At Benefits Data Trust (BDT), we know artificial intelligence (AI) presents both risks and opportunities for society, including how it meets human needs through the social safety net.
BDT is focused on ways we can support government, fellow nonprofit organizations, and others in addressing AI’s place in human services.
We have developed the resources below to help inform their work and thinking.
Video Series: Human-Serving AI
What does AI mean for the front-line workers who lead and run government human services programs that are essential to fighting poverty and meeting people’s basic needs? How should we make the most of new AI tools that can modernize and streamline work, while guarding against risks that can harm people’s health and well-being and contribute to inefficiency and inequity in the public benefits system?
BDT CEO Trooper Sanders explores these questions in a series of conversations with other national AI experts in our video series Human-Serving AI.
Episode 1: Blending Code and Prose
A conversation with Afua Bruce
Trooper Sanders interviews Afua Bruce, a leading public interest technologist, Founder & Principal of ANB Advisory Group, and author of The Tech That Comes Next: How Changemakers, Philanthropists, and Technologists Can Build an Equitable World. They examine the pros and cons of AI and key considerations for when humans rely on technological solutions.
Episode 2: Keeping People in the Loop
A conversation with Karen Levy
Trooper Sanders interviews Karen Levy, an associate professor at Cornell University and author of Data Driven: Truckers, Technology, and the New Workplace Surveillance. They discuss how AI has been used in the trucking industry to understand some potential risks and opportunities for AI in human services.
Episode 3: AI Policy
A conversation with Elizabeth Kelly
Trooper Sanders interviews Elizabeth Kelly, special assistant to the President for economic policy at the White House National Economic Council. They discuss President Biden’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence and the White House’s approach to AI.
Read more about AI from BDT CEO Trooper Sanders, who serves on the National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee, a body established by the U.S. Congress to advise the President on national AI efforts.
- Humans Must Control Human-Serving AI Writing for Tech Policy Press, Trooper lays out a path for harnessing the power of responsible AI. Doing so will require a robust commitment to human-centered design. By keeping humans in the loop — both the front-line workers who administer public benefits and those served by these programs — technologists and government leaders can leverage AI to bring more efficiency and dignity to human services.
- Artificial Intelligence for Social Impact: 5 Guideposts from Our CEO Read or watch Trooper’s keynote address at a summit exploring data science for social impact, hosted by the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis in November 2022.
- Responsible Use of AI View Trooper's guest lecture at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College on "Equity, Opportunity, and Advancing America's Competitive Edge Through the Responsible Use of AI"