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The inaugural conference AI & Gender-Based Harms: Implications for Policy and Practice was a collaboration on all fronts aimed at addressing a growing societal problem. With an interdisciplinary roster of researchers, clinicians, advocates, policymakers, and practitioners, the event examined the impact of AI-facilitated gender-based harms and response policies. Brown CS and Data Science Institute faculty member Diana Freed co-founded and co-chaired the conference with Lauri Goldkind, Professor of Social Work at the School of Social Service at Fordham University, Ermira Uldedaj, Deputy Director of Training Programs and Initiatives at the NYC Mayor's Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence, and Marianne Sharko, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine.

“Survivors in crisis are already confiding in AI systems before they ever reach a doctor, an advocate, or the police…The advice these systems offer is often generalized and does not account for intimate partner violence threat models. There is an opportunity for education and co-design to improve safety and support,” Diana says.

On June 15, 2026, the conference provided exactly that — an opportunity to co-create solutions across two panels in the morning and an invite-only workshop in the afternoon. Health professionals in the first panel identified AI and gender-based harms in their practice, while the second panel responded to these issues with insights from policy and legislature perspectives. The conference was also streamed to several hundred participants online.

“Being able to connect and engage with different organizations and groups all working towards the same goal was invaluable and very motivating, especially in an in-person setting,” says Alyssa Lanter, a Brown CS PhD student advised by Diana.

Meanwhile, Jackson Schwartz, a 2026 Brown alum transitioning into a software-focused patent law firm, “look[s] forward to bringing the equity lens used at the conference…into thinking about how new tools may impact different communities as they get created and introduced into society.”

Both Alyssa and Jackson work in the Sociotechnical System and Wellbeing Research Lab (SWRL), led by Diana. Other student organizers and members of SWRL include: Brown CS student Maja Mishevska, Brown CS 2026 alum Alexandra Hogue, and Brown Cybersecurity MS student Dawson Klapp.

Through SWRL and other research, Diana focuses on developing and implementing technologies to mitigate digital harms in the context of human relationships and caregiving systems. She is a 2025-2026 CRA and Microsoft Trustworthy AI Research Fellow, a Visiting Scholar at The Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School, and a Faculty Associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Her advocacy work has been recognized by the New York City Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence and this recent conference is just one example of their collaborations.

For more information, click the link that follows to contact Brown CS Communications Manager Jesse C. Polhemus.