Drawing on my recently published paper, “Bad apples just for friends: A large language model approach to research on the strategic framing in government’s human rights advocacy narratives,” I present a broader research agenda at the intersection of AI, human security, and civil empowerment. Methodologically, I develop theory-informed AI tools (LLMs and network-based text representations in the job market paper) for civil empowerment and human security research. Substantively, I examine when AI and digital technologies empower civil actors versus reinforce repression, and how these insights translate into evidence-based suggestions for civil actors. I will also connect my research agenda to AIS’s mission and tenure & promotion criteria and outline concrete opportunities for AI + Politics collaboration and teaching.

Jie (Jason) Lian is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Harvard Kennedy School and a Research Associate at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD in Political Science and International Affairs in May 2025 and also holds master’s degrees in Artificial Intelligence and Statistics. His research asks how technological change—especially AI—can empower civil society and protect vulnerable populations while constraining state repression. Methodologically, he builds customized, theory-informed AI tools for political science research and civil actors-facing applications.