“A lot of my research is thinking about how we can make sure when we start to use all these AI tools, they will allow us to be whatever we want to be, as opposed to being shaped by what a particular product might want us to look like,” he explains. He envisions a world where technology is "receptive” to individuals and communities, acting as a tool for creativity rather than a mold for conformity.
Academia as the Engine of Innovation
While Silicon Valley dominates the headlines with the latest chatbots, Venkatasubramanian argues that the most critical AI work is happening in academia. Commercial applications are naturally geared toward short-term profits and products that can be sold within months. In contrast, academic research focuses on the “basic science” and long-term impact.
He points out a “collective amnesia” regarding technology's history: the internet itself was born from government-funded academic nodes like the Arpanet. "The innovation that's going to change the world ten years from now is not being built by someone who wants to make a profit,” he asserts. It is being built by researchers asking, “What happens if I do this?” He calls it an investment in knowledge that may not pay off for a decade.
The Power of the Open Curriculum
“At Brown we have this holistic understanding of how research and teaching feed into each other, and not just in a utilitarian way to do better work, but to become better thinkers,” Venkatasubramanian says. “And that's what I find most invigorating about the discussions on AI happening on our campus.”
He describes Brown’s unique ecosystem not just as interdisciplinary, but transdisciplinary. This approach doesn't just invite different experts to the table; it centers the problem itself, allowing perspectives from sociology, philosophy, economics, and medicine to merge without one discipline dominating the collaboration.
This collaborative spirit is fueled by students who might concentrate in both Computer Science and Ethnic Studies, for example, who lead their advisors into new, complex territories. This “ferment" allows CNTR to tackle high-impact projects, such as:
- Community-Driven Evaluation: Letting the people most impacted by AI tools drive the process of testing and auditing them.
- Socially Responsible Computing: Creating handbooks for TAs and instructors to weave ethics into core technical subjects like databases and networking.
- The CNTR AISLE Project: A rigorous process for tracking and evaluating the 1000+ state and federal AI legislation to provide insights for policymakers and the public.
Reason for Optimism
Despite his focus on guardrails and safety tests—comparing AI deployment to road-testing a car—Venkatasubramanian remains an optimist. He wants to bring back the “feeling of joy and wonder” from the early days of the internet, before it was dominated by a few corporate portals.
“We don't have to live for the next 50 years with a chatbot,” he says. “We can reimagine technology to be what we want to be, to serve our needs as people and societies. We're not constrained by the tools that are currently out there.”
By reimagining and redesigning tech today, he sees a future where technology expands our imagination rather than limiting it.
“Every 15-year-old who wants to invent something new can do so without having to worry about whether there's a business opportunity or whether they can make a startup out of it, or whether one of the AI giants is going to acquire them,” he says. “They can do it for the sheer joy and fun of building.”