ISP Publishes Collection on Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Public Sphere
The Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School has launched “Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Public Sphere,” a collection of five essays that explore how the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) stands to impact the digital public sphere. Edited by Elisabeth Paar and Gilad Abiri, this is the fourth collection in the ISP’s Digital Public Sphere white paper series.
“AI has challenged power dynamics and social structures within societies around the globe in subtle yet drastic ways,” said Elisabeth Paar, one of the editors of the collection. “These essays help to illuminate the complexity of this (re)shaping process, focusing on implications of AI on the digital public sphere.”
The collection brings together essays by leading scholars to demonstrate how AI systems, far from being neutral tools, are imbued with the power to shape social identities, legal frameworks, labor relations, and the very fabric of our shared digital space.
Sandra Wachter’s analysis of the limitations and loopholes in the E.U. AI Act and AI Liability Directives underscores the urgent need for robust governance to address the immaterial and societal harms of AI. Xin Dai’s exploration of AI chatbots in China’s public legal services sector illuminates the potential for AI to enhance access to justice while also highlighting the risks of unequal service quality and breaches of confidentiality. Michele Elam’s case studies of artist-technologists of color challenge dominant discourses of racialized populations as passive recipients of AI’s impact, instead positioning them as active co-creators of knowledge in the digital realm.
Veena Dubal and Vitor Araújo Filgueiras reframe digital labor platforms as machines of production, revealing the alarming physical and psychosocial toll on workers subject to algorithmic management. Woodrow Hartzog exposes the dynamics of extraction, normalization, and self-dealing that underpin AI deployment, calling for a layered regulatory approach to safeguard the public good.
“We hope that this collection will not only contribute to scholarly debates but also inform policymakers, technologists, and citizens as we collectively navigate the challenges of ensuring that AI enhances rather than erodes our shared digital spaces,” said collection co-editor Gilad Abiri.
The Digital Public Sphere series is published in collaboration with the Yale Journal of Law and Technology (YJOLT) and has been generously supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
The Information Society Project is an intellectual center at Yale Law School. It supports a community of interdisciplinary scholars who explore issues at the intersection of law, technology, and society.
