About

I am the McGregor-Girand Professor of Social Ethics of Science and Technology at Stanford University. My home appointment is in the Department of Political Science, with courtesy appointments in Philosophy, Law, Education, and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. I serve as associate director at the Institute for Human Centered Artificial Intelligence. In 2024–25, I was on public service leave as Senior Advisor to the United States Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute.

My scholarship in political theory engages with the work of social scientists and engineers. My most recent work is on governance of frontier science and technology with a focus on AI. In 2021 I published System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot (with Mehran Sahami and Jeremy M. Weinstein) and Digital Technology and Democratic Theory (edited with Lucy Bernholz and Hélène Landemore).

I have also written widely about philanthropy, including Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better and Philanthropy in Democratic Societies: History, Institutions, Values (edited with Chiara Cordelli and Lucy Bernholz). And I've also written about the purposes of public education, including Bridging Liberalism and Multiculturalism in American Education and Education, Justice, and Democracy (edited with Danielle Allen, University of Chicago Press, 2013).

I'm the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Walter J. Gores award, Stanford's highest honor for teaching. Before graduate school, I was a sixth grade teacher at Rusk Elementary School in Houston, Texas.

You can find my full CV here.