Behind automated housing decisions, résumé filters, and credit scores are systems shaping real people’s financial futures. New research highlights how those outcomes can shape whether people are able to build financial stability.
AI: Enemy or Useful Tool?
This section explores how artificial intelligence increasingly shapes economic opportunities for people of color in housing, employment, and lending. The research, coauthored by Professor Nadiyah J. Humber, indicates that unchecked AI tools can unintentionally magnify longstanding inequities, reinforcing existing patterns of exclusion. Examples cited include automated tenant-screening systems that are difficult to navigate without human input, and biased résumé filters that perpetuate financial strain and harm credit profiles.
What Comes Next
While acknowledging significant risks, Professor Humber emphasizes that AI can present an opportunity if its use is intentionally guided. The report highlights the need for guardrails, greater transparency, human review of automated decisions, and the development of more inclusive data models. This research, sponsored by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, is actively informing advocacy efforts and legislative conversations at the national level, aiming to ensure AI promotes equitable access rather than undermining it.
Leading the Conversation on AI and the Law
UConn Law is taking a leadership role in examining the intersection of AI and legal education through research, teaching, and public engagement. This includes scholarly work on the limits of automation in legal judgment, a curriculum featuring courses like Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Governance, Cyberlaw, and Data Privacy Law, and the addition of faculty with real-world expertise in AI governance. The Law School's Insurance Law Center also hosts conferences on AI's impact on insurance law, showcasing a comprehensive approach to understanding and shaping AI's societal role.
