Sept. 21, 2026 | Five Society + Technology at UW affiliates are featured in a new UW News article by Stefan Milne discussing how to respond to the doom-and-gloom rhetoric espoused by tech insiders about generative artificial intelligence.
To do so, Milne brings together Aylin Caliskan and Chirag Shah of the Information School; Franziska Roesner and Noah A. Smith of the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering; and Ryan Calo of the Information School and School of Law, all experts in various facets of generative artificial intelligence. They discuss recent reports of AI systems behaving in unexpected ways, debates over existential risk, industry incentives, and what we should know now.
The conversation underscores a core commitment of Society + Technology at UW: understanding emerging technologies means looking not only at what technical systems can do, but also at the context — the institutions, incentives, laws, values, and social conditions — that shapes how they are developed and deployed, as well as the power of expertise across the University of Washington to help us make sense of the moment.
Read Stefan Milne’s full article in UW News: UW researchers discuss AI risk