Measure
Independent, repeated studies of everyday technologies and their lasting effects, including on people who never use them.
Light on what’s coming.
Highbeam brings technology’s hidden consequences into view early enough to act on, with research the public can trust and policy lawmakers can use.
What we measure
Why Highbeam
A technology can do exactly what it promises and still change us in ways no one measured.
Highbeam is an independent research institute. We study what technologies do to people through repeated use and widespread adoption, and we bring that evidence to the public and to lawmakers.
Our founding question
What qualities of people and society do our technologies cultivate?
Explain
Public reports that tie the evidence to a real choice and say plainly what remains uncertain.
Advise
One-page policy briefs that give lawmakers a staircase of options, from a first step to the most ambitious.
What we measure
Four areas where technology is reshaping people and public life.
01
Agency and character
Does repeated use change people’s capacity to reason, exercise self-control, act honestly, or honor commitments?02Relationships and social life
Does use improve connection and cooperation, or displace and weaken them?03Economic opportunity and power
Who gains capability, income, or bargaining power, and who becomes more dependent?04Public life and institutions
Does use support informed judgment and participation, and how does it change control over information and decisions?First program
AI advice andhuman judgment
Under what conditions does AI advice help adults handle ordinary disagreements with better judgment and more constructive behavior? The first answer is easy to test. We want to know what happens next.
The chain of consequences we study: Advice in a dispute, then How it’s read, then Repair or escalation, then Patterns over time, then Cooperation and trust.
Each link in the chain needs its own evidence.
How we work
Commitments made before the results come in.
An institute can be grounded in values and still let the evidence prove it wrong. These are the rules we hold ourselves to.
Funders disclosed
Every funder and conflict is listed. Sponsors get no veto over findings, and we keep the right to publish.
Methods in the open
We publish our methods, corrections and null results, not just the headlines.
Values stated up front
We say what good we’re measuring for, and what it trades against, before we look at the data.
Specific about what we study
A product or feature, used for a particular purpose, by a specified population, over a defined period.
For lawmakers
Policy briefs with a staircase of options.
Each brief fits on one page: the problem, the evidence, and graduated steps from a floor Congress can pass now to the most ambitious reform.
ChatbotsTime-Spent Research for ChatbotsMeasure how chatbots are changing American life.Read the brief ChatbotsPersonal Memory ControlA chatbot's memory of you should answer to you.Read the brief FoundationalFederal Research Lab for Human HarmsMeasure what AI does to people before the habits set.Read the brief
Get the evidence as it arrives.
New research and policy briefs from Highbeam, sent when they’re ready.