MSSP alumnus Daniel S. Schiff, MSSP’13, has built a career at the forefront of responsible AI, grounding his work in ethics, social impact, and evidence-based policymaking. Now an assistant professor and co-director of the Governance and Responsible AI Lab at Purdue University, Schiff traces his path back to SP2, where he found a community of classmates committed to social change and a program that helped him channel his philosophical interests into policy work. In this Q&A, he reflects on what drew him to SP2, the experiences that shaped his career in AI governance, and what he hopes to contribute to the future of technology and society.

Why did you choose Penn and the School of Social Policy & Practice (SP2)? 

I’ve always been drawn to social impact work, and I studied philosophy and policy as an undergraduate. At the time, I was hoping to work at the intersection of AI and social policy, but AI policy wasn’t a field in the early 2010s! When I learned about SP2’s Master of Science in Social Policy (MSSP) program, and when I looked at the research and initiatives of some of the professors, I felt this would be a really great way to continue my studies. And, importantly, I was really inspired by the potential of being around like-minded people dedicated to positive social impact. It helps that Penn is a great school and that Philadelphia is a great city. It was the only program I applied to after finishing my undergraduate degree! 

When did you first know that you wanted to be involved in this social policy work? Why? 

I think my motivations to engage in this kind of work were innate, supported by my community and educational opportunities, and then channeled into large-scale policy work and eventually artificial intelligence ethics and policy. 
 
I grew up with a family and cultural tradition that emphasized caring for others and improving the world. That was something emphasized by my parents, by my school, and by my Jewish community. And it was something that resonated with me personally – things like caring a lot about animal rights and global poverty, for instance. I was fortunate to have opportunities to engage in this kind of work through CARE Corps teens, through high school clubs, and other volunteering efforts, like at my local natural history museum, the amazing Fernbank Museum in Atlanta.  
 
Some of these views were also channeled through my philosophy studies at Princeton. Professors of mine, like Peter Singer and Victoria McGeer, helped me learn how to think carefully about how we should treat each other and how to navigate complex issues related to ethics and society. So, there’s a bit of philosophical thinking – consequentialism, rule utilitarianism, ethics of care – that guides my motivations. 
 
At the most basic level, I want and wanted to be involved in this kind of work because improving the flourishing of humans and animals is what strikes me as the most meaningful thing I can do with my life. I find it important to devote myself to creating a better world, and there is certainly a lot of work to be done! 

What did you like the most about your experience at SP2? What would you consider the key takeaways? 

Probably my classmates and the overall culture. It was really inspiring for me to have classmates working on criminal justice, gender rights, child welfare, education reform; you name it. I loved engaging with my peers, hearing about their passions, and learning about or collaborating on projects in classes, even though we focused on different social sectors. It also helps that we had a thoughtfully designed set of courses built on core skills, a set of great faculty and instructors who also had deep passions and careers, and access to wonderful events at Penn and in Philly. Overall, it was just a great setting to build my skills, identity, and community.
 
Perhaps the takeaway that stands out to me most was the realization that all of the issue areas of my classmates were connected. I ended up working in the education nonprofit sector in Philadelphia for several years, and that was intimately tied with questions of poverty, health care, migration, child welfare, and so on. 

What led you to your current position? 

In my current position, I am an assistant professor of technology policy in the Department of Political Science at Purdue University, a large public STEM-oriented school in Indiana. I also founded and co-direct a center called Governance and Responsible AI Lab (GRAIL), which essentially focuses on AI ethics and AI policy, with a heavy focus on social policy. That means lots of research, teaching, mentorship, and efforts to positively shape policy. 
 
During my undergraduate years, I increasingly came to think about my pro-social goals in terms of a large-scale impact perspective, which moved me from philosophy and ethics into policy, something I see as the applied practice of ethics in many ways. That’s what pulled me to a program like MSSP. At the time I was very interested in artificial intelligence as well, and I began thinking about all the ways that AI could positively or negatively impact society. As a result, I ended up doing an honors dissertation called “The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence ” many years before the field of AI ethics would be formally launched. So, I was a very early individual excited and concerned about AI. 
 
After completing the MSSP program, I worked for five years in the education nonprofit sector doing research, policy, and programmatic work related to college access, dropout prevention, STEM education, teacher preparation, and fair school funding. Then when the AI conversation finally started to emerge in the public in the mid 2010s, I went back to get my PhD as one of the first people to formally study AI policy. Since there were close to no people studying AI policy or AI ethics back then, we really had to build the field from scratch, which was exciting but very challenging. 
 
After finishing my PhD at Georgia Tech, I spent a year launching the Responsible AI program at JPMorgan Chase as the first Responsible AI Lead there. This was certainly an unusual turn of events, as I had not applied for any private sector positions, but it was an opportunity to put my applied ethics skills into practice to shape a large organization with a major global footprint. And it allowed me to stay in the same city as my partner. At the same time, I was offered a position as assistant professor at Purdue, which seemed like a great school to continue my interdisciplinary and ethics-oriented AI policy work. 
 
The rest is history! 

What professional accomplishments have been most meaningful to you, and why? 

Mentorship always comes up first. There are too many students to name who have gone on to do wonderful things, but that is always the highlight of my professional life and the most valuable thing I feel that I do.  
 
Second, I served as secretary for the IEEE 7010 standard on assessing the impact of autonomous and intelligent systems and human well-being. This was the first international AI ethics industry-standard, so it was very cool to get an opportunity as a graduate student to build this framework, which helped inspire a lot of subsequent regulations and frameworks.  
 
Third, serving as the first Responsible AI Lead at JP Morgan Chase – while big business and finance are really not my home turf, I worked very hard and made personal sacrifices to create positive change and am proud of the courage it took to do this.  
 
Finally, launching Governance and Responsible AI Lab, which is now a wonderful center with dozens and dozens of undergraduates, PhD students, and faculty, alongside wonderful public-impact projects is my daily highlight. I’m very privileged to be able to build something to help create the kinds of impact I want and hopefully model the kind of community and mentorship I think people deserve. 

What are you looking forward to in your career, and how do you think your SP2 experience has or will impact your professional path? 

SP2’s MSSP program was really the right thing for me. It helped me channel my undeveloped interests (and fairly abstract philosophical skills from undergraduate) into a professional direction that would set the course for my current work. It helped me find a path and a career in my early 20s and connected me with a community. 
 
Going forward, what I look forward to most is getting to see the great new things that my students and advisees come up with and all the great things they accomplish. Collectively, I hope that my efforts and those of my colleagues in broader community will shape a world where AI and technology are closer to forces of good. Shaping policy and society in positive directions is a difficult, ongoing, and important struggle, and I feel quite fortunate that MSSP and SP2 helped me take part in this path.