AI Governance and Innovation
The AI Governance Working Group (AI-G) is an interdisciplinary community of faculty, students, and staff from across Michigan State University coordinated by the Quello Center. We share an interest in the tremendous opportunities created by the broad range of capabilities that we collectively refer to as artificial intelligence (AI).
Realizing this potential for human flourishing requires adjustments to public policies, appropriate AI uses in organizations, human-centered technological designs, and good individual decisions. AI-G is dedicated to sharing knowledge across disciplines and developing focused research projects to explore these issues theoretically and practically.
In 2026, a Steering Group was formed to guide the activities during the 2026-2027 academic year, including a public speaker series. To pursue our research program more effectively, we formed the AI-Governance Lab, designed to generate empirically validated knowledge on how alternative governance approaches affect uses and outcomes of AI.
2026-2027 Steering Committee
Johannes M. Bauer
Professor, Dept. of Media & Information, and Director of the Quello Center
Tara S. Behrend
John Richard Butler II Endowed Professor, School of Human Resources and Labor Relations
Sandra Braman
Senior Scholar, Quello Center
Bree Holtz
Professor, Department of Advertising & Public Relations; and Director of the Ethics Institute
Ganchimeg Namsrai
Post-degree Academic Assistant, Quello Center
Arun Ross
Martin J. Vanderploeg Endowed Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Aaron Schultz
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy
Ruth Shillair
Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Information
Anjana Susarla
Omura-Saxena Professor in Responsible AI, Department of Accounting and Information Systems and Director of the Center for Ethical and Socially Responsible Leadership (CESRL)
2026-2027 Public Talks and Workshops
- September 17-18, 2026. Daniel Schiff, Purdue University, Does Responsible AI Pay? How Ethics Commitments Build Public Trust, East Lansing, Michigan State University and online (details to come soon).
2025-2026 Academic Year Activities
During the 2025-2026 academic year, we focused on knowledge sharing and building a community of interest with a series of talks and research discussions.
- April 21, 2026. Tara S. Behrend, AI and Risk Management in Complex Systems
- March 24, 2026. Wei Peng, Trust Development in Human–Chatbot Interaction: Preliminary Findings of a Longitudinal Interview Study
- February 26, 2026. Sri Kalyanaraman, Hyper-personalization of Digital Services and AI
- February 26, 2026. Chuqing Dong, AI in the Public Relations Context: Ethics, Care, and Readiness
- January 21, 2026. Sandra Braman, Meta-governance, Governance and AI
- December 5, 2025. Anjana Susarla, Do Large Language Model’s Generative Capabilities Boost Creativity?
- November 5, 2025. Mohammad Ghassemi, Bridging the Gap: Enhancing LLM Performance for Low-resource African Languages
- October 1, 2025, Johannes M. Bauer, AI and Innovation: Emerging Theories and Models
Interested in Participating/Contributing?
Please contact Johannes M. Bauer (bauerj@msu.edu) or Sandra Braman (bramansa@msu.edu) if you want to be added to our AI-G Listserv or are otherwise interested in participating or contributing.
Updated July 17, 2026