This week, we are kicking off a special series of “Technically Human” focused on the intersection of democracy and tech. In the first episode in the series, I sit down with Dr. Foaad Khosmood. We talk about the relationship between access to information and functional democracy, and how digital technologies can expand civil discourse.

Dr. Foaad Khosmood is the Forbes Professor of Computer Engineering and Associate Professor of Computer Science at California Polytechnic State University.  His research interests include natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence, interactive entertainment, game AI and game jams.

At Cal Poly, Professor Khosmood usually teaches AI, Interactive Entertainment, Computational Linguistics, Data Mining and Operating Systems. He serves as the faculty advisor for the Cal Poly Game Development (CPGD), SLO Hacks and Color Coded student clubs. He is the founder of the Digital Democracy Project, a platform that seeks to use digital technologies to Make Government More Transparent one Video at a Time, and the lead researcher on a new project at the Cal Poly Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy to strengthen democracy by developing an artificial intelligence system that will expand and improve state government coverage at local and regional media outlets—an area of journalism that has especially suffered amid the economic slide of the news industry.

Dr. Khosmood is the Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Technology & Public Policy. He is also a board member, former CTO and past president of Global Game Jam, Inc. where he helps to organize the world's largest game creation activity (120+ countries). He is also the general chair of the Foundations of Digital Games, a major international "big tent" academic conference dedicated to exploring the latest research in all aspects of digital games, and to increasing diversity and inclusion in the world of computing .

This episode was produced by Matt Perry.

Art by Desi Aleman.