Baobao Zhang

• 2024 Fall
  • PSC 300 Selected Topics - AI Ethics & Governance
  • MAX 700 Selected Topics - Grad Seminar on AI and Tech
• 2023 Fall
  • PSC 121 American National Government and Politics
• 2022 Spring
  • PSC 794 Advanced Quantitative Political Analysis
  • PSC 121 American National Government and Politics

Baobao Zhang joins the political science department in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs as a tenure-track assistant professor of political Science in fall 2021. She is also an affiliate with Maxwell’s Autonomous Systems Policy Institute. At Syracuse University, Zhang will teach classes in American politics, technology and public policy and quantitative analysis, including governance and ethics of artificial intelligence (AI). 

Prior to joining Syracuse University, Zhang was a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University (2020-2021) and a postdoctoral associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2019-2020). She served as a research affiliate with Centre for the Governance of AI, University of Oxford (2018-2020) and a fellow with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University (2019-2020). She was named a CIFAR Azireli Global Scholar in 2021 and received a National Science Graduate Research Fellowship in 2014. 

Her current research focuses on trust in digital technology and the governance of artificial intelligence (AI). She studies (1) public and elite opinion toward AI, (2) how the American welfare state could adapt to the increasing automation of labor, and (3) attitudes toward COVID-19 surveillance technology. Her previous research covered a wide range of topics, including the politics of the U.S. welfare state, attitudes towards climate change, and survey methodology. She is currently co-editing the "Oxford Handbook of AI Governance," under contract with Oxford University Press. 

Zhang earned a Ph.D. in 2020, a M.A. in 2015 and a B.A. in 2013, all from from Yale University. She also was an exchange scholar with Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2018-2019 and 2015-2016 and Nuffield College, University of Oxford 2017-2018.

"Okanagan Data Safety and AI Literacy research cluster",

"Generative AI at Work: Automation Anxiety Across Occupations", Sponsored by CIFAR.

"AI2050 Early Career Fellowship", Sponsored by Eric & Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation.

"CIFAR's Azrieli Global Scholars", Sponsored by CIFAR.

"Generative AI at Work: Automation Anxiety Across Occupations", Sponsored by CIFAR.

• Journal Articles
  • Dafoe, A., Hatz, S. and Zhang, B., "Coercion and Provocation." Journal of Conflict Resolution, 2021.
  • Arce, Julio S. Solis, Warren, S. S., Meriggi, N. F., Scacco, A., McMurry, N., Voors, M., Syunyaev, G., Malik, A. A., Aboutajdine, S., Adeojo, O., Anigo, D., Armand, A., Asad, S., Atyera, M., Augsburg, B., Awasthi, M., Ayesiga, G. E., Bancalari, A., Nyqvist, M. B., Borisova, E., Bosancianu, C. M., Cabra Garcia, Magarita Rosa, Cheema, A., Collins, E., Cuccaro, F., Farooqi, A. Z., Fatima, T., Fracchia, M., Galindo Soria, Mery Len, Guariso, A., Hasanain, A., Jaramillo, S., Kallon, S., Kamwesigye, A., Kharel, A., Kreps, S., Levine, M., Littman, R., Malik, M., Manirabaruta, G., Mfura, Jean Leodomir Habarimana, Momoh, F., Mucauque, A., Mussa, I., Nsabimana, J. A., Obara, I., Juliana Otalora, Maria, Ouedraogo, B. W., Pare, T. B., Platas, M. R., Polanco, L., Qureshi, J. A., Raheem, M., Ramakrishna, V., Rendra, I., Shah, T., Shaked, S. E., Shapiro, J. N., Svensson, J., Tariq, A., Tchibozo, A. M., Tiwana, H. A., Trivedi, B., Vernot, C., Vicente, P. C., Weissinger, L. B., Zafar, B., Zhang, B., Karlan, D., Callen, M., Teachout, M., Humphreys, M., Mobarak, A. M. and Omer, S. B., "COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance and Hesitancy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, and Implications for Messaging." Nature Medicine, 2021.
  • Zhang, B., Anderljung, M., Kahn, L., Dreksler, N., Horowitz, M. C. and Dafoe, A., "Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Evidence from a Survey of Machine Learning Researchers." Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2021.
  • Zhang, B., Kreps, S., McMurry, N. and McCain, R. M., "Americans' Perceptions of Privacy and Surveillance in the COVID-19 Pandemic." PLoS ONE, 2020.
  • Kreps, S., Prasad, S., Brownstein, J. S., Hswen, Y., Garibaldi, B. T., Zhang, B. and Kriner, D. L., "Factors Associated With US Adults' Likelihood of Accepting COVID-19 Vaccination." JAMA Network Open, 2020.
  • Zhang, B., Mildenberger, M., Howe, P. D., Marlon, J., Rosenthal, S. A. and Leiserowitz, A., "Quota Sampling Using Facebook Advertisements." Political Science Research and Methods, 2020.
  • Zhang, B., Mildenberger, M., "Scientists' Political Behaviors Are Not Driven by Individual-level Government Benefits." PLoS ONE, 2020.
• Conference Proceedings
  • Zhang, B., "No Rage Against the Machines: Threat of Automation Does Not Change Policy Preferences." In Proceedings of the 2022 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society. , 2022.
  • Zwetsloot, R., Zhang, B., Dreksler, N., Kahn, L., Anderljung, M., Dafoe, A. and Horowitz, M. C., "Skilled and Mobile: Survey Evidence of AI Researchers' Immigration Preferences." AIES '21: Proceedings of the 2021 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 2021.
  • Zhang, B., Dafoe, A., "U.S. Public Opinion on the Governance of Artificial Intelligence." Proceedings of the 2020 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society, 2020.
  • Zhang, B., Xiao, L., "Augmented Tension Detection in Communication: Insights from Prosodic and Content Features." In International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. , 2020.
• Editorial
  • Zhang, B., "It’s 2043. We Need a New American Dream for the A.I. Revolution." In New York Times. , 2019.
• Technical Reports
  • Zhang, B., Weissinger, L., Himmelreich, J., McMurry, N., Li, T., Scheinerman, N. and Kreps, S., Building Robust and Ethical Vaccination Verification Systems. Brookings Institution, 2021.
  • Zwetsloot, R., Zhang, B., Anderljung, M., Horowitz, M. C. and Dafoe, A., The Immigration Preferences of Top AI Researchers: New Survey Evidence. Perry World House, 2021.
  • Kreps, S., McMurry, N. and Zhang, B., "Americans Don’t Trust Contact Tracing Apps. Here’s How We Can Fix That." In Fortune. , 2020.
  • Kreps, S., Zhang, B. and McMurry, N., Contact-tracing Apps Face Serious Adoption Obstacles. Brookings Institution, 2020.
  • Abecassis, A., Bullock, J. B., Himmelreich, J. R., Hudson, V. M., Loveridge, J. and Zhang, B., Contribution to a European Agenda for AI. Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 2020.
  • Zhang, B., "In Defense of Pollsters." In Fortune. , 2020.
  • Zhang, B., Dafoe, A., Artificial Intelligence: American Attitudes and Trends. Centre for the Governance of AI, Future of Humanity Institute, University of Oxford, 2019.
  • Zhang, B., Challenges to Democracy at Home and Abroad. Kerry Initiative, Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, Yale University, 2019.
  • Zhang, B., Public Opinion Lessons for AI Regulation. Brookings Institution, 2019.

