Interested in AI + society across disciplines? Come join the community we're building (with @irenetrampoline.bsky.social, @rajiinio.bsky.social + Alane Suhr) @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social. Tonight, 5:30–7, season 3 kicks off with a focus on AI + cybersecurity and recent HF/OAI & related events...

I recently wrote about depression + imposter syndrome after landing my dream job at @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social—and what helped. TL;DR: tennis 🎾, community + time are healing. It’s one reason I’ve loved helping build our AI & Society community. More next. www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

@BerkeleyLaw is hiring a tenured professor in AI, Law and Society, as part of an interdisciplinary campus-wide cluster. Please spread the word, and consider applying! Deadline is September 4. Happy to field questions. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05397

Professor - Artificial Intelligence, Inequality, and Society - School of Law

University of California, Berkeley is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.berkeley.edu

Looking forward to discussing research on automated expungement notification and impacts for the Advancing Clean Slate Research webinar on Feb 11, 1–2pm EST. w/ JJ Prescott, Laura Chavez, and Nyron Crawford. Register: buff.ly/1JsPjFD About our Juneteenth agenda and pilots: buff.ly/OhARIyH

Delighted to be presenting science-based insights on mentoring lawyers and inventors: “Best Practices in Mentoring: Creating Programs that Can Change Lives,” w/Margo Bagley, Jason Sandvik, & American Inns of Court to celebrate #MentoringMonth! 1/31 at 10:00 PST/1:00 EST: lnkd.in/gm8mRUAe

Millions have had their records cleared under Clean Slate laws—but without knowing, they still live w/the consequences. Paper Prisons is proud to announce a partnership with the Santa Clara PD to implement RCTs to notify and evaluate this crucial link b/w legal reform + lived freedom buff.ly/RbuybAk

From #ASSA2026, our second Diversity Pilots paper: Small-Scale Mentoring, Large-Scale Innovation. Evidence from seven cohorts shows formal mentoring increases inventive productivity—largest for underrepresented innovators—plus retention and satisfaction. Full paper:

Small-Scale Mentoring, Large-Scale Innovation: Evidence from a Superstar Firm

Exploiting the staggered roll-out of a mentorship program in a superstar technology firm, we examine inventive efficiency and inclusion.  Novel idea-level

papers.ssrn.com

New paper workshopped by co-authors Jillian Grennan and Joan Farre-Mensa at #ASSA2026. Prelim findings show that patent grants don’t just matter for firms—they shape inventors’ careers. See LinkedIn for further details: buff.ly/KPhCzus @aeainformation.bsky.social @assameeting.bsky.social #EconSky

Patent Grants Shape Inventor Trajectories | Colleen Chien posted on the topic | LinkedIn

Excited to share preliminary findings from new patent paper, on the impact of patenting. Important work from the past decade found that first patents positively reshapes the trajectories of startup…

buff.ly

1/2 Fun visit to @ETH_en @eth_cle in Dec. presenting on two projects: "Surveillance Pricing: Inclusion or Exploitation?" (w/ @xu_yixiang, Cal. L. Rev., forthcoming) and "Inclusive Innovation & Knowledge Production" (papers w/@GrennanJill, Jason Sandvik & @jfm82)

Excited about a new project w/ Prof. @chrishwiggins.bsky.social of @datascicolumbia.bsky.social on "tech bono" - the commitments we have in law to service learning/ professional volunteerism called “pro bono" mapped to tech+data science. More: buff.ly/hGPZy5I #techbono @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social

Tech Bono

In law, pro bono service is institutionalized: embedded in legal education, supported by firms, coordinated by dedicated staff, and engrained in the culture. In tech and data science, skills-based “tech for good”—what I call tech bono—remains largely ad hoc, driven by individual initiative rather than durable institutional pathways. Explore how we're working to change that culture in this article.

buff.ly

Closed out the inaugural year of the Berkeley AI & Society social with a look at a new statewide police use-of-force + misconduct database built by Berkeley EECS, journalism, law, data science, and others, including at Stanford. ML+ other techniques+sweat pulled of the enormous data cleaning (1/3)

Wonderful to visit Jessica Jackson in NY. As a Santa Clara student, she inspired Paper Prisons when she drew attention to prisons overstay as a data problem. She’s since led REFORM; which has in 6 yrs passed 21 laws in 12 states to reform our broken probation/parole system: youtu.be/Gk8aREuaGAg?...

So impressed with the spooky smart and creative costumes of students in my AI Law and Governance class! Adding our family's AI-themed costume from a few years ago too. Happy Halloween! 🎃

New paper: Bridging Research Gaps b/w Academic Research & Legal Investigations of Algorithmic Discrimination, for AI, Ethics & Society 2025. @irenetrampoline.bsky.social, Anna Zink & I review civil enforcement actions & find 5 ways algorithmic research can better support enforcers; comments welcome!

