Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making

Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making

Today's leaders are burdened with ever-growing expectations and dilemmas. The Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making provides them with tools at the intersection of ethics and technology so they can make wise decisions for their organizations while feeling confident about the future. In so doing, we aim to help solve what we believe to be the most difficult, but most important, challenge of our time: how to align emerging technologies with ethical, human-centered values.

Founded thanks to a generous endowment provided by USC Trustee Jerry Neely and his wife Nancy, the Neely Center’s mission is to guide leaders in making responsible decisions surrounding the development, implementation, and management of emerging technologies. By fostering and promoting cutting-edge research, comprehensive education, and cross-disciplinary dialogue, we strive to ensure that technological advancements contribute to both immediate and enduring societal benefits.

Our current work focuses on three technology-powered innovations poised to revolutionize business and society: 1) Social media platforms and their effects on individuals and communities around the world; 2) Artificial intelligence and its implications for human coordination and decision making; and 3) Immersive and mixed reality (AR/VR/XR) environments with the potential to enhance or detract from physical reality. In each case, we seek to steer these powerful tools toward their benefits and away from harms.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of USC Marshall’s Neely Ethics & Technology Indices which will eventually include three nationally representative indices aimed at capturing people’s usage and experiences of harm and benefit across three critical technologies: social media, artificial intelligence, and mixed reality. Our first public results capture usage and experiences across common social media platforms. They represent the first public longitudinal, nationally representative panel of social media experiences in America, bringing critical data to important efforts to understand and improve society’s relationship to social media.

TOOLS + PROJECTS

We collect monthly data from a representative sample of US households on usage of and attitudes toward artificial intelligence. We are developing questions on people’s experiences toward artificial intelligence.

RESULTS Neely Artificial Intelligence Index

NEWS
We collect monthly data from a representative sample of US households on usage of and positive and negative experiences with specific social media platforms. Our hope is that this information can help stakeholders reward platforms that meaningfully connect and inform users, while holding accountable platforms that create negative experiences for users and society.

RESULTS Neely Social Media Index

NEWS

INSIGHT + ANALYSIS

Cited: Neely Center Research on Entrepreneur

The NEELY CENTER's Social Media Index and Artificial Intelligence Index provide foundational data to support questions about X's long-term viability.

GO TO ARTICLE Cited: Neely Center Research on Entrepreneur
Article: What Can We Learn from the First Studies of Facebook’s and Instagram’s Roles in the US

RAVI IYER, managing director of the NEELY CENTER, and colleague Juliana Schroeder offer a more nuanced and centrist assessment is called for when addressing recent studies of Meta's role in the 2020 election.

GO TO ARTICLE Article:&nbsp;What Can We Learn from the First Studies of Facebook’s and Instagram’s Roles in the US
Cited: The Neely Center in Time

The NEELY CENTER's Social Media Index is referenced in a TIME article examining how Twitter's toxicity is contributing to the platform's struggles to lure advertisers.

GO TO ARTICLE Cited: The Neely Center in Time
Quoted: Ravi Iyer in The Wall Street Journal

Iyer, research director for the NEELY CENTER, is quoted in a WSJ piece looking at how lessons learned from social media's lack of regulation may inform how AI is monitored and managed for the greater good. [Paywall]

GO TO ARTICLE Quoted: Ravi Iyer in The Wall Street Journal
Article: How Tech Regulation Can Leverage Product Experimentation Results

NEELY CENTER Research Director Ravi Iyer and colleague Nathaniel Lubin offer that "mandated visibility into product experimentation would allow regulators to audit platform design choices to prevent societal harm".

GO TO ARTICLE Article: How Tech Regulation Can Leverage Product Experimentation Results
Cited: The Neely Center on Designing Tomorrow

Recent surveys published by THE NEELY CENTER are showcased in a DESIGNING TOMORROW post looking at harmful content trends on Twitter and Facebook.

GO TO ARTICLE Cited: The Neely Center on Designing Tomorrow
Plurality Institute’s Spring Symposium: Bridging the Divide

On June 23, 2023, the PLURALITY INSTITUTE organized their Spring Symposium: Bridging the Divide. This live streamed event delved deep into exploring the theme of “bridging” during a time of increasing polarization. At the symposium, DR. RAVI IYER, Research Director of the USC Marshall Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making, underscored the VALUE OF DIVERSITY IN IMPROVING ALGORITHMS.

WATCH VIDEO Plurality Institute’s Spring Symposium: Bridging the Divide
Article: Unveiling the Neely Ethics & Technology Indices

NATE FAST, associate professor of management and organization, co-authors a piece on the launch of the Neely Center Indices dedicated to improving societal understanding and decision making about social media, AI, and mixed reality.

GO TO ARTICLE Article: Unveiling the Neely Ethics &amp; Technology Indices
Quoted: Ravi Iyer on Pew Research Center

The NEELY CENTER's Ravi Iyer offers a look at how digital technology and human interaction with digital systems will negatively influence society in 2035.

GO TO ARTICLE Quoted: Ravi Iyer on Pew Research Center

EVENTS

Held at the University of Southern California on Friday, March 24, 2023, this workshop brought together leading experts in AR and VR to discuss the latest developments in the field of mixed reality as well as discuss the exciting opportunities and ethical challenges these technologies present. The USC Marshall Neely Center for Ethics, the Psychology of Technology Institute, and the USC Institute for Creative Technologies partnered to organize a gathering of influential leaders and scholars to share personal insights and develop practices and principles that will be included in a white paper on the opportunities and ethics surrounding mixed reality.
The USC Marshall’s Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making is excited to announce its hosting of the 7th annual Psychology of Technology Institute’s “New Directions in Research on the Psychology of Technology” conference, which will be held on November 3-4, 2023, and co-sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley. In line with our initiative to improve AI value alignment, the conference theme this year will be “The Psychology of AI Value Alignment”. We plan to convene a unique mix of industry leaders, behavioral scientists, technologists, and those in the AI community who are especially interested in creating a healthy future for the increasingly common use of AI in daily life.

NEWS

Neely Center Introduces First of its Kind Social Media Index

By tracking usage and quality of experiences, the Social Media Index will allow the public, researchers, and policymakers to make meaningful comparisons across time, events, and platforms, for the first time.

MORE Neely Center Introduces First of its Kind Social Media Index
Neely Center Introduces First of its Kind Artificial Intelligence Index

The Neely AI Index is the first longitudinal public tracking survey, with new data to be published monthly.

MORE Neely Center Introduces First of its Kind Artificial Intelligence Index
Nathanael Fast to Lead Neely Center

The new director of the USC Marshall Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making talks about his role and vision for the Center.

MORE Nathanael Fast to Lead Neely Center

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Contact

Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making
USC Marshall School of Business
3660 Trousdale Pkwy, Suite 216 ACC
Los Angeles, CA 90089
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