News

On March 14, 2020, the United States was on the brink of a pandemic. Covid-19 had killed at least 60 people and two cruise ships with ill passengers were set to dock in San Francisco. That’s when DJ Patil received a call: How can data help California combat this? So the former White House chief data scientist put together a plan. His team acquired hospital...

Technology companies are racing to release increasingly powerful artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Some researchers claim this technology exhibits artificial general intelligence (AGI), a significant milestone where AI could independently learn and complete tasks like human beings. This technology has the power to change the world, said Stuart Russell, a UC Berkeley computer science professor and leading AI expert. It could improve quality of life for...

Data science has unlocked new potential to help understand and address challenges like human health and climate change. But it can be challenging to know how to work ethically with data, especially when it has major impacts on society. Enter the Data Science Ethos tool by the Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA). The alliance’s package of research-backed guidance and case studies show how to embed...

Berkeley News: It passed the bar exam, first with a mediocre score and then with a ranking among the top tier of newly minted lawyers. It scored better than 90% of SAT takers. It nearly aced the verbal section of the GRE — though it has room for improvement with AP Composition. In the months since the machine-learning interface ChatGPT debuted, hundreds of headlines and...

UC Berkeley’s Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society (CDSS) is seeking undergraduate students to join a new advisory committee, the division announced today. The CDSS Undergraduate Advisory Committee will offer recommendations to the division on its operations, as it works to become the first new college at Berkeley in more than 50 years. Undergraduate student nominations, including self-nominations, are invited by April 11. “As...

Thousands of UC Berkeley data science and computing students are preparing to graduate in May amidst a slew of technology company layoffs. Some are worried about finding a job. Berkeley advisors are urging expected graduates to take a beat and embrace a more nuanced job market view. They’re reminding students of what they have control over in their search and what they’ve already accomplished. And...

When Joyce Shen began teaching data science at UC Berkeley nearly a decade ago, she noticed a problem she’d also seen in industry. There were barely any women. The nascent data science field that would forever change how we live was being primarily developed by men, creating products that would shape society for decades. Today, due to intensive Berkeley recruitment efforts, she has seen the...

Since its launch last November, the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT has been an international sensation, with people using the platform to do everything from writing essays, computer code, poems and research proposals to planning vacations, flirting with Tinder matches and creating malware. According to UC Berkeley computer scientist Ken Goldberg, the computer program’s facility with natural language — particularly its ability to consistently demonstrate creativity...

On Wednesday, March 8, 2023, Hany Farid, professor in the UC Berkeley School of Information and Department of EECS testified at a hearing with the House Committee on the Judiciary and the Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law entitled: “Platform Accountability: Gonzalez and Reform.” In his testimony, Farid points out how a platform such as YouTube’s recommendation system can lead to misinformation, extremism, and...

Arlyn Moreno Luna and her family immigrated from Mexico to Oregon when she was 13 years old. Learning a new educational system and English with little support from her high school, she relied on her sister and friends to find her own way to college and beyond. Her experience fueled her to study access to higher education and equity issues related to first-generation, historically underrepresented...