The buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) is undeniable, with daily headlines touting its revolutionary potential. But for AI to truly transform science and society, we need to look beyond the impressive demos and massive models and ensure we achieve the desired impacts in a deliberate, responsible, secure way. Last week at the AAAS 2026 Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, a panel organized by the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) titled “Shaping the Future of AI’s Impact on Society” captivated a crowded room of researchers and media representatives. Manish Parashar (University of Utah) moderated the panel, and the speakers were Rayid Ghani (Carnegie Mellon University), Carla P. Gomes (Cornell University), and Elham Tabassi […]

The deployment of Automated Vehicles (AVs) promises to fundamentally change the way people travel, but its success hinges on tackling critical research gaps, as outlined in the recent response by the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and Computing Research Association (CRA) to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Request for Information,  written by Gabrielle Allen (University of Wyoming), Haley Griffin (Computing Community Consortium/Computing Research Association), Ming Lin (University of Maryland), Manish Parashar (University of Utah), and Weisong Shi (University of Delaware). Read the RFI >>>   Here’s a look at the most vital areas for coordinated national research according to the authors. 1. Standardizing Data and Learning from the Edge To […]

  The final panel of the CCC Computing Futures Symposium, “Computing’s Human Context,” called for a paradigm shift in how we understand and develop computing technologies, urging a move towards a more interdisciplinary and human-centric approach. Moderated by Bill Regli (University of Maryland), the discussion featured insights from Sunny Consolvo (Google), Henry Farrell (Johns Hopkins University), Adam Russell (University of Southern California), and Suresh Venkatasubramanian (Brown University).   Regli kicked off the discussion by suggesting that computer science may be on the verge of a Kuhnian paradigm shift. He argued that our current models are failing to address the complexity of modern challenges in areas like artificial general intelligence (AGI), […]

Computing innovations have the power to save lives, and there are few applications where the promise of computing is more clear than in the healthcare domain. At the recent CCC Computing Futures Symposium, panelists Susan K. Gregurick, (National Institutes of Health (NIH)), Andy Kilianski (Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)), Mona Singh (Princeton University), and Tammy Toscos (Parkview Health), in a discussion moderated by Sharon Gillett (Microsoft), discussed how computing, including AI, can revolutionize patient care – from precision medicine and oncology to overcoming critical barriers in health data sharing.   Unleashing the Power of Health Data and Computing   Gregurick highlighted the sheer scale of health data now […]

Artificial intelligence stands at a “great juncture,” a moment brimming with excitement and profound responsibility. This was the central theme of a recent insightful panel discussion where leading minds in AI — Yolanda Gil (University of Southern California), David Jensen (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Aarti Singh (AI Institute for Societal Decision Making), and Bart Selman (Cornell University) —explored its current trajectory and charted its future horizons. The panel was moderated by Bob Bond (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The conversation moved beyond the hype, offering a grounded yet ambitious vision for where AI is headed and what it will take to get there responsibly.   Shifting the Focus of AI Development  […]

This is the second post in a two-part series recapping the panel Social Technologies: Why We Can’t Live With Them or Without Them, which was supported by the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) at the 2025 AAAS Annual Conference. The first post, Rethinking Social Technologies: Platforms, Protocols, and the Push for Decentralization, explored how researchers and technologists are approaching the future of social media through decentralized design and protocol-driven innovation. This follow-up highlights the second half of the panel discussion, which examined critical issues related to artificial intelligence, online trust, and potential regulatory responses. The panel was moderated by Sarita Schoenebeck, Professor of Information at the University of Michigan, and featured […]