My new article, "Clean Slate, Dirty Data," audits automatic non-conviction record clearance laws in 5 states, finds good but imperfect compliance, suggesting 1) automation can succeed where petitions fail, 2) accountability in implementation is needed.(NC L. Rev 2025) papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Dear journalists: The President has not fired Lisa Cook. The President is *trying* to illegally fire her. Your words shape people’s reality. Please be accurate in your reporting.

We Are All Lisa Cook open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

We Are All Lisa Cook

Nobody is safe from weaponized government

open.substack.com

Despite backlash to DEI, our paper, w/ Jillian Grennan and Jason Sandvik, just presented @nber.org, suggests targeted mentorship boosts firm-wide innovation. Tracking 7 cohorts, 633 mentees & 20K+ employees, we find real ROI for well-designed mentoring. 📄 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Registration for our 4/16 AI & Education event featuring @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Education Prof Zach Pardos and CS Prof Gireeja Ranade now open: berkeley.zoom.us/meeting/regi... Series website: ai-and-society.github.io Curated by @rajiinio.bsky.social and @irenetrampoline.bsky.social

Colleen Chien@colleenchien.bsky.social · 2y ago

We've launched a biweekly AI & Society salon at Berkeley w/ @rajiinio.bsky.social & @irenetrampoline.bsky.social! This week, sociologist marionf.bsky.social joined EECS’ beenwrekt.bsky.social to discuss The Ordinal Society. Up next, on April 16th: AI & Education. Join us at ai-and-society.github.io

Just posted: working paper on the impact of drivers license suspension reform laws on employment w/ @bobapel.bsky.social. We find increases in statewide employment when people can drive & that the quality of reform matters. It’s an early draft, welcome your comments! paperprisons.org/news-blog.ht...

We've launched a biweekly AI & Society salon at Berkeley w/ @rajiinio.bsky.social & @irenetrampoline.bsky.social! This week, sociologist marionf.bsky.social joined EECS’ beenwrekt.bsky.social to discuss The Ordinal Society. Up next, on April 16th: AI & Education. Join us at ai-and-society.github.io

Excited to see @kpbssandiego.bsky.social spotlight the Paper Prisons Racial Justice Act tool in their mini-series on racial disparities in the justice system. We’ve been humbled by the reception from people seeking to connect lived experience to data and welcome collaboration.

What’s happening in Federal AI law, policy & governance? We discussed @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social's recent conference, covering AI EOs across Trump I & II and Biden, the M-Memo, & agency shifts. Some highlights from my primer and the panel of computer & social scientists and lawyers I moderated:

18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated shortly after midnight. Read our letter to the American people: 18f.org

Today at noon PST - Tech Devt’s & Tools in the Criminal Legal System webinar (qualifies for CA tech CLE) - I’ll be talking about Paper Prisons projects in AI, automation, & data re the California Racial Justice Act & Clean Slate w/ Andrea Roth, Chesa Boudin, Rebecca Wexler, and Jake Rhodes.

ISSUES is thrilled to join the Bluesky community! ⁠ A brief introduction: We’re a digital and print opinion journal published by @nationalacademies.org and Arizona State University. We provide a forum for discussion of public policy related to science, technology, and society. ⁠1/ issues.org

The 25th Annual Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute is only 10 days away! Seats are still available at the nation's premier patent law event. Register now! @pamelasamuelson.bsky.social @jenniferurban.bsky.social www.law.berkeley.edu/research/bcl...

25th Annual Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute

Paul Brest Hall, Munger Building Stanford University

law.berkeley.edu

📣 New Racial Justice Act tool/paper alert! Our Paper Prisons tool offers CalDOJ data on racial disparities by county, charge, prosecution stage, and sentence in all 58 CA counties. Tool: rja.paperprisons.org

Excited to share UC Berkeley's new cluster hire in AI, Inequality, and Society including five T/TT positions at Berkeley Law, @berkeleyischool.bsky.social, UC Berkeley CDSS, and the departments of EECS and Sociology. Please consider applying / spread the word! aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04498

This @financialtimes.com article provides an overview of several studies by Diversity Patents Initiative researchers including @patentscholar.bsky.social's & my piece in Science & a paper I co-authored with Chris Cotropia on the role of GenAI in improving patent quality: www.ft.com/content/feb1...

Studies highlight gender and race-based gaps in patent applications

Disparities contribute to income inequalities and influence who receives funding for invention, researchers say

ft.com