Chancellor’s Public Scholar
Continuing Lecturer
Business & Public Policy | Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership
About
David Evan Harris is a Chancellor’s Public Scholar at UC Berkeley and a continuing lecturer at the Haas School of Business. Harris teaches courses including AI Ethics for Leaders; Social Movements & Social Media; Civic Technology; and Scenario Planning & Futures Thinking. Harris is an affiliated faculty member with the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS); Center for Latin American Studies; Center for Equity, Gender, and Leadership (EGAL); and the Business and Public Policy Group at UC Berkeley. Read More
In his previous role at Meta (formerly Facebook), Harris managed teams of quantitative and qualitative researchers working on responsible AI, social impact, and civic integrity. During his close to five years with the company, he and his teams covered topic areas including AI fairness and inclusion; AI governance and accountability; global election integrity; misinformation; coordinated inauthentic behavior; hate speech; human rights; political violence; harassment and online safety for activists, journalists, and politicians; community organizing; civic participation; racial justice; authoritative information; volunteering and non-profit organizations.
At the Institute for the Future (IFTF), he served as research director, leading research on the future of media, philanthropy, governance, international development, and social movements from 2008-2018. Harris studied at the University of São Paulo (MS, Sociology) and UC Berkeley (BA, Political Economy of Environment & Development). As a student, he was an intern at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a confidential assistant at the Office of Management and Budget, Natural Resources Division.
Harris is formally trained in sociology and specializes in methods including ethnography, in-depth interviews, aggregation of expert opinion, survey design, scenario planning, signals scanning, multi-stakeholder workshop facilitation and content analysis.
In 2004, he founded the Global Lives Project, a network of people working to build a video library of daily life around the world. Harris continues to support the Global Lives project with help of talented teams of UC Berkeley students through the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program.
Expertise and Research Interests
- Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Social Media
- Misinformation
- Democracy
- Philanthropy
- Social movements
- Global political economy
- Poverty
- Inequality
- Development
- Brazil, Latin America.
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“Europe has made a great leap forward in regulating AI. Now the rest of the world must step up (opens in a new tab),” The Guardian, Dec 13, 2023.
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“How to Regulate Unsecured ‘Open-Source’ AI: No Exemptions (opens in a new tab),” Tech Policy Press, Dec 3, 2023.
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“Biden’s Executive Order on AI: Bravo, Now Back to Work (opens in a new tab),” Centre for International Governance Innovation, November 8, 2023.
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“Tech Giants Must Step Up to Protect US Elections from Foreign Interference (opens in a new tab),” Brennan Center for Justice and Centre for International Governance Innovation, with Larry Norden. Oct 24, 2023.
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“Comments to the Federal Election Commission Regarding Petition to Clarify Rulemaking Regarding the Regulation of ‘Deepfakes’ in Campaign Communications (opens in a new tab),” Integrity Institute, with Eric Davis, Diane Chang, Lucía Gamboa, Amari Cowan, Swapneel Mehta, Nichole Sessego. Oct 18.
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“Voluntary Curbs Aren’t Enough: AI Risk Requires a Binding International Treaty (opens in a new tab),” Centre for International Governance Innovation, Aug 3, 2023.
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“Comment on Generative AI to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) (opens in a new tab),” Integrity Institute, with Theodora Skeadas and Arushi Saxena, Aug 1, 2023.
- “AI is already causing unintended harm. What happens when it falls into the wrong hands? (opens in a new tab)”, The Guardian, June 16, 2023.
- [Book] Você vai me servir: Emprego doméstico no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos [You will serve me: Domestic work in Brazil and the United States], Editora Alameda, São Paulo, Brazil. 2022.
- “Open Source Government? Fork Me: App4Gov,” in Social Innovation in Practice: 78-87, The Hague: Hivos. 2014.
- “Catalysts for Change: Visualizing the Horizon of Poverty,” Foresight, 14.6, 450-467, 2012. With Kathi Vian, Matt Chwierut, Tessa Finlev and Maureen Kirchner.
- “Comment is Free: World Social Forum,” The Guardian, Feb 27, 2011.
- “Social Issues on the World Stage,” BBC News Business, Feb 14, 2011.
- The Future of Video: Becoming people of the screen. Palo Alto: Institute for the Future, Special Report #1219, April 2010. With Jake Dunagan.
- “Alternative Views of the Economic Crisis,” BBC Business News Editorial, Feb 6, 2009.
- “São Paulo: A City Without Ads,” Adbusters Magazine 15(5), July/August 2007. Republished as “World’s Fourth Largest City Outlaws Billboards, Calls it ‘Visual Pollution’,” Alternet, Aug 21, 2007.
- “Turbulence before Take-Off: Life trajectories spotted en route to a Brazilian runway,” Sarai Reader 06, New Delhi: Center for the Study of Developing Societies, 2006, 480-484. Reprinted in Glimpse Magazine, 6(1): 32-39. Summer 2007.
- Venezuela’s answer to ‘free trade’: The Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (with Diego Azzi), Bangkok & São Paulo: Focus on the Global South & Hemispheric Social Alliance, Occasional Paper Series #3, 2006. Translated to French and republished as “Alternative bolivarienne pour les Amériques (ALBA): modèle ou chimère?” in Coalitions d’États du Sud: Retour de l’esprit de Bandung? Paris: Editions Syllepse, 2007.
