About the Event
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how cities plan, govern, and engage with residents — from predictive infrastructure to data-driven policymaking. But beyond technology, the real challenge is human: how can civic institutions use AI to build trust, strengthen democracy, and make urban life more inclusive and responsive?
Join us for this special Urban Labs Convening featuring Eric Gordon, who will explore how emerging technologies are influencing the way cities listen, collaborate, and build. The conversation will delve into both the promise and the perils of AI in civic contexts — highlighting strategies for ensuring these tools serve public, not just private, interests.
About the Speaker
Eric Gordon is a professor and director of the Center for Media Innovation & Social Impact (MISI) at Boston University. His research focuses on the role of emerging technologies in shaping trust and democratic governance. He specializes in collaborative research and design processes and has served as an expert advisor for local and national governments, as well as NGOs around the world, designing technologies for public participation.
Eric is a founding member of the RethinkAI collective and co-author of the 2025 report Making AI Work for the Public: An ALT Perspective. He has written more than 50 articles and chapters on media and urbanism, as well as three books on the subject: The Urban Spectator (Dartmouth, 2010), Net Locality (Blackwell, 2011), and Meaningful Inefficiencies: Civic Design in an Age of Digital Expediency (Oxford University Press, 2020). He also co-edited Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice (MIT Press, 2016) and Ludics: Play as Humanistic Inquiry (Palgrave, 2021). His forthcoming book, How Institutions Listen: AI, Civic Data, and the Path Towards Public Trust, will be published by MIT Press in 2026.
Presented by
This event is part of a national Urban Labs Convening exploring innovation, governance, and inclusion in the age of AI. It is hosted by the Inclusive Economic Development Lab (IEDL) at Yale School of Management and the LBJ Urban Lab at The University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with the Urban Labs Convening Network.
This event is co-sponsored with the LBJ School of Public Affairs Urban Lab.