MIC Center Receives Grants To Study AI, Big Tech, and Digital Equity

The Annenberg School for Communication is pleased to announce that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded $200,000 to a research project co-directed by Media, Inequality, and Change Center (MIC) Co-Director Professor Victor Pickard. 

MIC, a collaboration between the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University’s School of Communication and Information, explores the intersections between media, democracy, technology, policy, and social justice.

The research project  — "Democracy, AI and Big Tech: Assessing Corporate Activities in the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in the UK, US, and Canada" — will explore big tech’s role in the advancement of AI and its consequences on democracy, governance, and trust. 

The international collaboration includes Pickard, the C. Edwin Baker Professor of Media Policy and Political Economy at Annenberg, Professor Lina Dencik of Goldsmiths, University of London in the UK, and Professor Joanna Redden of Western University in Canada. Together they will investigate how corporate influence on the development of AI impacts democracies in the three countries.

Over two years, Pickard’s team at MIC will explore dominant and alternative regulatory frameworks focused on AI in the U.S. and identify possible interventions for fostering or rebuilding democratic oversight and trust in the areas of government, policy, media, and civil society.

“Whether AI technologies are deployed to help all of society or to further enrich the already powerful will be determined by policy. This generous grant will help us shed light on how corporate interests are capturing policy debates at a critical moment in AI development," Pickard says.

This project is part of a special, one-time collaborative grant program between the NEH and the Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities.

Digital Equity

In addition to the NEH grant, Annenberg is pleased to announce that the Independence Public Media Foundation has awarded MIC $97,500 to expand the work of the Pennsylvania Broadband Research (PBR) Institute, a joint research group with the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University focused on achieving digital equity.

Since its launch in 2023, the PBR Institute has analyzed internet access in underserved communities in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania as a whole, looking at cost, infrastructure, policy, and access.

Research sponsored by the grant includes investigating the recent dissolution of the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), which provided subsidies for internet access for Americans who otherwise couldn’t afford an internet connection, and scrutinizing restrictions on building municipal broadband in Pennsylvania. 

Thanks to the grant, MIC and the PBR Institute will continue to build out their research team, provide critical policy analyses, and make strides to ensure a future where fast, reliable, and affordable access to the internet for all is a reality.

The Independence Public Media Foundation funds and supports media and related programs that strengthen and connect diverse voices and foster greater understanding across communities in Greater Philadelphia.