PhD Thesis
Title: What's risk got to do with it? Regulating AI in the US, EU, and the UK
PhD Supervisor & Co-Supervisor: James Hollway & Suerie Moon
Date: 2024
Legislative and judicial responses to artificial intelligence (AI) are growing. The US, EU, and UK are taking different regulatory approaches to the development and deployment of AI. Their approaches to AI may have global implications. However, little empirical evidence exists on public attitudes to AI regulation, and what factors could shift their choice of regulatory regimes in the US, UK, and the EU. I have weaved together academic training in social psychology and political science to conduct over 100 semi-structured interviews and a randomised controlled survey experiment with policymakers, their advisors, tech regulators and lobbyists, academics, and the general public to investigate factors that influence support for enacting and revisiting AI regulation. This research could have implications on factors that influence support for regulatory approaches to emerging technologies more generally.
Profile
Kulani Abendroth-Dias works at the intersection between behavioural science, emerging technologies, and international relations/political science. A TEDx speaker on “Why Good People Do Bad Things - And What We Can Do About It”, Kulani is keen to leverage mixed methods academic research in policy practice and has worked with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, France, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) in Geneva, Switzerland, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She has a Master in Social Psychology from Princeton University (USA) and a MSc in European Integration specializing in Economics, Security, and External Relations from the Institute for European Studies (VUB) in Brussels, Belgium. She is currently also a senior fellow with the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).
Publications and works
Harnessing the power of AI and emerging technologies, Ministerial paper ( 2022 ), OECD Global Partnership on AI secretariat report on policy analysis in AI ecosystem 2022 OECD;
Abendroth Dias (2020) What does resilience building to emerging and disruptive technologies actually look like? A study addressing the public policy challenges and socio political implications of the development of Artificial Intelligence, European Cybersecurity Journal Schreiber & Abendroth Dias (2020) Unpacking the black box of fragility: Using behavioural insights for international co operation, European Defense Journal Commissioned by the Austrian Delegate to the International Network on Conflict and Fragility (INCAF) Abendroth Dias & Kiefer (2020) AI is already innovating the Alliance. It’s time for NATO and the EU to catch up, Women in International Security (WIIS) Policy Briefs Abendroth Dias (2020) How can governments build trust in AI driven public services? St. Gallen University Topic Briefs Abendroth Dias (2020) Can behavioural science help us prepare for the next pandemic? Apolitical Abendroth Dias (2020) The problem and appeal of behavioral science in international development, Apolitical; Programme on AI in Work, Innovation, Productivity and Skills (2022) Conference Highlights Report, OECD; Abendroth Dias, K Lavery T Naru F The OECD’s behaviourally informed crisis response during COVID 19 (forthcoming with the OECD Observatory for Public Sector Innovation)
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCES
- Oxfor Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Programme Scholar; Senior Non-Resident Fellow, Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA); Yale University,
- Automaticity in Cognition, Motivation, and Evaluation - Lab (Supervisor: Professor John Bargh) Research Assistant;
- Princeton University - Research Lead: the social psychology of shared
- memory formation; Princeton University - Co-Investigator: Meta-analysis specializing in quantitative and qualitative research approaches; predoctoral fellow - Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS)
OTHER WORK EXPERIENCES
- Project Manager, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
- Strategic Analyst, OECD
- Graduate Professional, United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, Behavioural Scientist, United Nations Development Programme & United Nations Peacebuilding Fund
- Research and Governance Manager, McCourt Institute (Project Liberty)
Research Interests
- Regulatory approaches to emerging technologies
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Behavioural Science
- Emerging Technologies
- International Relations/Political Science
FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS
- Washington D.C. Alumni Chapter Scholarship: Geneva Graduate Institute
- NATO Engages Consortium & Women in International Security sponsorship, London, UK
- Invited speaker, Dutch United Nations Student Association: Harnessing the power of AI for development
- Chatham House Second Century Conference Sponsored Invitee
- Invited speaker, Convention of National Associations of Electrical Engineers of Europe, Young Engineers Seminar, European Commission
- Invited speaker, Free University Brussels: How the UN can harness the power of AI for development
- Invited speaker, Annual European Artificial Intelligence Conference, EU AI Conference
- Politics Research in Experimental Social Science Grant
- Janet L. Holmgren ’74 Graduate Fellowship Princeton University