Why has the EU - which professes to be a Union of democracies committed to rule of law values - allowed autocratic regimes to emerge in its midst? Can the EU escape the autocracy trap it has created for itself?

The European Union has long presented itself as a Union of democratic states based on the rule of law and other common democratic values. Recent EU initiatives designed to defend democracy in the Union - like the Democracy Shield - depict the threats as mostly external, stemming from dangers like foreign election interference. However, the greatest threats to democratic values in the EU - and indeed to the functioning of the Union itself - stem not from external threats, but from the rise of autocratic member state governments such as Hungary’s.  The EU’s failure to stem the rise of autocratic member governments poisons the European Union from within. Using the metaphor of the "Upside Down" from the Netflix series Stranger Things, this talk explores the phenomenon of democratic backsliding as a parasitic dimension growing within the very fabric of the Union. This parasitic, upside down dimension draws on the rightside-up, democratic EU’s resources in an effort to dismantle and supplant it.

R. Daniel Kelemen is McCourt Chair at the McCourt School of Public Policy. He is also Professor of Law (by courtesy) at Georgetown Law. Kelemen has published widely on the politics and law of the European Union, comparative politics and law, and comparative public policy. Prior to joining Georgetown University, Kelemen was Professor of Political Science and Law at Rutgers University. He also served as Chair of the Department of Political Science and Director of the Center for European Studies at Rutgers. Prior to Rutgers, Kelemen was Fellow in Politics at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. Kelemen is a Senior Associate (Non-Resident), in the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Union Studies Association. Kelemen comments regularly on EU affairs for European and American media. He was educated at UC Berkeley (A.B. in Sociology) and Stanford (M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science).

Join the Tech Impact and Policy Center on May 5th from 12PM–1PM Pacific for a seminar with Caroline Figueroa.

Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 11:40 AM for lunch, prior to the seminar.  The Spring Seminar Series continues through May; see our Spring Seminar Series page for speakers and topics. Sign up for our newsletter for announcements. 

About the Seminar:

Adolescents worldwide turn to general-purpose generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots for mental health support, despite these tools not having been designed for youth well-being. Industry, policy and research trail far behind this rapid, largely unregulated adoption. Simultaneously, most responsible AI frameworks lack consensus, accountability, and meaningful implementation – particularly regarding adolescent health. Drawing on a policy and AI framework scan, multi-stakeholder workshops, and interviews with adolescents, we identify urgent, actionable priorities to prevent harm and ensure AI responsibly supports adolescent mental health.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Caroline Figueroa is an MD–PhD scientist and expert in artificial intelligence, digital health, and youth mental well-being. She is currently a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow at Stanford University and Hopelab, where she is co-developing responsible AI frameworks for youth mental health with youth, policymakers and industry partners. She is also a tenured Assistant Professor at Delft University of Technology and leads a Digital Health research group, advancing evidence-based, responsible design for AI-mediated mental health tools. Dr. Figueroa trained as a medical doctor and holds a PhD in the neuroscience of depression from the University of Amsterdam and the University of Oxford and has clinical experience in psychiatry. She was previously a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

Join the Tech Impact and Policy Center on May 26th from 12PM–1PM Pacific for a seminar with Ying Xu.

Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 11:40 AM for lunch, prior to the seminar.  The Spring Seminar Series continues through May; see our Spring Seminar Series page for speakers and topics. Sign up for our newsletter for announcements. 

About the Seminar:

This talk will focus on the role and impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on children’s cognitive and social development. It will highlight how children interact with, perceive, and learn from AI systems, including how they develop trust in these “AI companions.” The talk will also discuss emerging evidence and open questions regarding how generative AI tools shape children’s curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking. It will conclude with a discussion of how social science researchers can amplify their collective voice to ensure that AI is developed and implemented in ways that are safe and beneficial for children.
 

About the Speaker:

Ying Xu is an Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research examines how artificial intelligence may support or hinder children’s cognitive development, academic achievement, and social-emotional well-being. Her work aims to inform evidence-based practices and policies to ensure that AI serves as a positive force in child and youth development while mitigating potential risks. She earned her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Technology from the University of California, Irvine. Prior to joining Harvard, she was an Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences and Technology at the University of Michigan.
 

Join the Tech Impact and Policy Center on May 12th from 12PM–1PM Pacific for a seminar with Jennifer Heifferon & Alanna Powers-O'Brien.

Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 11:40 AM for lunch, prior to the seminar.  The Spring Seminar Series continues through May; see our Spring Seminar Series page for speakers and topics. Sign up for our newsletter for announcements. 

About the Seminar:

As adolescence becomes increasingly digital, public discourse tends to focus on screen time, platform design, and online harms. Yet alongside these concerns, a parallel transformation has unfolded: the steady erosion of physical spaces meant for teens. What happens to youth social life when the outside world contracts? This talk argues that the rise of digital adolescence must be understood alongside the decline of third places—low-barrier environments beyond home and school that once supported informal peer culture and autonomy. Drawing on original statewide data from caregiver focus groups and a survey of more than 1,000 teens, we examine how young people navigate belonging amid shrinking real-world options. By reframing youth technology use as intertwined with social infrastructure, this research raises a new policy question: What would it mean to treat third places as essential civic infrastructure for youth in a digital age?
 

About the Speaker:

Jennifer Heifferon is the Child Well-Being Program Director at the California Partners Project, where she leads research and cross-sector initiatives focused on youth development in a digital age. Her work examines how technology, family systems, and community environments intersect to shape adolescent well-being, with an emphasis on translating lived experience and empirical research into insights for families, educators, and civic decision-makers. Jennifer’s background bridges K–12 education as a teacher, learning specialist, and equity leader, formal training and facilitation in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and ongoing leadership in youth sports coaching. Prior to her work in education, she worked in digital media as an interactive producer. She holds a BA in Psychology from Stanford University and an MA in Teaching from the University of San Francisco.
 

