From driverless cars to virtual banks, and from data-driven police work to efforts to regulate drone flights, technology is altering the economy and society, causing major disruptions in privacy and public policy. UCLA Law partnered with the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering in 2020 to launch a cross-disciplinary approach to emerging tech and the law, the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law and Policy.

In January 2020, the institute hosted its first symposium, “Algorithmic Criminal Justice?” The event drew leading academics and policymakers in the field to UCLA to examine the use of algorithms in policing and criminal justice, including approaches to identifying and mitigating algorithmic bias.

The institute is among several UCLA programs focused on the intersection of technology and policy, including UCLA Law’s AI PULSE project and Climate Engineering Governance Project, which bring together otherwise disparate departments at the university to tackle cutting-edge issues – and which give law students a substantial boost into successful legal careers that will increasingly rely on and engage with technology and issues related to artificial intelligence, robotics and more.

“To spur innovation and fully realize the extraordinary potential that technology can offer, we cannot look at technology alone,” said institute co-director John Villasenor. “We must also look at the role of legal and policy frameworks.”