As artificial intelligence reshapes how people interact with technology, policymakers are racing to set ground rules for how it should operate. The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs is aiding that effort through numerous initiatives to inform lawmakers of the latest research on AI and educate current and future public servants about policy challenges and innovation opportunities.

“AI is clearly transformative technology, and Princeton SPIA is leading the conversation on the policy implications of its innovative potential,” Dean Amaney Jamal said.

In what can seem like a game of whack-a-mole, new challenges arise daily with AI.

The technology has helped bad actors launch cyberattacks, develop weapons, produce inappropriate images of minors, invade individual privacy, and disseminate false information. Even when its uses are seemingly beneficial, it has introduced bias into systems, complicated the ability to judge authorship, and overwhelmed global energy infrastructure.

At the same time, AI offers unprecedented opportunities to simplify bureaucratic systems and make government programs more responsive to citizens. State and federal agencies are experimenting with it to varying degrees, but their efforts are often disjointed and uncoordinated.

The School’s efforts address these concerns in three key ways: educating policymakers, creating opportunities for students, and advancing university research.

Educating Policymakers

Whether through congressional briefings on Capitol Hill or roundtables with federal officials, the Princeton AI Dialogues connects researchers with policymakers in the nation’s capital. A collaboration of the Princeton SPIA DC Center and the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), the Dialogues are uniquely positioned to share the university’s interdisciplinary AI expertise with decision makers.

“This initiative offers a range of opportunities for University experts to inform contemporary policy deliberations in Washington,” said Zach Vertin, director of the Princeton SPIA DC Center. “From labor markets to healthcare to national security, our faculty are well positioned to educate policymakers in seeking to strike the right balance between AI innovation and governance.”

The focused discussions with policymakers through the AI Policy Precepts bring together AI leaders from legislative offices and federal agencies for sessions jointly facilitated by the Princeton SPIA DC Center and CITP. Across three iterations, the precepts have featured nonpartisan discussions with staff from the White House, Congress, and a range of federal departments, including Commerce, Transportation, Defense, Labor, and Homeland Security.

Briefings for Senate and House staffers are another way to educate policymakers. A recent series, in partnership with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Rep. Vince Fong (R-Calif.), and Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), covered mental health and online safety issues raised by AI. CITP leaders Arvind Narayanan and Mihir Kshirsagar shared insights on AI companions’ capabilities and answered questions about potential regulatory and technical safeguards. Rose Guingrich, a Ph.D. candidate in Princeton’s psychology department, presented research on companions’ social impacts.

“With AI reverberating across every policy domain, research helps policymakers filter the noise,” said Michael Chapman, project manager of the Princeton AI Dialogues.

These conversations in Washington open doors for Princeton’s researchers. Chapman publishes a biweekly newsletter, the AI in Washington Brief, to give faculty an inside view of evolving policy debates and highlight task forces and federal requests for information.

“It’s a two-way street,” he said. “We deliver Princeton’s AI research to Capitol Hill and return real-time insights to campus.”

Creating Opportunities for Students

Students are at the heart of the School’s initiatives, and that’s no less true for AI. A small number of students are invited to join the precepts each round, but education in AI policy extends much further than that.

In the fall, undergraduates participating in the AI Policy Task Force spent a day in Washington presenting their research on the technology’s risks, global competition, and energy needs to Congressional staff and Department of Energy officials.

“Science will undoubtedly move faster than policy in this space,” said Dhyana Mishra ’27, a Princeton SPIA major and computer science minor who participated in the task force. “So how can we rationally think through worst-case scenarios and build policies that take those into account, even if they haven’t been realized yet?”

The students also visited the Washington headquarters for Nvidia, where they met with employees of the chip manufacturer as well as OpenAI and learned about regulatory challenges from the private sector’s perspective.

“AI policy leaves no major stakeholder untouched, and thinking through their different priorities throughout the day only cemented how complex incentive alignment in this space is and will be,” Mishra said.

These conversations help students better understand the policymaking process and fuel ideas for research. For example, about a dozen Princeton SPIA students are investigating AI-related topics for their senior thesis projects this year. They range in focus from the effectiveness of AI workforce training initiatives to South Korea’s AI development infrastructure.

“That so many of our undergraduate students are out in front of this emerging policy discussion signals how quickly its relevance has registered and the need to better understand its impact,” said Paul Lipton, senior associate dean for academic administration at Princeton SPIA.

Advancing Princeton Research

On the Princeton campus, CITP and the NJ AI Hub – a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership among Princeton University, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), Microsoft, and CoreWeave – helped convene a gathering with state AI leaders in June. The center has since launched a monthly forum for state legislators to learn from the latest research on how to develop AI policy and is helping them share ideas for innovating with AI to improve government services.

“CITP has over the decades been a neutral facilitator that helps provide technical expertise and encourages knowledge sharing. As AI gets used to enhance government services, we hope that this forum will help be a resource to state and local legislators,” said Tithi Chattopadhyay, CITP’s executive director.

Additionally, CITP researchers are working on a variety of projects related to AI and its intersections with society. For example, Hilke Schellmann, a visiting professional at CITP and investigative journalist, is looking at information integrity in the age of generative AI.

The center is offering a new undergraduate minor in computing, society, and policy that gives students a chance to think about the policy implications of developing technologies and get involved in research.

Several Princeton SPIA graduate students have also served as fellows with the NJ AI Hub to help with strategic development projects.

From Capitol Hill to the Princeton campus, Princeton SPIA is responding to AI's society-changing potential by informing research-backed policies and training the next generation of policymakers for whatever challenges come next.