Alanna Powers-O'Brien is the Research Specialist for the Family Online Safety Institute, managing FOSI's research projects. She is passionate about creating safer experiences for kids and families online. Alanna has created several resources and managed research projects that focus on informing parents, educators and other stakeholders about concepts such as digital literacy, wellbeing and AI. Her prior experiences were in both media and education. Alanna has taught English and communications courses at both the high school and college level, and concentrated on the subject of media literacy education during her master’s program. Alanna has a master’s degree in Media Studies from the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She also holds undergraduate degrees in both Public Relations and English from Penn State University, and is a Fulbright alumna.
 

Join the Tech Impact and Policy Center on April 21st from 12PM–1PM Pacific for a seminar with Jonathan Stray.

Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 11:40 AM for lunch, prior to the seminar.  The Spring Seminar Series continues through May; see our Spring Seminar Series page for speakers and topics. Sign up for our newsletter for announcements. 

About the Seminar:

There has been much discussion of how AI can help humans cooperate, but much less about what happens when you add AI to humans who disagree -- potentially violently. Social media systems, which are increasingly AI driven, may amplify divisive or escalatory narratives. LLMs may similarly exacerbate conflict, especially if they give different answers to people on different sides. I'll present recent work testing alternative social media algorithms with real users on real platforms in an attempt to reduce polarization around the 2024 election, and using LLMs to produce "politically neutral" answers on maximally controversial topics. These early experiments give us a glimpse into the turbulent future of AI-mediated conflict.
 

About the Speaker:

Jonathan Stray is a Senior Scientist at the Center for Human-compatible AI at UC Berkeley, where he works on the design of AI-driven media with a particular interest in well-being and conflict. Previously, he taught the dual masters degree in computer science and journalism at Columbia University, worked as an editor at the Associated Press, and built document mining software for investigative journalism.
 

Join the Tech Impact and Policy Center on April 14th from 12PM–1PM Pacific for a seminar with David Figlio.

Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 11:40 AM for lunch, prior to the seminar.  The Spring Seminar Series continues through May; see our Spring Seminar Series page for speakers and topics. Sign up for our newsletter for announcements. 

About the Seminar:

Cellphone bans in schools have become a popular policy in recent years in the United States, yet very little is known about their effects on student outcomes. In this study, we try to fill this gap by examining the causal effects of bans on student test scores, suspensions, and absences using detailed student-level data from Florida and a quasi-experimental research strategy relying upon differences in pre-ban cellphone use by students, as measured by building-level Advan data. Several important findings emerge. First, we show that the enforcement of cellphone bans in schools led to a significant increase in student suspensions in the short-term, especially among Black students, but disciplinary actions began to dissipate after the first year, potentially suggesting a new steady state after an initial adjustment period. Second, we find significant improvements in student test scores in the second year of the ban after that initial adjustment period. Third, the findings suggest that cellphone bans in schools significantly reduce student unexcused absences, an effect that may explain a large fraction of the test score gains. The effects of cellphone bans are more pronounced in middle and high school settings where student smartphone ownership is more common.    

About the Speaker:

David Figlio is the Gordon Fyfe Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester, a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research on education policy, the economics of the family, the interaction between early health and human development, and the economics publication process has been published over the past five years in leading journals such as the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Labor Economics, and Economic Journal. He recently served as provost at the University of Rochester and dean of Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. An elected member of the National Academy of Education, he has served as editor of the Journal of Human Resources and inaugural editor of Education Finance and Policy, and has advised numerous states and countries on education policy.    

Join the Tech Impact and Policy Center on April 7th from 12PM–1PM Pacific for a seminar with Robbie Torney.

Stanford affiliates are invited to join us at 11:40 AM for lunch, prior to the seminar.  The Spring Seminar Series continues through May; see our Spring Seminar Series page for speakers and topics. Sign up for our newsletter for announcements. 

About the Seminar:

As AI products rapidly integrate into the lives of kids and teens, from educational tools to companion chatbots, the technology industry faces fundamental questions about how to design and deploy these systems responsibly. Drawing on three years of risk assessments conducted by the nonprofit Common Sense Media across major AI platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, Grok, and numerous AI companion services, this talk examines what we've learned about the gap between current AI design and kid and teen safety. This presentation will outline our approach for evaluating developmental appropriateness in AI systems. Through concrete examples from platform evaluations, we’ll explore patterns we find in safeguarding young users, including in providing “advice” on a range of topics, mental health topics, and more traditional challenges around age appropriate content. These findings reveal structural challenges in how AI products are currently conceived and deployed for young people, from design assumptions that ignore developmental differences to business models that prioritize engagement over safety. Finally, we’ll discuss implications for AI development, deployment, and policy, including the role of age assurance, emerging regulatory approaches, and what product standards for developmental appropriateness might look like in practice.
 

About the Speaker:

Robbie Torney (BA '09, MA '10) is Head of AI & Digital Assessments at Common Sense Media, where he leads the organization's AI safety research and risk assessment methodology. Under his leadership, Common Sense has developed and conducted systematic risk assessments of major AI platforms including ChatGPT, Gemini, Meta AI, and Grok, as well as emerging categories like AI companion chatbots and AI toys. His work spans research, policy advocacy, and industry engagement. He has testified before Congress and the California Legislature on AI safety for youth and works directly with technology companies to shape industry standards. His research focuses on evaluating AI systems through frameworks that center developmental appropriateness and child safety by design. Prior to joining Common Sense Media, Robbie spent over a decade in education leadership in Oakland, California, bringing practical understanding of how technology affects children and families to questions of AI policy and responsible development.