276.14S sec. 001 - The Law and Governance of Artificial Intelligence (Summer 2026)
Instructor: Colleen Chien (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
Instructor: Nicole Ozer (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 2
Grading Designation: Graded
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
MTuWThF 2:00 PM - 4:35 PM
Location: Law 170
From June 02, 2026
To June 15, 2026
Class Number: Click to show Class Number
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 18
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 40
As of: 04/13 03:33 AM
Artificial intelligence technologies including generative and large language models, neural networks, and robotics are augmenting and replacing humans in a growing number of human endeavors including content creation, driving, policing, and waging war. In this course, students will gain fluency with AI technologies and examine the ways in which law and policy are being developed and applied to minimize the harms (e.g. in the form of bias, privacy-, inequality, and security-related harms) and maximize the benefits (e.g. in the form of reduced costs, greater access, and greater personalization) offered by AI. Examining a variety of law and governance tools, including court adjudication, legislation, regulatory frameworks, industry standards, and best practices, this course will provide a survey of the new and emerging regulatory approaches under civil liberties, privacy, intellectual property, consumer protection, employment, and other regimes being applied to AI.
Professor Colleen Chien conducts cross-disciplinary research on innovation, intellectual property, artificial intelligence, and the criminal justice system, with a focus on how technology, data, and innovation can be harnessed to achieve their potential for social benefit. She is a Faculty Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, Faculty Advisor to the Berkeley Criminal Law & Justice Center, and has also had the honor of working part-time as a public servant, in the Obama White House as a Senior Advisor, Intellectual Property and Innovation and more recently on the Biden-Harris Transition Team and senior counselor to the Department of Commerce and Marian Coak distinguished scholar at the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Chien is known for her in-depth empirical studies of patent litigation, patent-assertion entities (PAEs) (a term that she coined), the secondary market for patents, and, in the criminal justice realm, on the “second chance” gap between those eligible for and receiving relief from the criminal justice system. She has testified on multiple occasions before Congressional Subcommittees and executive agencies. She founded and directs two grant-funded research initiatives: the Innovator Diversity Pilots Initiative(opens in a new tab), which develops rigorous evidence to boost inclusion in innovation, and the Paper Prisons Initiative(opens in a new tab), which conducts research to address and advance economic and racial justice through study of the second chance gap, drivers license suspension policies, and the California Racial Justice Act. Prior to joining Berkeley, Chien was Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law for a decade and a half, where she also co-directed the High Tech Law Institute; she also was a Justin D’Atri Visiting Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School and visiting professor at University of Chicago School of Law.
Chien is among the top 20-cited intellectual property and cyberlaw scholars in the US, and her work has been featured in numerous academic and mainstream venues. Chien is an awardee of the prestigious American Law Institute’s Early Career Medal; she also has received the Intellectual Property Vanguard Award, and has been named Eric Yamamoto Emerging Scholar, NLJ Tech Trailblazer, a Tech Law Leader, one of Silicon Valley’s “Women of Influence,” and one of the 50 Most Influential People in Intellectual Property. Prior to entering academia, Chien did stints as an investigative journalist, strategy consultant, and practicing lawyer (as an associate, then special counsel at Fenwick & West LLP in San Francisco). She graduated from Stanford (Engineering) and Berkeley Law School and is a proud Oakland resident along with her husband and their two sons.
Nicole Ozer is a national expert on legal and policy work at the intersection of rights, technology, and democracy, including artificial intelligence, privacy and surveillance, and online speech.
Nicole is the Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Democracy at UC Law San Francisco - an intellectual hub and action center bringing together scholars, practitioners, and community leaders for innovative work across strategy to defend and advance rights, justice, and democracy. Nicole was previously the founding director and longtime leader of the Technology and Civil Liberties Program at the ACLU of Northern California (2004-2025). Nicole was also a Technology and Human Rights Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, a Fellow at the Stanford Digital Civil Society Lab, a Visiting Researcher at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, and an intellectual property attorney at Morrison & Foerster LLP in San Francisco.
Nicole graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College, studied comparative civil rights history at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and earned her J.D. with a Certificate in Law and Technology from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.
Exam Notes: (TH) Take-home Final Exam
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Course Category: Intellectual Property and Technology Law
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
AI Law and Regulation
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