Deb Donig is a researcher, educator, and writer whose work examines how societies govern transformative technologies. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence governance, institutional change, responsible technology, democratic accountability, and the future of public institutions in an age of increasingly capable AI systems.
She is a Lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley School of Information, where she teaches graduate courses on AI governance, responsible AI, and the societal implications of emerging technologies.
Her forthcoming book, The Technological Grotesque (MIT Press), argues that many of the challenges associated with artificial intelligence are not primarily technical, but institutional. Drawing on empirical research, cultural analysis, and political theory, the book examines why efforts to make technology accountable often reproduce the fragmentation they were created to repair.
Dr. Donig is the Principal Investigator of an NSF-funded study examining the changing responsible technology workforce, analyzing how organizations build—and increasingly restructure—the professions responsible for governing AI. She has also served as a Belfer Fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Technology and Society, where her research focused on AI-generated extremism, influence operations, and emerging risks associated with frontier AI systems.
She founded the Ethical Technology Initiative at California Polytechnic State University, bringing together faculty, students, industry, and policymakers to address the ethical, social, and governance challenges of emerging technologies.
In addition to her academic work, Dr. Donig hosts Technically Human, a podcast featuring conversations with leading researchers, policymakers, technologists, and public leaders about the societal implications of AI and emerging technologies.
Her work has been presented to academic, industry, nonprofit, and policy audiences and has informed conversations on responsible AI, public-interest technology, institutional governance, and democratic resilience.
Deb Donig, PhD 