April 23 lecture will explore AI’s role in reshaping worker pay and inequality

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence (CSRAI) will host Dana Calacci, assistant professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, as part of its AI for Social Impact series. Calacci’s talk, titled “How AI is Reshaping Your Paycheck: Personalized Wages in the Inference Economy,” will discuss how companies are using AI to change how they set pay. 

The lecture will take place from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 23, in E202 Westgate Building on the University Park campus and also will be accessible via Zoom. 

According to Calacci, artificial intelligence systems are changing how workers are paid by using personal data to set wages dynamically, rather than relying on predictable pay or agreements. Her talk will explore how these AI systems could lead to unequal pay, increase job insecurity and reduce workers' power, while proposing solutions like transparency and collective data rights to protect workers. 

Calacci’s broader research focuses on the social, technical and legal impacts of datafication and AI on communities — especially workers. She designs and deploys technologies that help communities investigate how AI, new platforms and surveillance affect their lives. 

This talk is part of the center’s AI for Social Impact Seminar Series, which connects researchers and thought leaders from a variety of fields to explore the diverse applications of AI for a societal benefit. CSRAI promotes high-impact, transformative AI research and development, while encouraging the consideration of social and ethical implications in all such efforts. The center supports a broad range of activities, from foundational research to the application of AI to all areas of human endeavor.