About TRAILS

AI is at a crossroads. AI systems hold great potential to enhance human capacity, increase productivity, catalyze innovation, and mitigate complex problems. However, today’s AI systems are developed and deployed in an opaque and insular process that the public cannot see, cannot understand, and, therefore, is unlikely to trust. To address this challenge, TRAILS integrates participatory approaches to AI technology and governance. Because trust is the glue that will enable AI systems to meet their  potential, we investigate what trust in AI looks like, whether current technical solutions for AI build trust, and which policy models are effective in sustaining trust. TRAILS researchers will develop and adopt research to promote novel participatory AI approaches at every stage of the AI lifecycle. These strategies aim to transform the practice of AI from one that is driven solely by technological innovation to one that is driven with attention to ethics and human rights in concert with innovation.

Our Mission

TRAILS designs, develops, deploys and models a new, more accountable and more broadly participatory approach to AI. We use convenings, training, and interdisciplinary research to  empower users to make sense of and participate in the development and governance of AI systems. Over time, the TRAILS’ approach to AI will build trust through research that bridges disciplines and perspectives.

Our Vision

To transform the field of AI from “tech first” to “people first,” where AI systems are developed and governed in a way that promotes human rights and serves the interests of the people who use them.

TRAILS aims to transform AI by developing, building and modeling accountable and participatory research that over time will increase trust in AI. Specifically, we will:

  1. Design, develop, deploy, and model  new AI theories and algorithms that promote AI trustworthiness

  2. Understand the factors that empower users to make sense of AI systems

  3. Investigate mechanisms for developing participatory and accountable governance strategies

  4. Bridge disciplinary methods in research as we train the next generation of talent

  5. Listen to, learn from, educate, recruit, retain, and support communities to create equal opportunities for all Americans to shape and benefit from AI.

TRAILS is a partnership among the University of Maryland (UMD), the George Washington University (GWU), Morgan State University (MSU), and Cornell University. It is funded by both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and coordination with NIST is central to our mission. With the goal of ensuring meaningful cross-institution collaboration, we have ensured that the NSF and NIST funding is budgeted such that no one institution receives the majority of the budget.

Our mission is supported by our partners: UMD’s expertise in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and the understanding of sociotechnical systems; GWU’s expertise in law, policy, governance, human-computer interaction, and socio-technical systems engineering; and MSU’s expertise in developing forward-looking education modules and intense community-level study.