Research

Toward Equitable Ownership and Governance in the Digital Public Sphere

We Have a Big (Tech) Problem
The harms of dominant technology platforms are manifold and include the exploitation of data and the mental health and safety of minors, the explosion of misinformation, and the negative impact on political institutions and behavior. Big Tech and especially social media companies have therefore become objects of public scrutiny and criticism. However, internal company efforts and external bipartisan attempts to rein in these harms have largely failed.

Personhood credentials: Artificial intelligence and the value of privacy-preserving tools to distinguish who is real online

Online anonymity is essential, yet it enables malicious actors to commit fraud, spread disinformation, and deceive others. With advanced AI, these risks intensify, challenging the balance between anonymity and trustworthiness online. This paper explores the potential of 'personhood credentials' (PHCs), digital tools allowing users to verify they are human—without sharing personal data. Issuable by governments or other trusted entities, PHCs could be local or global and need not rely on biometrics. As AI becomes more lifelike and scalable, the urgency for effective tools grows. Unlike CAPTCHAs and invasive ID verification, PHCs offer a private, effective solution against AI-driven deception. We assess PHC benefits, deployment risks, and design hurdles, concluding with next steps for policymakers, technologists, and standards bodies.

AI and Democracy’s Digital Identity Crisis

By understanding how identity attestations are positioned across the spectrum of decentralization, we can better grasp their costs/benefits. Improving and integrating them into our interactions with the digital sphere will help protect democratic systems from AI-generated harm.

Open Problems in DAOs

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are a new, rapidly-growing class of organizations governed by smart contracts. Here we describe how researchers can contribute to the emerging science of DAOs and other digitally-constituted organizations. From granular privacy primitives to mechanism designs to model laws, we identify high-impact problems in the DAO ecosystem where existing gaps might be tackled through a new data set or by applying tools and ideas from existing research fields such as political science, computer science, economics, law, and organizational science. Our recommendations encompass exciting research questions as well as promising business opportunities. We call on the wider research community to join the global effort to invent the next generation of organizations.