serve as a facilitator of the governance working group at the AI Ethics-to-Industry symposium at Google San Francisco, co-organized by Google Research and the University of Florida’s Renwick Program for Ethical, Safe, and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence. The symposium brought together leading researchers from industry...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker gave an invited talk on Ethical Decision-Making for Communicators to graduate students enrolled in Columbia University School of Professional Studies’ M.S. Strategic Communication program. In Roberto Lara Aranda’s Ethical Decision-Making for Communicators class, students welcomed the Rev. Dr. Nathan C. Walker, public ethicist, author, Executive Director of...
United Nations Ambassador Kah, Visiting Scholar at the AI Ethics Lab at Rutgers University, will moderate the twelfth session of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). You are invited to join him online on 28 or 29 October 2025 for a conversation on the intersection of intellectual property and frontier technologies....
The Honors College, Digital Studies Center, and Political Science and Philosophy & Religion departments present Dr. Nathan C. Walker’s guest lecture on his research on AI Principles & U.S. Presidents, as part of the Introduction to Digital Politics class with Professor Tim Knievel. Tuesday, October 28, 2025 • 4:00 pm to...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker received a research grant from the Rutgers-Camden Division of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Engagement (DICE) to advance his research on how artificial intelligence can violate and advance the human rights of vulnerable populations. The DICE program strives to educate minds, empower communities, and enact positive change by...
Assistant Professor Joanne Dera, Rutgers Science Librarian and AI Ethics Lab Contributor, served as a panelist on the topic of People Power: Human Connection in the Age of AI as part of the New Jersey Association of School Board Administrators’ 2025 Workshop. Moderated by Michael Leaser, Executive Director of Princeton Review,...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker was appointed a research fellow at Handshake AI to serve as an AI trainer, evaluating model outputs by assessing accuracy, fairness, and domain-specific reasoning. As part of the MOVE program, fellows support leading AI labs to create high-quality, original training data. Dr. Walker’s external professional engagement with...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker and Laura Collins co-presented a workshop on responsible use of AI for the Rutgers University Innovation Series. Sponsored by the Office of Scholar Development and Fellowship Advising, this event helped students navigate the mixed messages that they receive about the promise and perils of using AI in...
Amisha Rastogi, Research Assistant at the AI Ethics Lab, had the incredible opportunity to attend the STEM in Government Conference as a Governor’s STEM Scholar (GSS) Team Lead. The GSS Class of 2026 is comprised of 101 high school and college students from 19 New Jersey counties, each dedicated to exploring...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker presented his research on “AI Principles and U.S. Presidents” at a faculty workshop during the 2025 Ethics Awareness Week at Utah Valley University. The event was sponsored by the Center for the Study of Ethics and the Applied AI Institute. His research analyzed the core ethical positions...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker led a workshop for Adobe employees on training AI models with rights, sponsored by the Visible Hand Project at the Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University. AI models are advancing rapidly, requiring developers to apply responsible technology practices to protect consumers, especially the most vulnerable...
The AI Ethics Lab welcomes its third interdisciplinary cohort of twelve students majoring in accounting, biology and chemistry, childhood studies, computer science, digital studies, health sciences, management, mathematics, and Spanish. Thanks to generous support from the Digital Studies Center, the student research assistant will receive a weekly stipend to advance the...
The AI Ethics Lab is honored to welcome as a visiting scholar His Excellency Ambassador Prof. Muhammadou M. O. Kah, Ph.D., the Permanent Representative of The Gambia to the Swiss Confederation and Permanent Mission to the UN, WTO, and other international organizations in Switzerland. His Excellency is a dual citizen of...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker moderated a panel discussion on the Needs and Contributions of the Global Majority to Global AI Governance, as part of a North–South Policy Dialogue on the proposed UN Convention on AI, Data and Human Rights, hosted by the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker served on a panel on Sectoral Impacts of AI on Human Rights as part of the North-South Policy Dialogue on a proposed UN Convention on AI, Data, and Human Rights. Chaired by Dr. Gray Manicom of Stellenbosch University, additional panelists included Minister Mireille Wenger (Western Cape), Sophia...
In this solo talk at Ai4, North America’s largest artificial intelligence industry event, Dr. Nathan C. Walker addressed the fact that AI decision-making can separate the people who build systems from those affected by them. This separation can be physical, psychological, or procedural, he explained. Physical distance appears in the environmental...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker moderated a Fireside Chat with Erin Reddick, founder and CEO of ChatBlackGPT. As part of the 2025 Ai4 conference in Las Vegas, they discussed the significance of designing culturally responsive AI models. They discussed the purpose and impact Erin is having when deploying a model rooted in...
How can local actors shape the global conversation on artificial intelligence, Dr. Nathan C. Walker asked when moderating this event at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Hosted by All Tech is Human (ATIHx) Philadelphia, this informal gathering invites colleagues to discuss how we can collectively affect, inform, and improve...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker joined the All Tech is Human convening at the Royal Society, a curated gathering for 250 individuals across civil society, industry, and academia focused on tackling thorny tech & society issues and co-creating a tech future aligned with the public interest. Participants focused on generative AI, online...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker attended the Investors for Digital Ethics program, led by TechUK in London, to discuss how shareholders should balance returns and responsibility when investing in AI. They examined how AI is becoming increasingly central to business operations and products, posing a challenge for investors to evaluate the robustness,...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker served on a panel jointly organized by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Tsinghua University, and the Globethics Foundation, as part of the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, on Autonomous Vehicles. Panelists reflected on the ethical implications of autonomous driving from a general AI...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker participated in a Roundtable Discussion organized by Globethics in collaboration with the International Association for Safe & Ethical AI (IASEAI), the Institute for AI International Governance, Tsinghua University (I-AIIG), focused on AI Global Safety: Mitigating Catastrophic Risks. Alongside the AI for Good Summit 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland,...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker served on a panel at the 2025 Switchboard Confluence for the International Resource Committee about how to build self-sufficiency with AI. Resettlement providers handle a variety of daily tasks, including documenting cases in multiple languages, matching clients with limited housing options, analyzing program data, and coordinating time-sensitive...
