By Annie Hagstrom
Michigan Law
Early last year, Michigan Law alum Hinh D. Tran was selected as a Carnegie Ethics Fellow for the 2023–2025 term, joining a cohort of 14 young professionals from across the country. During the program, fellows work on projects curated by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs with the goal of cultivating the next generation of ethical leaders across business, policy, technology, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and other industries.
The Council recently published Tran’s research project, “Artificial Intelligence and Election Integrity in 2024,” which he produced with two other fellows from the Carnegie Ethics Fellow (CEF) program, Christine Jakobson and Travis Gidado.
The report examines the use—and potential abuse—of AI in elections in 2024, a year that features elections not only in the United States but in 63 other countries with more than 2 billion people.
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Blending technology with legal expertise
While the timeliness of Tran’s Carnegie Fellows report seems ripped from today’s headlines, he hasn’t been a lifelong policy wonk.
Instead, as a Silicon Valley native, Tran grew up immersed in the world of technology. He earned his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and, in 2013, entered the startup space. He started at Square, now Block Inc., a small startup that has since skyrocketed in popularity with its Square point-of-sale systems and consumer-focused Cash App.
“Our first product was this tiny square reader that you would stick into your phone to process payments,” said Tran. “At first, I rarely saw it out in the wild, but by the time I left the company three and a half years later, our products were everywhere. It was inspiring to be part of a company that produces products that millions of people use.”
Witnessing the growth of Square’s technology, Tran began thinking about the tech industry at large from new angles—particularly how it impacts society on the legal level.
He matriculated at Michigan Law and became a graduate student instructor (GSI), teaching economics under Professor Jim Adams’s tutelage. He also participated in an externship with a magistrate judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
“Both experiences during law school highlighted the importance of ethics for me,” said Tran. “As a GSI, my job was not to reinforce rote memorization but to encourage critical thinking. And, because a judge has a lot of power, I saw the importance of wielding that power responsibly, in recognition of our duties and responsibilities and people’s rights under the Constitution.”
—————
Diving deeper into ethics
After law school, Tran clerked at the US District Court for the Eastern District of California and then joined Keker, Van Nest & Peters, a boutique law firm in San Francisco, where he focused on trial work for large tech companies. In 2022, he began working as an in-house counsel and compliance officer at Ramp, a New York-based startup covering product, regulatory, compliance, litigation, and employment matters.
One year into Tran’s work at Ramp, he learned about the CEF program through one of the company’s regulators who had previously been a fellow.
“At the time, two major crises were hitting the financial services and tech industry: the collapse of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto-currency company, and Silicon Valley Bank,” said Tran. “I thought the program could help me understand what leads to crises like these and the difference stronger, more ethical leadership might have. It’s not only done that, but the program has also highlighted just how relevant ethics is to my work and teaching.”
In addition to his work at Ramp and his fellowship with the CEF program, Tran lectures at USC’s Gould School of Law on privacy law. In June 2024, he served as a law fellow in the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics program, spending time in Poland and Germany examining the ties between the Holocaust and legal ethics.
“My experience helped show me that many people can lack perspective on how the decisions they make can dramatically impact the people around them,” he said.
Through his Carnegie Fellowship project, Tran and his colleagues considered how people’s decisions about who to vote for can be influenced by rapidly changing technology. Their findings underscore the need for a balanced approach to leveraging AI in elections, particularly because its use presents both opportunities and challenges. While AI can enhance security and efficiency, it poses risks such as misinformation, manipulation, and privacy concerns.
In 2024 and beyond, Tran said, “As advances in AI reach an inflection point, our report serves as a reminder that we must be thoughtful about how AI is used and vigilant in safeguarding our democracy.”
Michigan Law
Early last year, Michigan Law alum Hinh D. Tran was selected as a Carnegie Ethics Fellow for the 2023–2025 term, joining a cohort of 14 young professionals from across the country. During the program, fellows work on projects curated by the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs with the goal of cultivating the next generation of ethical leaders across business, policy, technology, academia, nongovernmental organizations, and other industries.
The Council recently published Tran’s research project, “Artificial Intelligence and Election Integrity in 2024,” which he produced with two other fellows from the Carnegie Ethics Fellow (CEF) program, Christine Jakobson and Travis Gidado.
The report examines the use—and potential abuse—of AI in elections in 2024, a year that features elections not only in the United States but in 63 other countries with more than 2 billion people.
—————
Blending technology with legal expertise
While the timeliness of Tran’s Carnegie Fellows report seems ripped from today’s headlines, he hasn’t been a lifelong policy wonk.
Instead, as a Silicon Valley native, Tran grew up immersed in the world of technology. He earned his undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley and, in 2013, entered the startup space. He started at Square, now Block Inc., a small startup that has since skyrocketed in popularity with its Square point-of-sale systems and consumer-focused Cash App.
“Our first product was this tiny square reader that you would stick into your phone to process payments,” said Tran. “At first, I rarely saw it out in the wild, but by the time I left the company three and a half years later, our products were everywhere. It was inspiring to be part of a company that produces products that millions of people use.”
Witnessing the growth of Square’s technology, Tran began thinking about the tech industry at large from new angles—particularly how it impacts society on the legal level.
He matriculated at Michigan Law and became a graduate student instructor (GSI), teaching economics under Professor Jim Adams’s tutelage. He also participated in an externship with a magistrate judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
“Both experiences during law school highlighted the importance of ethics for me,” said Tran. “As a GSI, my job was not to reinforce rote memorization but to encourage critical thinking. And, because a judge has a lot of power, I saw the importance of wielding that power responsibly, in recognition of our duties and responsibilities and people’s rights under the Constitution.”
—————
Diving deeper into ethics
After law school, Tran clerked at the US District Court for the Eastern District of California and then joined Keker, Van Nest & Peters, a boutique law firm in San Francisco, where he focused on trial work for large tech companies. In 2022, he began working as an in-house counsel and compliance officer at Ramp, a New York-based startup covering product, regulatory, compliance, litigation, and employment matters.
One year into Tran’s work at Ramp, he learned about the CEF program through one of the company’s regulators who had previously been a fellow.
“At the time, two major crises were hitting the financial services and tech industry: the collapse of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto-currency company, and Silicon Valley Bank,” said Tran. “I thought the program could help me understand what leads to crises like these and the difference stronger, more ethical leadership might have. It’s not only done that, but the program has also highlighted just how relevant ethics is to my work and teaching.”
In addition to his work at Ramp and his fellowship with the CEF program, Tran lectures at USC’s Gould School of Law on privacy law. In June 2024, he served as a law fellow in the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics program, spending time in Poland and Germany examining the ties between the Holocaust and legal ethics.
“My experience helped show me that many people can lack perspective on how the decisions they make can dramatically impact the people around them,” he said.
Through his Carnegie Fellowship project, Tran and his colleagues considered how people’s decisions about who to vote for can be influenced by rapidly changing technology. Their findings underscore the need for a balanced approach to leveraging AI in elections, particularly because its use presents both opportunities and challenges. While AI can enhance security and efficiency, it poses risks such as misinformation, manipulation, and privacy concerns.
In 2024 and beyond, Tran said, “As advances in AI reach an inflection point, our report serves as a reminder that we must be thoughtful about how AI is used and vigilant in safeguarding our democracy.”
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