Tufekci Brings AI Warning to Elon, Urges Students to Ask Tough Questions

Zeynep Tufekci, a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary and the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, delivered Elon University's Baird Lecture Wednesday evening at McCrary Theatre, Center for the Arts, speaking to an audience that included students, faculty and members of the public as part of the university's 2025-26 speaker series.

Her talk, titled "Power, Protest and Algorithms: How Technology Shapes Society and Democracy," drew on the same intellectual terrain as her book "Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest," which examines the power of using social media to mobilize large numbers of people in political protest and why many modern social movements lack the direction to foster real change once the protest is over.

Tufekci also serves as a New York Times opinion columnist and has held fellowships at some of the country's most prominent institutions. She was an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, a fellow at the Princeton University Center for Information Technology, and the inaugural director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia University.

Her selection for the Baird Lecture slot was deliberate. Jeff Clark, executive director of cultural and special programs at Elon, who leads the speaker series selection process each year, pointed directly to her standing in debates over artificial intelligence. "Zeynep Tufekci, who is one of the speakers next year, is considered one of the experts on interpreting the AI repercussions for society, which we thought was important to bring here," Clark said. He also described a broader criterion guiding his choices: "I try to look at it as being in alignment with what Elon is doing on campus or in programs or what have you."

Clark does not make those choices in isolation. He draws suggestions from students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community before finalizing the lineup.

Tufekci appeared alongside a notable group of speakers assembled for Elon's 2025-26 series, which also featured Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky, author and common reading selection Alejandra Campoverdi, retired Lt. Gen. Robert P. Ashley Jr., philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, and New York Times columnist Frank Bruni.

Wednesday's event was open to the public at $15 per ticket through ElonTickets.com, with free admission for anyone presenting an Elon ID.