Sara Marie Trutt came to AUP after working at an embassy in Oslo, Norway where she is from. Her background in International Relations and professional experience had given her a strong foundation from which to begin AUP’s MA in International Affairs; but when she took professors Susan Perry and Claudia Roda’s Human Rights and Digital Technologies class, a new path was opened to her. Her interest in the technological aspects of human rights sparked by the course led her to make a change mid-program and pursue the MSc in Human Rights and Data Science.

“Everything about data science was new to me,” she explains. “Working with numbers was never something I had imagined. It’s not something you think about in the social sciences.” However, Trutt has come to realize the importance of forcing the connection between the protection of human rights and ethics, and the development of technology. “They are like two parallel lines; the intersection does not happen automatically,” she explains.

Just as quickly as her passion for her new path arose, Trutt recognized the need for a space outside the classroom where graduate students, who often come to AUP with years of professional work experience, could bridge their academic interests and professional lives, while providing insight and inspiration to other students. “I wanted a space to connect all the graduate students across programs to think about these issues,” she says. She sat down with Professor Perry and the two came up with the idea to create a think tank; thus, was born the AUP Think Tank for Human Rights and Technology, registered officially as a student club initiative. 

With Professor Perry as an advisor, and both Perry and Roda as UNESCO Co-Chairholders for Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, everyone agreed that the initiative should be under the auspices of UNESCO. When it came time to inaugurate the Think Tank this February, the group invited the US Acting Permanent Representative to UNESCO, Jean Manes, to be the keynote speaker. Manes came to AUP with two members of the delegation—Taya Owens, Education Officer; and Dillon Green, Political Officer, who works specifically on technology and artificial intelligence. Manes’ talk focused on UNESCO’s efforts when it comes to technology and the work of the US within the organization.

For Trutt, President of the Think Tank, one of the most important takeaways was the need to cooperate in order to safeguard human rights in technological development, and to include all countries, not just the West. “UNESCO as a whole is a platform where countries can work together,” she says.

The inaugural meeting brought nearly 40 people together—graduate and undergraduate students as well as professors, from across departments. “There is a real need for the international community to front the dangerous path that we have been heading down in the past few years. We have not been leaving enough room for the international community to focus on the rights on which the community is built,” says Trutt, encouraged by the enthusiastic response from the AUP, Parisian, and UNESCO communities.

Another highlight for Trutt is the club’s female leadership and the community of women it is building. “Statistics show that women are more likely to take jobs that offer more protection, and that involve taking care rather than taking risks. In technology you have to take risks; tech developers are more likely to be risk-takers and business-minded, doing for-profit work,” explains Trutt. “This is part of the problem,” she adds, citing the need to get women to invest and to put women in leadership positions at innovative businesses. “We have made a lot of progress but women are stronger when they have strong women to look up to. There is still a long way to go.”

As president of the club, Sara Marie Trutt is currently working with the other club members and HRDS professors to put together a panel on deepfakes and AI in the media. She is delighted that AUP alumni working in the human rights and humanitarian sectors have reached out to her since the inauguration, and hopes to use their input to organize a roundtable on technology in the human care sector. Keep an eye out for the Think Tank’s upcoming events.