Environmental Impacts of AI
Lauren Bridges, DTD Lab faculty co-lead,'s latest reference article, is a comprehensive take on AI’s often contradictory environmental footprint. While AI is frequently touted as a panacea for climate change—optimizing smart grids, managing resources, and accelerating materials discovery—it is fundamentally extractive and consumptive.
Self-Authorization Amid Transculturation and Appropriation: Chinese K-Pop Fans Negotiating Identity in the “Cultural Stealing” Dispute
A recent article, co-authored by Wendy Weile Zhou, DTD Lab postdoc, examines how Chinese K-pop fans negotiate identity, cultural ownership, and transnational media consumption through the case of idol group NCT and Chinese K-pop fandom.
Algorithms as Institutions of Online Gender Violence
In a recent article, Yasmin Curzi, DTD Lab postdoc, discusses how algorithmic systems can amplify and monetize online gender-based violence, and analyze what due diligence obligations arise from international human rights law for companies and the Brazilian state.
The State of Data Center Policy in the United States
The regulatory landscape for data centers in the U.S. has shifted in recent years from a period of aggressive economic incentives to a phase of intense scrutiny, restriction, and community-led resistance. To track these changes, the data center policy database aims to bring transparency around zoning, permitting, and regulating data centers and their impacts on communities.
Students, Power, and Technology
In a new article, DTD Lab faculty co-lead Mona Sloane, alumna Ella Duus, and previous faculty co-lead Bertrall Ross, propose Student Technology Councils - elected student bodies with a formal role in technology innovation, governance, and policy - as a new model for addressing risks of declining technology procurement, innovation, and regulatory outcomes.
The Need for Transnational Perspectives on the Social, Legal and Environmental Impact of Artificial Intelligence
A new outcome report of the UN Internet Governance Forum Data and Artificial Intelligence Governance Coalition features a contribution co-authored by Jess Reia, DTD Lab faculty co-lead, highlighting perspectives of the Global South, diverse regional solutions, and impact on human rights, labor, and global power asymmetries.
When Influencers Delegate Replies: How Social AI Agents Shape User Engagement
A new paper co-authored by DTD Lab faculty co-lead, Steven Johnson, introduces the concept of "Social AI Agents" — LLM-powered proxies that respond on behalf of an individual, serving as a delegated extension of a real person's social identity.
It’s Been Centuries Since Haiti’s Revolution. It’s Still Paying for It.
In a recent essay, DTD Lab director, Laurent Dubois, reflects broadly on how contemporary media representations that circulate in digital form are anchored in much longer histories.
Context Collapse: Barriers to Adoption for Generative AI in Workplace Settings
A new pre-print, co-authored by Mona Sloane, DTD Lab faculty co-lead, shows how the more-is-better approach to hoarding context data in AI systems falls short for those who use AI tools in their areas of expertise.
Fundamental Rights in Brazil from a Women’s Perspective – Contemporary Reflections
Yasmin Curzi, DTD Lab postdoc, contributed a chapter to a new book analyzing fundamental rights from a female perspective focusing on gender equality, democracy, and contemporary legal challenges in Brazil.
