A collaboration between scholars and practitioners, this essay introduces the Theory of Interrogative Reasoning, a community-centered framework that reconceptualizes ethical AI as a function of power, belief, and timing rather than solely technical design. Here, Jameila “Meme” Styles, Zameshia Williams, Jose Teran, and Sylvester Johnson draw on real-world application of this approach to demonstrate how community-led interrogation can transform lived experience into actionable evidence that informs AI governance, system design, and public accountability.

As AI technology proliferates, many have called for greater protections for those on the other end of the software’s results. Among these advocates is Meme Styles. In this interview, Program Associate Carmina Rangel-Pacheco talks with Meme Styles, 2022 Just Tech Fellow and the founder of Measure, about the limits of human-in-the-loop approaches and Styles’s own proposition for creating stronger and more comprehensive AI and digital safeguards: the theory of interrogated reasoning. Here, she explains this approach and how it came to be.

A quarter of a century later, the year 2000 problem, also known as Y2K, may help us better understand our technology concerns. Historian Zachary Loeb explains the circumstances around Y2K and how the embedding of computer systems into US infrastructure opened it to vulnerabilities, which could potentially be echoed in the near future with the integration of AI.

The Just Tech program is happy to announce a new call for applications for our next cohort of Just Tech Fellows. Researchers, artists, and practitioners working at the intersection of technology and society are welcome to apply to the 2027 Just Tech Fellowship, a one-year unrestricted award of up to $60,000, from January to December 2027. Applications are due June 28.