There are inherent conflicts in tech companies sponsoring or employing researchers to study the implications of technology they seek to profit from. But despite this, Baobao Zhang, assistant professor of political science, says the U.S. public still seems to broadly trust tech companies to guide development of artificial intelligence (AI). Zhang recently surveyed AI researchers and the U.S. public on who they trusted to shape development of the technology in the public interest and found the public were most trusting of university researchers and the U.S. military. Tech companies as a group came slightly behind, ranking similarly to international or nonprofit research institutions such as CERN, but ahead of the U.S. government. Read more in the WIRED article, "Ex-Googler Timnit Gebru Starts Her Own AI Research Center."