In the Spring of 2026, the Workshop on Governing Knowledge Commons launched a book project tentatively titled, “Governing Generative AI as Knowledge Commons.”
A convening of contributors and other interested researchers is scheduled for June 17-18, 2026 at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, PA.
Additional details about the convening and the book project will be posted here shortly.
For questions about the information below, contact Michael Madison at the University of Pittsburgh.
WORKSHOP LOCATION
The workshop will be offered in a hybrid format. In-person participation will be hosted at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law (Pitt Law) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The in-person venue will be the Alcoa Room, which is located on the Second Floor of Pitt Law. Enter the building at 3900 Forbes Avenue (cross street: Bouquet Street), in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood, and take the elevator or walk up one flight of stairs to the Second Floor.
A Zoom link for hybrid participants will be distributed by email. Contact Michael Madison for access.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 [all times are Eastern Daylight Time/EDT, which is GMT -5]
8 am to 9 am: Registration, Coffee, and Light Breakfast
9 am to 9:45 am: Opening Remarks and Framing Discussion (Michael Madison)
9:45 am to 10 am: Refreshment Break
10 am to 11 am: (Title TBD) (Brett Frischmann and Madelyn Sanfilippo) / Commentator: Michael Madison
11 am to 12 noon: “Generative AI as Knowledge Commons: A Case Study of Taiwan’s Sovereign AI” (Simon Sun) / Commentator: Ece Gumusel
12 noon to 1 pm: Lunch
1 pm to 2 pm: “AI Bias Bounty” (Ming Yi and Kyrie Zhou) / Commentator: Robert Wolfe
2 pm to 3 pm: “AI in the Public Forum: How Grok Reshapes Platform Affordances and Conversational Dynamics on X / Twitter” (Robert Wolfe and Tawfiq Ammari) / Commentator: Kyrie Zhou
3 pm to 3:15 pm: Refreshment Break
3:15 pm to 4:15 pm: “Privacy Governance in the Open-Source AI Ecosystem: Memorization, Provenance, and Contextual Integrity” (Niloofar Mireshghallah) / Commentator: Eugene Bagdasarian
4:15 pm to 5:15 pm: “Governing Time in Knowledge Commons” (Ece Gumusel and Madelyn Sanfilippo) / Commentator: Katherine Strandburg
5:15 pm to 7 pm: Break
7 pm: Dinner at Casbah. Casbah is located at 229 S Highland Ave., in Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood. It is a short (2.5 mile) rideshare drive from the Oakland neighborhood.
Thursday, June 18, 2026 [all times are Eastern Daylight Time/EDT, which is GMT -5]
8 am to 9 am: Registration, Coffee, and Light Breakfast
9 am to 10 am: “Silicon Valley and the Limits of Knowledge Commons” (Michael Madison) / Commentator: Anjanette Raymond
10 am to 11 am: “Explicit Deepfakes as “Bad Commons” (Sanidhya Rao, Ali Semih Camkerten, and Alina Wernick) / Commentator: Madelyn Sanfilippo
11 am to 12 noon: Title TBD (Michael Zargham and David Sisson) / Commentator: Brett Frischmann
12 noon to 1:30 pm: Lunch and Closing and Next Steps (Ece Gumusel)
Adjourn
PAPER DRAFTS AND SLIDE DECKS
Available to participants via a password-protected page. Contact Michael Madison for access.
WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS
- Tawfiq Ammari, Rutgers University
- Eugene Bagdasarian, University of Massachusetts
- Ali Semih Camkerten, CZS Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Law (University of Tübingen)
- Brett Frischmann, Villanova University
- Ece Gumusel, Rutgers University
- Isaac Haizel, University of Illinois
- Michael Madison, University of Pittsburgh
- Niloofar Mireshghallah, Carnegie Mellon University
- Sanidhya Rao, CZS Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Law (University of Tübingen)
- Anjanette Raymond, Indiana University
- Alberto Salazar, Carleton University
- Madelyn Sanfilippo, University of Illinois
- David Sisson, Dynamical Systems Group
- Katherine Strandburg, New York University
- Simon Sun, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
- Alina Wernick, CZS Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Law (University of Tübingen)
- Robert Wolfe, Rutgers University
- Ming Yi, New York University
- Michael Zargham, Block Science and Metagov
- Kyrie Zhou, University of Texas San Antonio
WORKSHOP HOSTS
- Michael Madison, University of Pittsburgh
- Madelyn Sanfilippo, University of Illinois
- Ece Gumusel, Rutgers University
WORKSHOP LOGISTICS: TRAVEL, TRANSPORTATION, AND HOTELS
In-person participants should book their own travel and hotel arrangements. They may have their travel, hotel, and ground transport expenses reimbursed. Contact Michael Madison (see below) for details.
Flying to Pittsburgh, getting to the city from the airport, and getting around Pittsburgh:
Pittsburgh International Airport is among the newest, brightest, and easiest-to-navigate airports in the U.S., if not the world. It is, however, located approximately 45 minutes by car from the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh itself, where the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University are located. Uber and Lyft (and Pittsburgh taxicabs) provide reliable service both to and from the airport and throughout the city of Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, there are no good public transit alternatives.
Waymo has not launched robo-taxis n Pittsburgh, although Waymo and other autonomous technology companies have been testing vehicles in Pittsburgh for more than a decade. You are likely to see multiple LIDAR-equipped cars on Pittsburgh streets, especially in and around Pittsburgh’s Strip District.
Hotel suggestions in Pittsburgh:
- Courtyard Marriott University Place (walkable to Pitt’s law school)
- Residence Inn Pittsburgh Oakland/University Place (walkable to Pitt’s law school)
- Hotel Indigo Pittsburgh University-Oakland (boutique hotel but not walkable to Pitt’s law school)
- Oaklander Hotel (on the nicer but also pricier side; walkable to Pitt’s law school)
In and around the University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University are both located in Pittsburgh’s “cultural” center, the neighborhood called Oakland. Oakland is home not only to two of the world’s great universities but also to the main branch of the Carnegie Library, the Carnegie Museum of Art (currently hosting the quadrennial “Carnegie International” art show), and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. The neighborhood was the original home of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which now performs in Downtown Pittsburgh. Oakland is one of the few neighborhoods in an American city that was developed from the beginning as an arts and culture center on the model of those in great European cities.
Visitors may be less interested in culture and more interested in coffee. Here is a mostly up-to-date map of coffee options in and near the University of Pittsburgh.
If you have time for some exploring, among the best Summer experiences in Pittsburgh are home games for the Pittsburgh Pirates (baseball) (alas, the Pirates will be on the road during the AI and GKC Workshop); riding the inclines (funiculars) and taking in the view from Mount Washington; and visiting the Andy Warhol Museum. Andy Warhol was born and raised in Pittsburgh, graduated from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (then Carnegie Tech, today Carnegie Mellon University), and is buried in a cemetery in Pittsburgh’s suburban South Hills. The Warhol Museum is the largest permanent collection of his work anywhere, and the largest museum in the U.S. principally dedicated to a single artist.
WORKSHOP SPONSORS
The cost of the workshop is underwritten by a National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network grant, described in detail here.
Our on-campus sponsor is the University of Pittsburgh Center for Governance and Markets
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