Brett Frischmann, JD
Charles Widger Endowed University Professor in Law, Business and Economics | Charles Widger School of Law | Villanova University
Villanova, PA, UNITED STATES
Brett Frischmann, JD, is a renowned scholar and expert in intellectual property, surveillance, internet law and net neutrality.
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Areas of Expertise (10)
Digital Contracts
Self-Driving Cars
Technology Policies
Surveillance
Intellectual Property
Information Law
Infrastructure
Internet Law
Net Neutrality
Autonomous Vehicles
Biography
Professor Frischmann is a leading source on issues related to surveillance, technology policy and intellectual property. Frischmann can also discuss issues related to how society benefits from infrastructure resources and how management decisions affect a wide variety of interests. Frischmann has appeared in and written for numerous media outlets, such as The New York Times, Forbes, Scientific American
Education (3)
Georgetown University Law Center: JD
Columbia University - Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science: MS, Earth Resources Engineering
Columbia University - New York: BA, Astrophysics
Select Media Appearances (8)
How to Use ChatGPT to Apologize
Boston Globe online
2023-08-10
ChatGPT is constantly apologizing. That’s because the AI gets many things wrong, misunderstands requests, doesn’t always do what we want, and sometimes offers incomplete information. Of course, a computer program can’t feel embarrassed (or anything), and ChatGPT is only programmed to simulate a polite desire to please. Faking care is how machines gain our trust. Given that humans can sincerely care about one another, should we ever use ChatGPT to apologize?
Free Will Under Threat: How Humans are at Risk of Becoming Wards of Technologists
CBC online
2020-04-22
"We're not interested in the engineering of intelligent machines. We're interested in the engineering of unintelligent humans," Brett Frischmann writes in Re-engineering Humanity, a book co-authored with philosopher Evan Selinger. Frischmann, who is an American legal scholar, says our increasing dependence on technology is putting our very humanity at risk. He warns humans are heading down an ill-advised path that is making us behave like "perfectly predictable and in some cases programmable" simple machines.
You’re Not Alone When You’re on Google
The New York Times
2019-05-17
At first blush, it seems safe to say that most of us harbor inconsistent — if not neurotically contradictory — notions about our personal privacy. We claim to treasure it, yet want badly to be known and seen (posting on Instagram, preening on Twitter). … “The danger that ‘privacy’ doesn’t capture is this idea of creep,” says Frischmann, an internet law expert at Villanova University.
Is Technology Re-Engineering Humanity?
The Economist
2018-10-24
“We become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.” This truism—by the media-scholar John Culkin about the work of Marshall McLuhan—is more potent than ever in the age of data and algorithms … Some of those changes are documented in “Re-Engineering Humanity” by two technology thinkers from different academic backgrounds: Brett Frischmann is a law professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania and Evan Selinger teaches philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
Op-ed: Algorithm and Blues: The Tyranny of the Coming Smart-Tech Utopia
Scientific American
2018-07-30
Imagine a world governed by smart technologies engineered to achieve three distinct yet interrelated normative ends: optimized transactional efficiency, resource productivity and human happiness. We could have congestion-free roads—no stop and go, no road rage! Instantaneous, personalized entertainment—no need to search or browse! Successful social interactions—no misunderstanding or missed cues! No surprise ailments, no failures, no missed opportunities! Heck, no surprises of any kind! There are so many imperfections in our world that smart technology could fix.
How Facebook Programmed Our Relatives
Scientific American
2018-06-21
Three years ago, on his birthday, a law professor watched his e-mail inbox fill with Facebook notifications indicating that friends had posted messages on his wall. The messages made him sad. The clogged inbox was annoying, but what really upset him was having disclosed his birth date to Facebook in the first place. It’s not necessary for social networking or to comply with privacy laws, as some people mistakenly believe. He hadn't paid much attention when he signed up—as with most electronic contracts, there was no room for negotiation or deliberation about terms. He complied with Facebook’s instructions, entered the data and clicked a button.
How Self-Driving Car Policy Will Determine Life, Death and Everything In-Between
VICE online
2018-03-23
"Don’t be fooled when people talk about AI as if it alleviates the need for human beings to make these moral decisions, as if AI necessarily will take care of everything for us. Sure, AI can be designed to make emergent, non-transparent, and even inexplicable decisions. But since the shift from human drivers to passive passengers in self-driving cars shifts decision-making from drivers to designers and programmers, governance remains essential. It’s only a question of which form of governance gets adopted."
Op-ed: Your NCAA bracket is a reverse Turing test
Salon
2018-03-13
March Madness has begun. Cue the studies and stories about lost productivity, sports betting and consumerism run amok. But for all of the “sick” days taken, office pools created and revenues generated, March Madness shows us something remarkable — that we are, without a doubt, human … by Brett Frischmann, the Charles Widger Endowed Professor of Law, Business and Economics at Villanova University. His forthcoming book, "Re-Engineering Humanity," co-authored with Evan Selinger, Professor of Philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology, will be released in April.
Select Academic Articles (7)
Better Digital Contracts with Prosocial Friction-in-Design
JurimetricsBrett Frischmann, Moshe Y. Vardi
Forthcoming
Human-Focused Turing Tests: A Framework for Judging Nudging and Techno-Social Engineering of Human Beings
Cardozo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 441Brett Frischmann
2020
Thoughts on Techno-Social Engineering of Humans and the Freedom to Be Off (or Free from Such Engineering)
Theoretical Inquiries in LawBrett Frischmann
2016
Revisiting the Marginal Cost Controversy
Journal of Economic PerspectivesBrett Frischmann, Christiaan Hogendorn
2015
Two Enduring Lessons from Elinor Ostrom,
Journal of Institutional EconomicsBrett Frischmann
2013
Understanding the Problem of Social Cost
Journal of Institutional EconomicsBrett Frischmann, Alain Marciano
2014
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