Is “smart” technology the ultimate goal, asked Dr. Nathan C. Walker, when giving a keynote presentation at the annual Switchboard Confluence for the International Rescue Committee? Can we design and deploy artificial intelligence in ways that move us from “smart” to “wise” technology? If so, how can we measure this shift...
In its inaugural year, the AI Ethics Lab at the Digital Studies Center, affiliated with the Digital Studies and Philosophy & Religion departments and led by the Principal Investigator Dr. Nathan C. Walker, has achieved the following milestones in research, course development, public scholarship, and university service. Research: With generous support...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker presented a guest lecture on “Smart to Wise Cities” for the undergraduate course, Generative AI for Social Science, taught by Assistant Professor Junghwan Kim. The public lecture was part of the Smart Cities for Good program at Virginia Tech. The course explored the potential applications of emerging...
By Christina Lynn A global research initiative has emerged at Rutgers–Camden to tackle the pressing ethical challenges and opportunities posed by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, or AI. Launched last fall, the AI Ethics Lab, housed in the Digital Studies Center under the Department of English and Communication, examines artificial intelligence’s...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker led a workshop for polling experts, focusing on the practical and ethical considerations of integrating generative AI into polling research published by the Public Religion Research Institute, where he serves as Board Chair. The workshop asked, Should researchers integrate AI into their polling research workflow? If not,...
The AI Ethics Lab at Rutgers University is pleased to announce the publication of the whitepaper “Promoting and Advancing Human Rights in Global AI Ecosystems,” which will be presented at a side event of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, on March 20–21, 2025. The paper advocates for an international, human rights-focused convention...
The AI Ethics Lab welcomes Dr. John Maldonado as a Visiting Scholar. He completed his Ph.D in the sociology department at Princeton University and was a postdoctoral research associate at the School of Public and International Affairs. Previously, he served as an affiliate and fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center...
The AI Ethics Lab welcomes its second cohort of student research assistants majoring in digital studies, political science, computational mathematics, biology and chemistry, and English. Thanks to generous support from the Digital Studies Center, students will receive a weekly stipend to advance the lab’s research projects. Aarianna Aughtry is a sophomore...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker served on a panel at Utah Tech Week as part of the statewide program on Civic Virtue on the AI Frontier. The panel explored AI’s impact on business, law, government, and academia and discussed the balance of considering AI’s potential impact on communities while also pursuing innovation....
Dr. Nathan C. Walker received a curriculum development award from the Chancellor’s Special Initiatives Funding to serve as an Honors College on AI and Vulnerable Humans, as part of the 2025 Honors College theme, “Human/Inhuman.” Course Description: Artificial intelligence has the potential to both violate and advance human rights, particularly affecting...
Sponsored by the Rutgers Honors College, Dr. Nathan C. Walker offered a workshop for honors students to think about responsible uses of artificial intelligence. After all, AI has dramatically transformed, for better or worse, nearly every sector of society. Education, in particular, is struggling to redefine itself in the age of...
Today, the researchers at AI Ethics Lab launched a new branded website at aiethicslab.rutgers.edu to advance their research projects, including the AI & Human Rights Index, Project Insight, and Moral Imagination.
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The AI Ethics Lab welcomes its first cohort of student research assistants whose majors include computer science, digital studies, English, and political science. Thanks to generous support from the Digital Studies Center, students will receive a weekly stipend to advance the lab’s research projects. Aarianna Aughtry is a sophomore at Rutgers...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker became a Certified AI Ethics Officer (CAIEO) through Tonex, which provided comprehensive training in the ethical considerations surrounding artificial intelligence. The program allowed him to develop a deep understanding of the ethical challenges and responsibilities associated with AI technologies, equipping him to navigate and mitigate the ethical...
The Arts and Sciences General Education Committee officially approved Dr. Nathan C. Walker’s AI & Society course to be offered to undergraduate students in the Spring 2025 semester. As a precursor for this college-wide course, Dr. Walker developed AI Ethics & Law as an Honors College seminar as part of the...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker was invited to serve as a Research Associate at the Centre for Applied Ethics, Unit for the Ethics of Technology, and at the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. As a non-resident researcher, he examines how artificial intelligence can both violate...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker joined experts from around the world to help craft the proposed Munich Convention on AI and Human Rights, an initiative organized by the Institute of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence (IEAI) at the Technical University of Munich, in partnership with Globethics. This International AI and Human Rights Summit...
Dr. Nathan C. Walker was invited to serve as a Visiting Academic at the Institute for Ethics in AI, University of Oxford. During this six-week residency program, Dr. Walker will continue to develop his Fall 2024 honors seminar AI Ethics & Law, and conduct research about integrating First Amendment and human...
OpenAI’s Human Data Team invited Dr. Nathan C. Walker to serve as an Expert AI Trainer. In this consulting researcher role between April 2024 and July 2025, he provided subject-matter expertise in First Amendment law, human rights, and education to ensure the safety and accuracy of frontier models, including Deep Research....
Dr. Nathan C. Walker, Lecturer II for the Department of Philosophy & Religion, received the 2024 Chancellor’s Grant for Pedagogical Innovation and Honors College Faculty Fellowship. He will use this grant to design and teach “AI Ethics & Law” for the Rutgers Honors College in the Fall 2024 semester. This honors...