The Power of Public Research featured twelve lightning talk speakers, twelve dinner conversation lead conveners, and a fireside chat. Andrew Connolly, Associate Vice Provost for Data Science, delivered the keynote on the keyword “Guidance.” Credit: MSJ
October 2, 2026, Seattle, Washington | More than 100 attendees gathered at the Burke Museum on the UW’s Seattle campus for Society + Technology at UW’s first symposium, The Power of Public Research.
In a new feature, the UW Information School’s writer Samantha Herndon captured the spirit of the evening, highlighting the range of scholarship, connections, and conversations about the array of approaches to technology that brought researchers and the public together.
“I think tonight is a really good example of the importance of relationships and relational work that happens on campus,” said Alex Bolton, executive director of the Tech Policy Lab, for Herndon’s article. “To break down the siloes of different disciplines, there has to be that trust built between each other.”
On October 5, 2026, Society + Technology at UW welcomed Mert Can Bayar (IAS, UW Bothell) and Stephen Prochaska (Information, UW Seattle), researchers with the UW Center for an Informed Public (CIP), for an After Hours conversation at The Lonely Siren in Pike Place Market, moderated by Monika Sengul-Jones.
The discussion began with definitions—the differences between disinformation, propaganda, and rumors—before turning to their work on the latter, which involves tracking startling tropes—recurring stories—across the media ecosystem, including those circulated by state actors, in relation to the upcoming midterm elections: noncitizens voting, for instance, or voting machine “glitches.”
Tropes and rumors can sow distrust among people and institutions. (Attendees were also offered copies of CIP’s “Rigged Election Bingo” game, which can be used to identify recurring tropes.)
Bayar and Prochaska also described the emotional toll of tracking rumors on their team. “We have a staff therapist,” Prochaska said.
Bayar emphasized that conspiratorial thinking is not partisan—everyone is susceptible to rumors, and no one should feel compelled to blindly trust government institutions. Historical context matters, too. In the Global South, he said, conspiracies aren’t paranoia; they’re history.
Rumors are a common way for people to make sense of uncertainty. Emerging technologies from social media to AI have been a boon to misinformation, however, and have sown not just rumors but confusion and distrust. These days, how do we know what to believe?
At our next S+T at UW After Hours, we’ll host the Center for an Informed Public’s Mert Can Bayar and Stephen Prochaska, who work on the Election Rapid Response team, in conversation with Monika Sengul-Jones, to talk about rumors, conspiracies, technology, and democracy. CIP’s research on election rumors has shown that misleading stories rarely rely on entirely fabricated evidence. More often, real events are misinterpreted, exaggerated, stripped of context, or assigned false intent.
Learn more about CIP’s work on election rumors as we approach the midterms and discuss over a drink. Free and open to the public (21+).
Monday, October 5, 2026 Lonely Siren | Sunroom 1501 Pike Pl Level 2 #200 Seattle, WA 98101 5:30 p.m.
Mert Can Bayar is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Data Visualization in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences at UW Bothell and a researcher with the Center for an Informed Public in the Information School at the University of Washington, Seattle. His work focuses on public opinion, democracy, and conspiracy theories in a range of geopolitical settings, including Turkiye and the United States. Bayar earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Binghamton University in 2023.
Stephen Prochaska is a PhD candidate in the Information School working with the Center for an Informed Public (CIP) at the University of Washington. His expertise focuses on understanding how digital collective sensemaking is manipulated to disseminate and reproduce propaganda and disinformation around U.S. elections. He examines how online audiences collaborate with political elites and digital influencers to assign meaning to ambiguous events, and how initial interpretations are guided and interrupted by propagandists who leverage historical narratives of online communities. Outside of academic publications, his work has been featured in MSNBC/MSNOW, the Spokesman Review, HuffPost, and Deutschlandradio, among other outlets.
August 7, 2026 — Society + Technology at UW hosted a panel with UW researchers for the Communication Leadership AI Academy at UW Seattle, discussing how artificial intelligence is changing storytelling across communities.
The panel included Benjamin Mako Hill (Communication, UW Seattle), Russell Hansen (Communication, UW Seattle), Wes King (Information School, UW Seattle), and Ruth Karen Nakigozi (Informatics, UW Seattle). Monika Sengul-Jones moderated the conversation and presented her research on writing communities.
From left to right: Monika Sengul-Jones, Benjamin Mako Hill, Wes King, Ruth Karen Nakigozi, and Russell Hansen discussing AI detection software on a panel for the Communication Leadership’s AI Academy on Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. Credit: Raphaela Medeiros
Hansen, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication and researcher with the Center for Journalism, Media and Democracy (CJMD), observed how AI is impacting his studies of people who participate in political discussions on forums such as Reddit. Some participants are reluctant to share their experiences because they fear being identified through AI systems. He noted these concerns affect not only what participants are willing to disclose but also how researchers work.
Hill, an associate professor in the Department of Communication and a founding member of the Community Data Science Collective, introduced the concept of “disintermediation” to explain how large language models (LLMs) strip information of its provenance. He described how new AI features are threatening online communities such as open-access volunteer-run projects like Wikipedia, because readers are less likely to visit articles, examine sources, or become editors. Hill also noted the launch of Wikimedia Enterprise by the Wikimedia Foundation, a new service for commercial uses of Wikimedia projects.
King, an assistant teaching professor in the Information School, discussed AI in relation to their longstanding research on religion and religious communities. They referenced the Catholic Church’s recent interest in AI ethics, notably Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which calls for AI to be guided by human dignity. King also described religion’s uses of AI, such mining religious texts and pastors making digital twins.
Nakigozi, an undergraduate Informatics student and Tech Policy Lab intern, discussed the oral-history work she is conducting with Ben Lee (Information, UW Seattle) and Benjamin Shapiro (Computer Science, UW Seattle) on endangered languages. She also considered whether and how communities can use AI technologies for language preservation without allowing it to flatten what is distinctive about the community and their ways of being in the world.
Sengul-Jones, Director of Strategy & Operations for Society + Technology at UW and a writer and researcher, discussed how Pangram, a new AI-detection software, has fostered antagonism and competition among online writers and publishers. At the same time, working writers and editors report being asked to use AI tools and to “humanize” AI text, as noted in a recent webinar on writing and AI by professionals in a UW editorial certificate program. Sengul-Jones noted this may create opportunities for storytellers skilled in voice and emotional resonance. She also pointed out that the launch of LLMs has coincided with a surge in book publishing and available texts, potentially contributing to reader fatigue.
The discussion ranged to debate the adequacy of metaphors such as “empire” or “cartel” for describing political and economic power relationships to reflections on how norms in storytelling are changing with the availability of troves of information. Hill referenced an article by Ryan Ruby for the New Left Review and explained that a novel such as Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, which famously includes long passages about whaling and sperm whales, may be less impressive today to readers who might find such descriptions boring — or even mistake them for “AI slop.” Other creative and ingenious forms of storytelling, perhaps not yet formed, may instead resonate with readers as norms evolve.
Bennett, Matthew, Ingrid Emerick, and David Hirning. “Expert Insights: How AI Is Changing Writing, Editing & Publishing.” UW Professional & Continuing Education, 6 Aug. 2026. Webinar.
Ruby, Ryan. “Wikipedia and the Novel.” New Left Review, no. 156, Nov.-Dec. 2025. https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii156/articles/ryan-ruby-wikipedia-and-the-novel
Saslow, Eli. “A Bay Area Pastor Made an A.I. Twin to Talk About God at Any Time.” Photographs by Erin Schaff, The New York Times, 30 July 2026. /07/30/us/ai-twin-pastor-justin-lester-california-church.html
