About the PI-Tech Lab Project
The PI-Tech Lab studies how people and public institutions think, decide, and work alongside AI, and co-designs the tools and policies that shape that relationship, grounded in equity, human rights, and democratic participation.
Our Vision:
The PI-Tech Lab shapes society's relationship with technology to advance equity, expand opportunity, and protect human rights and liberties. The lab works across disciplines and methodologies, drawing on cognitive science, public administration, and technology governance to study how AI and digital systems affect judgment, decision-making, and institutional practice. The lab builds partnerships with industry, state and local governments, federal agencies, civil society organizations, and communities to advance technology in the global public interest.
Our Mission:
The mission of the PI-Tech Lab is to advance research, education, policy, and practice on the governance, design, and deployment of emerging technologies to serve the public interest. We study the cognitive, organizational, and ethical dimensions of human-AI collaboration, and we work across departmental, disciplinary, sectoral, and cultural boundaries to:
- Generate public policy-relevant actionable knowledge on how people and institutions think, decide, and act alongside emerging technologies, to advance opportunity and promote a fair, free, just, and equitable society;
- Cultivate Public Interest Technology talent by giving the next generation of the workforce the skills to critically assess the ethical, political, and social implications of technology and design technologies in the public interest;
- Shape future technological and societal change by studying, co-designing, and deploying technologies that strengthen human judgment, address societal problems, improve lives, and protect human rights;
- Connect and disseminate public interest technology knowledge and practice across disciplines and sectors through collaborations within Virginia Tech and national and international networks.