{"id":1103415,"date":"2024-11-13T12:45:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-13T20:45:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T11:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:03:55","slug":"stac-sociotechnical-alignment-center","status":"publish","type":"msr-group","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/group\/stac-sociotechnical-alignment-center\/","title":{"rendered":"STAC: Sociotechnical Alignment Center"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"mb-3 moray-highlight\">\n\t<div class=\"card-img-overlay mx-lg-0\">\n\t\t<div class=\"card-background  has-background- card-background--full-bleed\">\n\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1920\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Sociotechnical-Alignment-Center-HeaderImage-1920x720-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"White lightbulb icon centered. Six icons surround it: (left to right) group of people, eyeball, shaking hands, set of scales, lock, and shield.\" style=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Sociotechnical-Alignment-Center-HeaderImage-1920x720-1.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Sociotechnical-Alignment-Center-HeaderImage-1920x720-1-300x113.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Sociotechnical-Alignment-Center-HeaderImage-1920x720-1-1024x384.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Sociotechnical-Alignment-Center-HeaderImage-1920x720-1-768x288.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Sociotechnical-Alignment-Center-HeaderImage-1920x720-1-1536x576.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Sociotechnical-Alignment-Center-HeaderImage-1920x720-1-1600x600.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Sociotechnical-Alignment-Center-HeaderImage-1920x720-1-240x90.jpg 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<!-- Foreground -->\n\t\t<div class=\"card-foreground d-flex mt-md-n5 my-lg-5 px-g px-lg-0\">\n\t\t\t<!-- Container -->\n\t\t\t<div class=\"container d-flex mt-md-n5 my-lg-5 \">\n\t\t\t\t<!-- Card wrapper -->\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"w-100 w-lg-col-5\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<!-- Card -->\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card material-md-card py-5 px-md-5\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"card-body \">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/lab\/microsoft-research-new-york\/\" class=\"icon-link icon-link--reverse mb-2\" data-bi-cN=\"Microsoft Research Lab \u2013 New York City\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"c-glyph glyph-chevron-left\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMicrosoft Research Lab \u2013 New York City\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"stac-sociotechnical-alignment-center\">STAC: Sociotechnical Alignment Center<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>STAC is a team of researchers, applied scientists, and linguists in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/lab\/microsoft-research-new-york\/\">Microsoft Research NYC<\/a> who represent part of the research pillar of Microsoft\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/ai\/responsible-ai\">Responsible AI<\/a> (RAI) investments. Founded within Microsoft Research by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/people\/wallach\/\">Hanna Wallach<\/a> in 2022, STAC\u2019s mission is to guide the sociotechnical alignment of AI systems, with a particular emphasis on measuring risks, capabilities, performance, and other properties of these systems.&nbsp;STAC collaborates&nbsp;extensively with researchers from the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/theme\/fate\/\">Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics in AI&nbsp;(FATE)<\/a> group and other groups across Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We bridge research and practice, building on and contributing to research in computer science, the social sciences (especially measurement theory), linguistics (especially speech act theory), and statistics. Because of the pace of work in AI, research, product, and policy are increasingly entwined&#8212;especially for RAI, where we\u2019re finding we need to push research frontiers at the same time as we build transformational products and craft policies to safeguard product deployment and operation. We produce research that is well-respected and adopted by the academic community, while simultaneously putting that research into practice via partnerships within Microsoft and collaborations across the broader AI industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:20px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STAC is a team of researchers, applied scientists, and linguists in Microsoft Research NYC who represent part of the research pillar of Microsoft\u2019s Responsible AI (RAI) investments. Founded within Microsoft Research by Hanna Wallach in 2022, STAC\u2019s mission is to guide the sociotechnical alignment of AI systems, with a particular emphasis on measuring risks, capabilities, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1108464,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr_group_start":"","footnotes":""},"research-area":[13556,13545,13559],"msr-group-type":[243694],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-impact-theme":[],"class_list":["post-1103415","msr-group","type-msr-group","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","msr-research-area-artificial-intelligence","msr-research-area-human-language-technologies","msr-research-area-social-sciences","msr-group-type-group","msr-locale-en_us"],"msr_group_start":"","msr_detailed_description":"","msr_further_details":"","msr_hero_images":[],"msr_research_lab":[199571],"related-researchers":[{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Hanna Wallach","user_id":34779,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"wallach"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Chad Atalla","user_id":40249,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"chatalla"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Alex Dow","user_id":43870,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"dowalex"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Jean Garcia-Gathright","user_id":43692,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"jeang"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Nick Pangakis","user_id":43710,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"nickpangakis"},{"type":"guest","display_name":"Stefanie Reed","user_id":1103493,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":""},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Emily Sheng","user_id":43683,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"emilysheng"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Dan Vann","user_id":42342,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"danvann"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Matthew Vogel","user_id":43560,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"mavoge"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Hannah Washington","user_id":44071,"people_section":"STAC Members","alias":"hwashington"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Agathe Balayn","user_id":43641,"people_section":"STAC Collaborators","alias":"balaynagathe"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Solon Barocas","user_id":36051,"people_section":"STAC Collaborators","alias":"solon"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Sarah Bird","user_id":33684,"people_section":"STAC Collaborators","alias":"slbird"},{"type":"user_nicename","display_name":"Jenn Wortman Vaughan","user_id":32235,"people_section":"STAC Collaborators","alias":"jenn"}],"related-publications":[1113519,1113531,1114071,1114080,1114086,1126449,1136227,1147478],"related-downloads":[],"related-videos":[],"related-projects":[],"related-events":[],"related-opportunities":[1158374,1162988],"related-posts":[1143099,1156686],"tab-content":[],"msr_impact_theme":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-group\/1103415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-group"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/msr-group"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-group\/1103415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1160053,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-group\/1103415\/revisions\/1160053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1108464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1103415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"msr-research-area","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-area?post=1103415"},{"taxonomy":"msr-group-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-group-type?post=1103415"},{"taxonomy":"msr-locale","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-locale?post=1103415"},{"taxonomy":"msr-impact-theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/msr-impact-theme?post=1103415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}