Featured Initiative

Ensure technology serves the public good

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society is asking critical questions about new technologies—and bringing diverse experts together to create human-centred solutions.

A crowd of pedestrians cross a busy street where a grassy median divides the opposing lanes of traffic.

New technology is evolving at a breakneck pace and reshaping our daily lives, changing how personal data is collected, how we consume information, and how we interact with the world. Without careful thought, though, technology can reinforce problems like racial profiling and illegal mass surveillance. What is ethical artificial intelligence? Who decides how we should use gene-editing and biotechnologies? How can we leverage Big Data without violating individual privacy? By asking critical questions, we can shape new technology for the public good.

Artificial intelligence holds great promise for raising the quality of human life around the world. We’re taking concrete steps to become the world’s leading institute developing the solutions needed to ensure that AI and other advanced technologies benefit all of humanity.
Gillian Hadfield, Director,
Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, and Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society

The University of Toronto is asking those questions. The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society is developing innovative interdisciplinary approaches that address technology’s role in society, bringing together world-leading researchers from different areas of study to do so. And it’s building on a rich legacy: U of T has long been home to groundbreaking minds, including the visionary media critic Marshall McLuhan. With its unparalleled breadth of disciplines, U of T remains a world-renowned venue for thinking critically about technology and society.

Your generous gift will galvanize research examining how technologies like AI are impacting our lives—and how we can formulate ways to govern them without stifling innovation.