Events

Rumors are a common way for people to make sense of uncertainty. Emerging technologies from social media to AI have been a boon to misinformation, however, and have sown not just rumors but confusion and distrust. These days, how do we know what to believe?

At our next S+T at UW After Hours, we’ll host the Center for an Informed Public’s Mert Can Bayar, who works on the Election Rapid Research team, in conversation with Monika Sengul-Jones, to talk about rumors, conspiracies, technology, and democracy. CIP’s research on election rumors has shown that misleading stories rarely rely on entirely fabricated evidence. More often, real events are misinterpreted, exaggerated, stripped of context, or assigned false intent.

Join us for an important online conversation with Center for an Informed Public co-founder Kate Starbird, King County Elections Director Julie Wise and Spokane County Auditor Vicky Dalton. Together, we will discuss navigating evolving information and uncertainty as we head into the 2026 midterm elections.

AI is often presented to the public as magic: You type a question, and an answer appears. But there is nothing magical about it. Every AI system is built from human choices: what data to use, what to measure, what to optimize, what risks to take seriously and who gets access to the results.

Today, many of the most powerful AI systems are available mainly as closed products. That isn’t good enough for science, education, public service or democratic accountability. Researchers and communities need more than access to a chatbot. They need open AI infrastructure: the data, code, training methods, documentation, evaluations and intermediate models that make it possible to understand how these systems work and to build new ones for public purposes.

In this talk, Noah Smith will describe examples of building AI in the open. He will argue that open infrastructure is essential if universities, nonprofits, governments and scientific communities are going to use AI responsibly and creatively. The goal is not to reproduce commercial AI but to make room for a broader, healthier, more public-minded AI ecosystem.

Emmy Award winning journalist, Paola Ramos, in conversation with UW Political Science faculty member Sophia Jordán Wallace, explores the evolving landscape of Latino voter engagement and political participation. This compelling discussion examines demographic shifts, policy priorities and the critical role Latino voters play in shaping electoral outcomes across America.

The Civic Health Initiative is hosting a Tri-Campus Student Programming Gathering with program staff, faculty, and student representatives across the three campuses who are working and leading programs within the space of civic health and civic engagement at the University of Washington.