Ryan Calo

Ryan Calo is an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law and a former research director at CIS. A nationally recognized expert in law and emerging technology, Ryan's work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, Wired Magazine, and other news outlets. Ryan serves on several advisory committees, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Future of Privacy Forum. He co-chairs the American Bar Association Committee on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence and serves on the program committee of National Robotics Week.

You can read Ryan's work on SSRN and follow him on Twitter.

To Code, Nudge, Or Notice, That Is The Question

By Ryan Calo • February 14, 2013 at 1:29 pm

I wrote a new essay entitled “Code, Nudge, or Notice?” that might interest CIS readers. The essay compares side-by-side three ways that the government tries to influence citizen behavior short of making it illegal. It uses contemporary examples, like the graphic warnings the FDA wants to put on cigarettes, to make the point that it sometimes hard to sort regulations into neat categories like “architecture,” “libertarian paternalism,” or “mandatory disclosure” (code, nudge, or notice). Instead, I argue that regulators should focus on the more fundamental difference between helping people and hindering them. Along the way, I make the point that all of forensics may be a kind of “code” that turns an ordinary location into a crime scene—sort of like putting a traffic camera up at an intersection only after someone runs the red light. Thoughts warmly welcome. Here is the abstract: Read more » about To Code, Nudge, Or Notice, That Is The Question

Call For Papers: Robotics and the Law Conference at Stanford Law School

By Ryan Calo • November 21, 2012 at 1:42 pm

The program committee of We Robot: Getting Down To Business invites submissions from legal scholars and roboticists to the second annual conference on robotics and the law, scheduled to take place April 8-9, 2013 at Stanford Law School. Read more » about Call For Papers: Robotics and the Law Conference at Stanford Law School

Why Privacy Matters

By Ryan Calo • November 19, 2012 at 7:03 pm

Why Privacy Matters Read more » about Why Privacy Matters

Five Nonobvious Ways Seattle Is Wired

By Ryan Calo • October 25, 2012 at 11:22 am

I recently moved from San Francisco to Seattle. Among my concerns were (a) weather, (b) Mexican food, and (c) the technology sector. There is a sea of clouds outside my office right now and the best Mexican food in town ("El Camion") parks behind a Safeway in Ballard. But let me tell you: Seattle has not disappointed on technology.

Even setting aside the obvious (Microsoft, Amazon, Nintendo, the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, etc.), this city is wired. Here are five of my favorite examples: Read more » about Five Nonobvious Ways Seattle Is Wired