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Algorithms determine what we read, watch, and encounter online, and, increasingly, they also influence our offline lives. Yet algorithms are often built to maximize short-term engagement and capture attention, rather than to deliver long-term value to users. KGI’s new commentary takes a deep dive into the evolving landscape of recommender system design, highlighting six innovative trends that show it is possible to design better feeds that put people first.

Andrea Dean, Bringing Better Feeds to Life, Knight Georgetown Institute (2025).

The Comply To Fly? report by the Algorithmic Justice League focuses on the facial recognition program operated by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at U.S. airports. While originally described as a “pilot” or “proofs of concept” by TSA, the program has steadily expanded to over 250 airports as of May 2025. This report draws upon hundreds of travelers’ lived experiences, through AJL’s Freedom Flyers Campaign which collects reports of traveler experiences. The report provides background information on the TSA's use of facial recognition, shares findings from travelers' reports regarding program transparency, how travelers experienced consent, and how they were treated, and concludes with recommendations based on these findings.

Joy Buolamwini, Sushma Raman, and Andrea Dean, Comply to Fly?: How Airport Travelers Experience TSA’s Facial Recognition Experiment, Algorithmic Justice League (2025).

This article seeks to demystify software deployment for legal professionals. First, it explores what deployment entails and where it occurs—from corporate-controlled cloud servers to edge devices like smartphones. Next, it examines who orchestrates deployment, from DevOps engineers to automated pipelines. Third, it maps the technical lifecycle of deployment, from testing to maintenance. Finally, it briefly explores a future where agentic AI—autonomous systems that write, test, and deploy code—reshapes accountability, liability, and control.

Andrea Dean, Deploying Software: A Technology Explainer and a Look Toward the Future, 9 Geo. L. Tech. Rev. 667 (2025).

Tech workers' code can empower human‑rights abuses, yet U.S. law barely shields them when they organize to stop it. From IBM's WWII punch‑cards to today's Project Nimbus protests, this paper shows how tech blurs the line between "workplace" and "political" action, leaving gaps in labor and whistleblower protections. It maps strategies for organizing under current law and calls for reforms so tech workers can collectively challenge harmful uses of their labor.

Andrea Dean, Tech Labor Rights for Human Rights, NYCU Law Review __ (forthcoming 2025; contact author for preprint).

This Paper critiques a regulatory trend that evaluates AI systems primarily through technical metrics like accuracy or robustness, rather than their broader societal purpose or legitimacy. It argues that this approach can obscure key policy questions, rely on unstable benchmarks, and shift regulatory power toward industry. Drawing on case studies, the Paper explores the limitations of this model and proposes alternative approaches grounded in durable social values and design frameworks.

(Forthcoming, contact author for preprint. Made possible through the Kapor Foundation).

Andrea Dean, Interdependencia | Interdependence, in Natural Areas Explorer 2023, at 32–33 (City of Fort Collins 2023), https://www.fcgov.com/naturalareas/files/natural-areas-explorer-2023.pdf ↗.