Campus, Community, Faculty

The University of Puget Sound recently held the Puget Sound Symposium on AI & Privacy, bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to address the ethical and legal challenges posed by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence. The event successfully fostered critical dialogue across different sectors about how AI impacts personal data, influences governance models, and redefines the boundaries of mental privacy.

 

Audience at AI Symposium

Over a hundred participants registered for this one-day event, which took place in mid-April. Organized by the university's AI & Human Values Initiative — a collective of faculty working on AI-related topics — the symposium showcased the unique role a liberal arts institution can play in promoting meaningful discussions on issues such as justice, creativity, democracy, and privacy within both the campus and the wider community.

 

“In our discussions, we imagined the role that Puget Sound could play in facilitating in-depth conversations on campus about topics related to AI and Human Values,” said Ariela Tubert, professor of philosophy who leads the AI & Human Values Initiative and helped plan the symposium. “Including the implications for values like justice, creativity, democracy, or our topic for the symposium, privacy.”

 

The symposium featured a keynote address by Nita Farahany, the Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law & Philosophy at Duke University School of Law and founding director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society. Appointed by President Barack Obama to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, Farahany warned of a future where brain-sensing technology and AI could enable employers to monitor workers' mental states or advertisers to exploit emotional responses. She called for proactive legal protections for “mental privacy” before neurotechnology becomes ubiquitous.

Nita Farahany
Prof. Nita Farahany

 

Another session, “Privacy by Design,” featured panelists Akshita Bhagia, research engineer at Ai2; Yuval Marton, AI consultant and independent researcher; and Kaiwen Sun, assistant professor at the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering at Indiana University Bloomington. This session highlighted emerging technical strategies for addressing privacy concerns at the design and development stages of AI systems, including data obfuscation, privacy-preserving data sharing, and embedding privacy directly into system architecture.

Two men view an artificial intelligence interactive art piece

 

“The symposium was met with exactly the sort of enthusiasm we were hoping for and even more,” Tubert said. “The enthusiasm and caliber of speakers and attendees we were able to convene is an indication of the timeliness of the AI & Human Values Initiative and the hunger for exactly the kinds of conversations Puget Sound, as a liberal arts institution, is positioned to convene.”

 

The keynote speaker and “Privacy by Design” session were not recorded. Below are video recordings of sessions that were captured at the symposium.

Privacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Ryan Calo, the Virginia and Prentice Bloedel Professor at the University of Washington School of Law, opened the symposium with a lecture titled “Privacy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” The session was introduced by Ariela Tubert, professor of Philosophy. He told the audience he would outline three distinct ways AI challenges existing privacy frameworks.

He argued that AI’s capability in pattern recognition allows systems to deduce sensitive attributes — such as health status or political views — from seemingly innocuous data. That inference, combined with automated decision-making and anthropomorphic interfaces that encourage users to overshare, creates vulnerabilities that privacy laws written in the pre-AI era were not designed to address.

Blurred Boundaries – Bodies, Brains, and Identity

A panel on “Blurred Boundaries: Bodies, Brains, and Identity” featured Jennifer King, privacy and data policy fellow at the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence; Adam Moore, professor in the University of Washington Information School; and Mayu Tobin-Miyaji, an EPIC Law Fellow on AI and Human Rights at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The session was introduced by Suzanne Holland, a professor of Religion, Spirituality, and Society at the University of Puget Sound.

Panelists discussed how AI systems can interpret physiological and behavioral data to predict emotions, fatigue, or cognitive load. They discussed data minimization — the principle that companies should collect only the data they need. They also questioned whether current privacy laws effectively address AI integrated into common online tools and products.

Art & AI – New Privacy Practices

A panel on “Art & AI Discussion: New Privacy Practices” brought together Afroditi Psarra, associate professor in the Digital Arts and Experimental Media department at the University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences; independent artist Cam Smith; and independent artist and software developer James Wenlock. The session was introduced by Mare Hirsch, a Puget Sound assistant professor of art and art history.

The panelists’ collective work explored the intersection of AI and privacy through diverse lenses, from Smith’s interactive art confronting corporate exploitation and Psarra’s investigation into how algorithmic structures govern bodies via wearable systems, to Wenlock’s technical practice involving brainwave-driven instruments and data sonification.

The panel examined what art can reveal about AI’s encroachments on privacy — and what creative resistance might look like.

Emerging Privacy Governance

The “Emerging Privacy Governance” panel included Mike Hintze, partner at Hintze Law; Austin Jenkins, reporter for Pluribus News; Washington state Rep. Shelley Kloba; Ben Merkel, federal affairs and legislative policy strategy lead at Anthropic; Chris Riley, executive director of the Data Transfer Initiative; and Kathryn Ruckle, Washington state’s chief privacy officer.

 

The session explored governance models ranging from industry self-regulation to government-led data protection laws, including privacy-by-design principles and hybrid public-private approaches.

 

To learn more, visit the AI & Human Values webpage.