Who Funds the Questions? How Capital Decisions Shape What AI Research Knows, and Who It Ignores

The research shaping AI policy, product design, and public understanding is not neutral, and its funding decisions reflect the same structural biases research should be interrogating.

Dominant narratives around model safety, efficiency, and environmental impact are incomplete and do not reflect the communities most affected by algorithmic decision-making in employment, credit, healthcare, etc. The consequences of these decisions are measurable: policy gets built on incomplete evidence and algorithmic harms go understudied.

This session brings an AI implementation strategist and a behavioral finance researcher to examine the role capital funders and impact investors play in the research that shapes AI’s impact on marginalized communities.