The UC Davis Center for Poverty & Inequality Research is pleased to announce our upcoming conference,  Artificial Intelligence and Social Inequality, which will take place on Tuesday, March 17, 2026 from 9:00am to 4:00pm at the UC Student and Policy Center, (1115 11th Street, 2nd Floor), just steps away from the State Capitol.

As AI systems become increasingly integrated across employment, education, public services, and healthcare, a critical question emerges: How will AI affect existing socioeconomic, health, and opportunity gaps? This conference will convene an international slate of academic researchers, members of the policy community, and industry representatives for a day of research presentations, keynote talks, and meaningful dialogue. California sits at the intersection of technological innovation and progressive policy leadership, making Sacramento an ideal location for this critical conversation. Our conference provides a unique forum where researchers studying AI’s impacts can directly engage with those shaping its regulation and deployment.

Lunch, coffee/tea, and light refreshments will be provided. Please complete the online registration form to reserve your seat at this timely and exciting event.

Keynote Speakers
 Dr. Genevieve Smith is the Founding Director of the Responsible AI Initiative at the UC Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR), a member of the Professional Faculty at Berkeley Haas, and a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University. She received her PhD from the University of Oxford where her research examined societal impacts of fintech AI tools. She is also a research affiliate at the Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy at Cambridge University and a research affiliate at the Technology & Management Centre for Development at University of Oxford. She recently served as the Interim Co-Director of the UC Berkeley AI Policy Hub and was the Responsible AI Fellow at USAID. Her research and work has been published in journals such as Big Data & Society and California Management Review, as well as shared in Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Social Stanford Innovation Review, the Economist and more. Her research has been presented and published in proceedings of leading conferences including the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), the ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability & Transparency (FAccT), and the Academy of Management.

 Dr. Julianne McCall is CEO of the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST), State Government’s independent, nonpartisan advisor for science and technology policy, created by the legislature in 1988. A neuroscientist by training, McCall was previously appointed as Director of Precision Medicine in the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, where she oversaw cross-sector health policy working groups and projects, research grantmaking, and state government interagency efforts. In the community, McCall taught graduate courses at several campuses of the University of California, served as a policy advisor in the California State Senate, and led the Journal of Science Policy and Governance as CEO and Managing Publisher. She has directed the International “Brain Bee” Neuroscience Olympiad for high school students across fifty countries and is the co-founder of TEDxFulbright and a chapter of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network for racial justice. She earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Heidelberg University in Germany, a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences from UC San Diego, and a Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience from Denison University.

Conference Organizers: Dr. Jacob Hibel and Dr. Tina Law