HSS News

David Adams, Ph.D., Professor of Public Administration speaking with HSS Dean Jessica Stern on the set of HSS podcast Lowkey Confused? HSS Explains!

 

 

Are we taking the human out of the equation? And what happens when the infrastructure powering AI starts competing for the same resources our communities rely on?

These are some of the questions at the center of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ latest episode of Lowkey Confused? HSS Explains! Dean Jessica Stern sits down with David Adams, professor of public administration at Cal State Fullerton, whose research examines how institutions adapt to environmental, political and technological change.

AI is already being used by government agencies for public benefits, traffic management, crime centers and more. But what happens when these AI models get a decision wrong? Is there a human reviewing those decisions to catch mistakes?

Adams shares examples of what can happen when there isn’t enough room for human judgment, including a case in Indiana where a woman in hospice care missed a required phone appointment and lost her benefits as a result.

“You may be taking that person, the human out of the loop who may realize, like I said earlier, this person is different or this situation is different,” Adams said.

Then there is the question of accountability. Who is responsible when a decision made with AI harms someone?

“I don’t know how much we’ve worked out who is to blame when AI is the culprit,” Stern said.

“The agency’s going to point to the vendor,” Adams said. “And the vendor is going to point to the agency. ... And then the agency is going to point to the model. It’s going to go circular.”

While the public may only see the final result, many decisions about how these systems operate are made behind the scenes when government agencies sign contracts with AI companies. Those contracts can determine how the technology is used, what happens to the information it collects and what protections are put in place.

Then there are the brains behind the models: the data centers themselves. These massive facilities need land and resources to operate, including water, electricity and high-speed fiber. As more data centers are built across the country, communities are increasingly being asked to consider what they are willing to give up for the technology and convenience they provide.

Who should get to make those decisions? The people living in those communities? Local governments? State agencies? Adams and Stern discuss how data centers get approved and why figuring out where those decisions are actually being made can be more complicated than it seems.

They also look at why a city might want a data center in the first place. Data centers can bring in significant tax revenue without the long-term population growth that comes with other large developments. At the same time, they raise questions about electricity, water, land use and what happens to a community if that infrastructure is no longer needed.

Adams and Stern unpack these questions and consider an even bigger one: As AI becomes part of everyday life, who gets to decide what we are willing to give up for it?

Want to listen to the full episode? Head over to the new Lowkey Confused? HSS Explains! website to watch or listen to full episodes and explore transcripts, background resources and terms from each conversation. Hosted by Dean Jessica Stern, Lowkey Confused? brings HSS faculty experts into the conversation to tackle the big questions we’re all quietly Googling. From pop culture and politics to history, happiness and emerging technologies, we’re breaking down the topics shaping our world and helping make them make sense.