The election of Professor Sherri Greenberg to chair of Good Systems couldn’t be more timely. UT Austin’s interdisciplinary Ethical AI Grand Challenge is ready to start shaping and informing public policy at the intersection of technology and society. And there are few as well equipped as Greenberg to lead this initiative.
Good Systems is developing fast. One of three flagship grand challenge research programs at The University of Texas at Austin, its goal—to address the ethical and values-driven concerns around the use of AI technologies by taking an interdisciplinary approach—has clearly struck a chord.
Sherri Greenberg is assistant dean for state and local government engagement and professor of practice at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, professor of practice at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work, and newly elected chair of the Good Systems Executive Team (GSET). Greenberg has decades of experience helping shape public policy and throughout her career has maintained a watchful eye on new technologies and the influence they can have—for better or worse—on politics, power, and everyday life.
Greenberg understands how to turn influence into action and has been a pioneer of shaping policy around how governments use and interact with technologies for three decades. Despite being a “non-scientist,” as she puts it, she has always kept one eye firmly on the risks and benefits of burgeoning new technological tools and how they are being adopted by policymakers.
“In 1991, I got a bill passed that required all state agencies to have email addresses. It wasn’t just about keeping up with the times. To me, email served as an excellent way to provide communication and accountability between state agencies and the public.”
“Some technologies, like email and the internet, have served to create greater efficiencies and transparency around governance,” she said. “Then there are others, perhaps not intentionally designed to be disruptive, but that still pose huge risks to security, safety, and the ethical accountability for our elected officials.”
Tools like Twitter (now X) could be counted among these, for example. Greenberg has conducted several studies with UT students over the last two decades analyzing how members of Congress, congressional committees, and Texas legislators were using social media. Her results showed significant shifts in how such tools were being used by various politicians.
Greenberg the Pundit
One doesn’t need to work at UT Austin to be familiar with Greenberg. She is routinely called upon by local and national media to comment on a variety of key political issues.
That’s because her career in shaping public policy has always extended well beyond the academic setting. Greenberg served as a senior advisor to former Austin Mayor Steve Adler. She was a Texas state representative from 1991 to 2001, where she chaired the House Pensions and Investments Committee and the Select Committee on Teacher Health Insurance. She also served on the Texas House Appropriations, Economic Development, Elections, and Science and Technology committees. Before entering state politics, Greenberg was the City of Austin capital finance manager and a public finance officer at Standard & Poor’s.
“No matter what policy area I find myself working in—health care, housing finance, et cetera—I have always made a point of thinking about how we are using technology to either improve or impair the effective implementation of new laws, policies, regulations and governance,” she said. “AI is everywhere. It’s not something abstract that only computer scientists and engineers must think about. We are all interacting with it every day in government, in the private sector, and in our own private lives.”
Beware the Hype
The emergence of new technologies inevitably generates hype, fearmongering, and increased media attention focused primarily on the doomsday, worst-case scenarios of the latest advancement. From the dawn of television to the world wide web, some will always believe the end is nigh. And, yet a technological apocalypse is yet to materialize.
Yet AI is somewhat different from previous technological shifts, given just how all-encompassing its reach within society could be, and the many challenges—from algorithmic bias and unlawful personal data harvesting to disinformation and the future of work—that could compound those risks if AI is allowed to progress without restraint.
Greenberg is particularly concerned about recent advancements in data gathering tools. Zoom, for example—which kept so much of the working world turning during the pandemic—has been under increased scrutiny lately after it was revealed that the company had discreetly changed its terms of service by adding language asking users to agree to share their data to train AI.
There are multiple examples of other tech giants who have done the same without notifying their users. “The tech industry is developing incredibly advanced data gathering tools, and there is a real need for people to start becoming extra vigilant when it comes to their own data privacy,” Greenberg stressed. “This type of cultural sea change in our attitudes to tech, however, must begin much earlier on in life. We’re already too late if we only begin talking about the ethics of AI at university level. K-12 kids should be taught about the importance of responsible AI implementation, too.”
The Power of Collaboration
Professor Luis Sentis, roboticist and professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the Cockrell School of Engineering, said Good Systems has provided him and many of his colleagues in STEM the opportunity to get more directly involved in research focused on the ethics of AI. He believes Greenberg’s term as chair of the Good Systems Executive Team (GSET) couldn’t be happening at a more appropriate time. “As we move from a position where simply raising awareness around this issue is no longer enough, Good Systems has reached a critical mass where it is now in a position to spread its message at the highest levels, thereby allowing us the opportunity to actively help shape and inform public policy,” Sentis said. “I cannot think of a more suitable candidate to lead us into this new era than Sherri Greenberg.”