As AI systems become more embedded in critical decisions—from healthcare to hiring—the need for transparency and trust has never been greater. But how do we document these powerful tools in a way that’s both meaningful and actionable?

In this episode, we’ll welcome back Umang Bhatt, Assistant Professor in Trustworthy AI at the University of Cambridge and welcome Amy Winecoff, Senior Technologist for CDT as guest host. Together they’ll explore the evolving landscape of AI documentation, its role in responsible deployment, and how emerging standards can help developers, policymakers, and the public understand and govern machine learning models more effectively.

In this episode of Tech Talks, we dive into the growing debate over online age verification. While often framed as a way to protect children, these policies carry major implications for how everyone, adults and children alike, accesses the internet. Unlike showing an ID at a bar, online age checks can require the collection and even long-term storage of sensitive personal data, raising serious privacy and security concerns.

The UK’s Online Safety Act has already pushed millions of users to prove their age across thousands of sites, from adult content to everyday topics like current affairs and even knitting. In the U.S., states including Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi are rolling out their own requirements, while federal lawmakers weigh new proposals that could expand these mandates even further.

Joining this conversation are Zeve Sanderson of NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics, CDT Research Fellow Michal Luria, and guest host Aliya Bhatia, CDT Senior Policy Analyst. Together, they explore what users really think about age verification, how it changes online behavior, and what’s at stake for balancing child safety with privacy and free expression.

Can AI ever truly be “neutral”? A new Executive Order takes aim at so-called “Woke AI,” raising constitutional concerns and surfacing big technical challenges. In this episode of Tech Talks, CDT’s Amy Winecoff, Senior Technologist, Becca Branum, Deputy Director for the Free Expression Project, and Quinn Anex-Ries, Senior Policy Analyst for the Equity in Civic Technology project, join the conversation to explore why “anti-woke AI” may be more political mirage than technical reality, and what it could mean for the future of technology, policy, and free expression.

Attribution:

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In this episode, we explore the vital role public interest technologists play in shaping policy. How do technical experts influence legislation around the internet, cybersecurity, AI, and more? What challenges do they face, and how can we encourage more technologists to engage in public policy?

Joining the conversation are Chinmayi Sharma, Associate Professor at Fordham Law School and CDT Non-Resident Fellow, and Nick Doty, CDT’s Senior Technologist.

Tune in as we unpack the intersection of technology and policymaking—and why it matters now more than ever.

On January 27th, the Trump Administration made headlines with a controversial move to dismiss three Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), an independent agency responsible for ensuring transparency and accountability in U.S. surveillance practices. With the attempted removal of these members, including the Chair, the board now lacks a quorum and is unable to function effectively, leaving just one member behind. As the future of the board remains uncertain, it could take months for replacements to be appointed, leaving the agency non-operational for the foreseeable future.

On February 24th, two of the removed members filed a lawsuit in federal court, claiming their firing was illegal.

In this episode, Greg Nojeim, Senior Counsel and Director of CDT’s Security and Surveillance Project, joins us to discuss the ramifications of the Trump Administration’s actions, the legal battle ahead, and what this all means for the future of privacy and trans-Atlantic data flows.

In today’s episode, we dive into an often overlooked but incredibly important issue: content moderation in non-dominant languages, specifically Maghrebi Arabic dialects. Recently, CDT released a groundbreaking report titled "Moderating Maghrebi Arabic Content on Social Media," which explores the challenges, gaps, and opportunities in ensuring fair and effective moderation of Arabic content on social platforms.

To unpack these insights, we’ll be joined by two leading experts in the field: Mona Elswah, a researcher in digital rights and content moderation, and Fellow of the Content Moderation for Languages in the Global South Project at CDT; and Emna Mizouni, a Tunisian digital rights advocate, community leader, and founder-CEO of Digital Citizenship.

We’ll discuss the unique hurdles faced by Maghrebi Arabic speakers online, why it's critical for platforms to address these gaps, and what needs to change to make content moderation more inclusive and equitable for all users.

In today’s episode, we tackle a fascinating question: What happens when an AI system deployed by a company decides to "resign"—stopping its recommendations or restricting access to its outputs? Can such actions help mitigate reputational or legal risks for organizations? To help us explore this, we’re joined by Dr. Umang Bhatt, Assistant Professor and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Data Science at New York University, CDT Non-Resident Fellow, and co-author of the paper When Should Algorithms Resign?: A Proposal for AI Governance, which delves into this thought-provoking concept.

In this episode, we explore the vital topic of bias and equity in AI systems. Joining the conversation are two esteemed guests: Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer at the Emerson Collective, and Alexandra Givens, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Tune in as we unpack the challenges and opportunities in making AI more equitable for all.In this episode, we explore the vital topic of bias and equity in AI systems. Joining the conversation are two esteemed guests: Raffi Krikorian, Chief Technology Officer at the Emerson Collective, and Alexandra Givens, President and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology. Tune in as we unpack the challenges and opportunities in making AI more equitable for all.

AI chatbots have quickly taken the world by storm with more people than ever integrating them into their daily lives. Many are familiar with the big name chatbots that can write recipes as Shakespearean poems or summarize obscure topics. But one type of chatbot, AI romantic companions, are less known despite the fact that they fill an especially personal role for their users. For these users, the chatbot developers’ data privacy practices are critical, yet many lack mature privacy and security protocols, leaving users’ most vulnerable data, such as health details, unprotected.

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Here to talk about these AI companion companies’ data privacy practices are Jen Caltrider, Mozilla’s *Privacy Not Included Program Director, and Michal Luria, CDT’s own Research Fellow.

More and more people turn to quantified health, achievement, and ability measures, such as fitness apps and economic measures of well-being every single day. As part of this trend, medicalized approaches to human health often describe people in terms of statistics and data, sometimes failing to capture more important details. In particular, the quantified approach falls short in describing the needs and rights of disabled people, as seen in lawsuits and case studies involving algorithmic decision-making about disability benefits.

Here to talk about algorithmic decision-making and quantification in disability benefits in the United States and India are Vandana Chaudhry, Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work and Disability Studies at the City University of New York who focuses on disability and digital justice in the Global South, and Lydia X.Z. Brown, activist for disability justice, Director of Public Policy at the National Disability Institute, and CDT’s very own former policy counsel.