At Haas since 2015
- 2018 – 2023, Research Manager, Meta/Facebook (Responsible AI, Social Impact, Civic Integrity)
- 2003 – present, Executive Director & Founder, Global Lives Project
- 2008 – 2018, Research Director, Institute for the Future, Palo Alto Co-founder, Governance Futures Lab; Curator, Future Gallery
- 2012, Visiting Professor, Aalto University, School of Business
- 2005 – 2007, Producer/Director, Pan South Productions
- 2000, Confidential Assistant, Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President
- 2000, Intern, White House Council on Environmental Quality
- 2019 ad hoc book proposal reviewer, Routledge Press (Business, Management & Accounting)
- 2017 – Advisor, <coding_democracy> (documentary series)
- 2016 – present, ad hoc reviewer, Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
- 2016 – present, Juror, Pacific Art League
- 2016, Mentor, U.S. State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs / ZERO1, American Arts Incubator
- 2015 – 2016, Member, Public Art Advisory Committee, City of Palo Alto
- 2010 and 2015, Artist in Residence, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- 2013 – 2014, Co-Principal Investigator, Smithsonian Institution, Consortium for World Cultures
- 1999 – 2000, Founder & Director, Earth Week UC 2000, Berkeley
Memberships:
- International Sociological Association; Visual Sociology Working Group
- American Sociological Association; Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology Section
Fluent: English, Portuguese, Spanish. Intermediate: French.
- 2017, David Eckles Fund for Diversity and Social Impact, Haas School of Business. $5,000.
- 2016, Official Selection, New York Film Festival, Film Society of Lincoln Center. Lives in Transit.
- 2015, American Cultures Engaged Scholarship (ACES) Course Development Grant and Course Grant, UC Berkeley. For teaching of UGBA 192AC: Social Movements & Social Media. $6,000.
- 2012 – 2014, National Endowment for the Arts, Media Arts Grants. Three awards to support Global Lives Project: Lives in Transit and Expansion of Interactive Virtual Video Library. Principal Artist. Total awarded $190,000.
- 2013 – 2014, Smithsonian Institution, Consortium for World Cultures. Global Lives / Global Voices workshop, in collaboration with National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH), National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), and the Long Now Foundation (LNF). Co-PI with Joshua Bell (PI-NMNH), Ruth Rouvier (NMNH), Michael Mason (CFCH), Joe Horse Capture (NMAI), Laura Welcher (LNF). $20,000.
- 2008 – 2014, Adobe Foundation Arts & Creativity Grants. Funding received for Global Lives Project filmmaking, education programs and web development. Total awarded: $155,000.
- 2014, Interactive Media Award, Outstanding Achievement: Non-Profit. For Global Lives Project.
- 2013, American Institute of Graphic Arts, (Re)design Award. Honors those whose achievements in design and design education inspire and advance the profession. For collaboration between Method and Global Lives Project.
- 2012, Brand New Award. For collaboration between Method and Global Lives Project.
- 2010, Christensen Fund. For Global Lives Project website and filmmaker community outreach. $20,000.
- 2010, Long Now Foundation. For Global Lives Project exhibit at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.
- 2010, Burwen Education Foundation, 2010. For Global Lives Project exhibition and education programs.
- 2007, Black Rock Arts Foundation. Funding to support Global Lives Project video production in India, China, Indonesia and Malawi.
- 2005, Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship. For graduate studies at the University of São Paulo. $25,000.
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Spoto, Maia, “AI Tool to Redact Minors’ Info in Testing for Los Angeles Court (opens in a new tab),” Bloomberg Law, Dec 8, 2023.
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O’Brien, Matt, “AI’s future could be ‘open-source’ or closed. Tech giants are divided as they lobby regulators (opens in a new tab),” Associated Press, Dec 19, 2023.
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Gimein, Mark, “AI’s Spicy-Mayo Problem (opens in a new tab),” The Atlantic, Nov 24, 2023.
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“Game Changer: AI and You (opens in a new tab),” RTÉ, (interviewee for TV documentary aired in Europe), Nov 16, 2023.
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“With AIs Wide Open (opens in a new tab),” Mozilla IRL Podcast interview, Mozilla Foundation, Oct 10.
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Nakano, Eari and Caelyn Pender, “AI Dating Apps Promise Less Ghosting, More Matches. We Tested Them Out For You (opens in a new tab),” Bloomberg, Aug 9.
- “Trust in Tech Podcast: Should We Have Open-Sourced Llama 2? (opens in a new tab),” Integrity Institute, July 24, 2023.
- “With the rise of AI, social media platforms could face perfect storm of misinformation in 2024 (opens in a new tab),” CNN, July 17, 2023
- “AI is already causing unintended harm. What happens when it falls into the wrong hands? (opens in a new tab),” The Guardian, June 16, 2023.
- “W. House Says Tech Giants Have ‘Moral’ Duty On AI (opens in a new tab),” AFP News, May 3, 2023.
- Jammot, Julie, “La Maison Blanche compte d’abord sur les entreprises pour réguler l’IA (opens in a new tab),” EuroNews, May 4, 2023. (Also published in Spanish (opens in a new tab) and Portuguese (opens in a new tab))
- Social Movements & Social Media (UGBA 192AC)
- Civic Technology (UGBA 39E)
- Scenario Planning & Futures Thinking (EWMBA 277)