On October 16th and 17th, experts in elections, political science, and AI from across the country converged upon WashU's Charles F. Knight Center for the Protecting the Election: AI & Governance Conference. The conference was organized and led by Political Science Chair and Thomas F. Eagleton Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science, Betsy Sinclair, and Flintridge Foundation Professor of Political and Computational Social Science at Caltech, R. Michael Alvarez. 

The purpose of the conference was to discuss research regarding AI and governance and how this applies to U.S. elections. Research topics included how chatbots can be used to engage with voters, how social media influences voters, what the electorate knew (or did not know) about the candidates and issues during recent elections, misinformation in elections, rhetoric about election integrity, and AI strategies for the administration of elections. Attendees also heard from practitioners about their experiences with and needs for AI in recent elections and their intentions for future use of AI in elections. 

Attendees and speakers included figures from (among others) the US Election Assistance Commission, National Association of State Election Directors, local election offices (City of St. Louis, and St. Charles and Boone Counties), media figures from electionline and Votebeat, technology organizations (Democracy Works, The Turnout, and Unisyn Voting Solutions) and researchers from universities like Harvard, Stanford, WashU, NYU, Caltech, Yale, and MIT. 

Special thank you to the Charles F. Knight Center, Political Science Event Coordinator Mariah Pugliese, Michelle Shafer from Magenta Sage Strategies, and everyone who traveled to speak, present, and attend the conference.

Below are some selected photos over the two days of the conference and you can find the full roster of speakers on the conference website: