FRANK PASQUALE
Frank Pasquale is an expert on the law of artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and machine learning. He is an internationally recognised and prolific scholar whose work has addressed the regulation of technology in several contexts. His widely cited research has been featured in top law reviews, and he has advised governmental officials on cutting edge issues in law & technology regulation.
Pasquale’s book, The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information (Harvard University Press, 2015), has been recognised internationally as a landmark study on information asymmetries. It is cited in fields ranging from law to computer science to sociology to literature. The book develops a social theory of reputation, search, and finance, while promoting pragmatic reforms to improve the information economy. The journal Big Data & Society hosted an interdisciplinary symposium on The Black Box Society in 2020, to mark the fifth anniversary of the book’s publication.
Pasquale’s latest book, New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI (Harvard University Press, 2020) analyses the law and policy influencing the adoption of AI in varied professional fields. The book was a finalist for the American Association of Publishers PROSE awards (in the legal studies and criminology category). It attracted favourable notices from Wired and the Financial Times. Pasquale has also co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Ethics of AI (Oxford University Press, 2020), has edited or co-edited three other books, and co-authored a casebook on administrative law.
Pasquale has advised business and government leaders in the healthcare, Internet, and finance sectors, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. House Judiciary and Energy & Commerce Committees, the Senate Banking Committee, the Federal Trade Commission, and directorates-general of the European Commission. He also has advised officials in Canada and the United Kingdom on law and technology policy. He served on the Council for Big Data, Ethics, and Society from 2014-16, and the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics from 2019-2021.
Pasquale’s work on “algorithmic accountability” has helped bring the insights and demands of social justice movements to AI law and policy. In media and communication studies, he has developed a comprehensive legal analysis of barriers to, and opportunities for, regulation of Internet platforms. In privacy law and surveillance, his work is among the leading legal research on regulation of algorithmic ranking, scoring, and sorting systems, including credit scoring and threat scoring. In health law, he has written a series of articles addressing both technological and financial challenges to U.S. healthcare institutions, focusing on how regulators can help providers improve outcomes.
Pasquale is an Affiliate Fellow at Yale University’s Information Society Project, and a member of the American Law Institute. He is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cross-Disciplinary Research in Computational Law (CRCL), based in the Netherlands, and a Partner Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence on Automated Decision-Making & Society.
