Register now for ‘The Risks and Realities of AI Chatbots’ event on April 7, 2026 at 6 PM at the Seattle Central Library

The Risks and Realities of AI Chatbots event promo

This article is crossposted from the Center for an Informed Public, and reproduced in full.

AI chatbots are everywhere. They answer questions, offer advice, and even provide emotional support. But what happens when they hallucinate or deliver unreliable information? Who’s responsible when these tools cause real harm?

Kashmir Hill of The New York Times and Jeff Horwitz of Reuters have been investigating questions like these for years. Hill has broken major stories on facial recognition, privacy, and AI systems. Horwitz’s reporting has exposed how tech companies handle harmful content, often revealing significant failures. Both have documented serious problems with how these technologies actually work in practice.

In a special conversation on April 7, 6-7:30 p.m. at the Seattle Central Library, moderated by Monica Nickelsburg, host of KUOW Public Radio’s Booming podcast, Hill and Horwitz will share what they’ve learned about AI chatbot harms. They’ll discuss dangerous misinformation, unexpected safety failures, and the question of corporate accountability. As chatbots become more common in our daily lives, what should users know? Where are the gaps in how these systems get tested and released?

The Risks and Realities of AI Chatbots discussion, co-sponsored by the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, Tech Policy Lab and Technology & Social Change Group, in partnership with KUOW Public Radio, will include time for your questions.

The discussion will be preceded by a 20-minute conversation featuring M. Linsey Kitchens, a teacher-librarian at Sedro-Woolley High School in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, and CIP co-founder and Information School Associate Dean for Research Jevin West. Kitchens, a former Center for an Informed Public Community Fellowship member, will share insights from her recent work adapting lessons from the Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines? AI humanities online course — co-developed by West and CIP faculty member Carl Bergstrom — for her high school students who then shared these skills and lessons with local senior citizens during an innovative local intergenerational learning event in February.

Event Information

Risks and Rewards of AI Chatbots
Event Date: April 7, 2026
Event Time: 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Location: Seattle Central Library, 1st Floor Auditorium
1000 4th Avenue, Seattle
This event is free, but register to attend.

Registration open for ‘What Does Law Mean in Crisis?’ a UW Public Lecture co-sponsored by Society + Technology at UW and the Tech Policy Lab

Registration is now open for Ly Xīnzhèn M. Zhǎngsūn Brown’s lecture, What Does Law Mean in Crisis? How Crip Feminist Technoscience Will Save Us, which will take place on May 21, 2026, at 6:30 PM at Town Hall Seattle. The event is organized by the Office of Public Lectures, with Society + Technology at UW and the Tech Policy Lab among several campus co-sponsors.

What’s notable about Brown is that they are deeply attuned to living in our times of polycrisis, of accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence, and they carefully, then, offer crip feminist technoscience, which draws on the knowledge of disabled, mad, and neuroexpansive communities, as a method to help us to rethink the promises and limits of regulating technology with law and policy. They advance the idea of bringing “sick people’s wisdom as a vital tool for surviving now and thriving then.”

The event uses a “pay what you will” ticketing model and will include open CART captioning.

Learn more and register

Sponsoring Departments: Paul Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, School of Law (Tech Policy Lab and Society + Technology at UW), Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (DO-IT), School of Social Work, Disability Studies Program, Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology and Experiences (CREATE), The Graduate School

Link: https://www.washington.edu/lectures/events/what-does-law-mean-in-crisis-how-crip-feminist-technoscience-will-save-us-presented-by-the-office-of-public-lectures/

Reach new audiences with Op-eds for Academics workshops on March 3 and 5, 2026 (same workshop offered twice!)

Register now for Op-Eds for Academics!

Society + Technology at UW and the Center for an Informed Public are co-hosting Op-Eds for Academics, a hands-on workshop focused on building public writing skills, taking place twice: on Tues., March 3, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM at the School of Law, William H. Gates Hall, 115 ABC – Perkins Coie Room (Register | In-Person Workshop) and online on Thurs., March 5, 2026, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM (Register | Online Workshop).

Link to: Op-Eds for Academics Workshop Resources

The identical workshops are designed to provide the UW’s cross-disciplinary community of experts focused on the social, societial, and justice dimensions of technology with the opportunity to gain skills in translating academic work into public commentary.

Both workshops will kick off with a brief panel discussion from members of the UW community who have written op-eds, then participants will get to work doing the same—from identifying a timely hook, drafting a persuasive short piece, and navigating the submissions process.

The ambitious may leave with a draft op-ed and a concrete plan for submitting it. Everyone will gain a clearer understanding of how to write for new audiences and the opportunity to connect with other participants.

*This workshop is for members of the UW tri-campus community working on topics in tech and society, specifically those involved in the Society + Technology at UW initiative and the Center for an Informed Public.*

Co-hosts and co-facilitators: Monika Sengul-Jones; mmjones@uw.edu (Society + Technology at UW) and Ali Durran; adurran@uw.edu (Center for an Informed Public), University of Washington, Seattle

Co-sponsors: Center for an Informed Public and Society + Technology at UW

Society + Technology at UW reflection survey open until March 2, 2026 — Tell us what you think!

Students, faculty, and S+T at UW community members are invited take a reflection survey, open through March 2, 2026, and share what you value about Society + Technology at UW to date. As we plan for 2026 and onward, we’d like to hear from you about the themes and topics, programming logistics, and the people involved that matter to you, and what you’d like to see more of in the future.

Your feedback plays an important role in shaping the direction of the initiative, truly! This will take approximately five minutes or less to fill out.

Take the survey