Brookings Institution and the Center for New Democratic Processes, "Assembling public perspectives on AI" (December, 2023)

Bozentko, K., Atwood, S., Mays, K., Zhang, B., Center for Security and Emerging Technology Seminar, Center for Security and Emerging Technology, "U.S. Public Assembly on High Risk AI" (December, 2023)

Bozentko, K., Atwood, S., Mays, K., Zhang, B., Congressional Artificial Intelligence Caucus staffer briefing, "U.S. Public Assembly on High Risk AI" (December, 2023)

2023 International Politics and Economics Symposium, Middlebury College, "The Mass Politics of Advanced Automation" (November 10, 2023)

Bridging in the Valley: Technology, Politics, and Governance, Bridging the Gap, Center for International Security and Cooperation (Stanford University), and the Berkeley Risk and Security Laboratory, "Public assemblies can help democratize the governance of artificial intelligence" (November, 2023)

Algorithms in Public Policy Working Group, University of Houston, "Public Opinion Toward Artificial Intelligence" (June, 2023)

International Studies Association Annual Convention 2023, International Studies Association, "New Voices on the Politics of Emerging Technologies" (March, 2023)

Emory University Political Science Department Speaker Series, Emory University, "The Mass Politics of Advanced Automation" (February 16, 2023)

Future of Privacy Forum, "Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Evidence from a Survey of Machine Learning Researchers" (2021)

Information Society Project, Yale Law School, "Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Evidence from a Survey of Machine Learning Researchers" (2021)

Joint Conference of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 11th International Joint Con ference on Natural Language Processing, "NLP for Positive Impact" (2021)

Cornell University, "Policy, Politics and Ethics of the Coming AI Revolution" (2021)

CIFAR, "Public Opinion Toward Artificial Intelligence" (2021)

University of Wisconsin-Madison, "The Opportunities Challenges of COVID-19 Tracking Apps as Pandemic Control Mechanisms" (2021)

OECD Future of Work Initiative, "Forecasting Process in AI Development: Evidence from Machine Learning Researchers" (2020)

Midwest Political Science Association Conference, "Anxiety of Automation and Policy Preferences" (2019)

Brookings Institution, "Lessons of History, Law, and Public Opinion for AI Development" (2019)

Public Voices Fellowship on Technology in the Public Interest, The OpEd Project; MacArthur Foundation (August, 2023)