ORGANIZATION
Allen Lab
Allen's research laboratory at Harvard conducting empirical studies of AI systems' moral reasoning, policy implications, and democratic consequences—the empirical arm of the GETTING-Plurality network.
The Allen Lab operates within Harvard's Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics and focuses on empirical investigation of AI behavior to inform governance proposals. The lab's research includes studies of the 'ethical-moral intelligence' of AI systems, analyses of platform governance structures, and investigations of AI's impact on democratic deliberation. The lab's 'Crocodile Tears' working paper, for example, found that AI models 'demonstrate moral sensitivity to ethical dilemmas in ways that closely mimic human responses' but 'exhibit greater certainty than humans when choosing between conflicting sacred values'—a discrepancy that raises important questions about the coherence and transparency of AI systems when they are asked to exercise moral judgment.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The Allen Lab represents Allen's commitment to empirical grounding of normative claims. Political theory alone cannot adequately address the AI moment because the questions the moment poses—about the behavior of AI systems, their moral reasoning, their effects on democratic deliberation—require empirical investigation. The lab provides the institutional infrastructure for conducting such investigations while maintaining connection to