For David Hoffman, Duke’s Climate Commitment is not just about emissions or energy but about values. “The word commitment really means something,” he says. “It’s an expression of institutional values. Our job is to interrogate those values and then connect them to action so that the benefits extend beyond ourselves, to society at large.”
A portion of my work has a focus on the climate impacts of technology, both positive and negative. We want to identify the opportunities technology creates for making a better impact on climate, but also the costs that are associated with its pursuit.
Hoffman, who is the Steed Family Professor of the Practice of Public Policy at the Sanford School of Public Policy and also the Interim Director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, came to Duke after 23 years at Intel Corporation, where he was associate general counsel focusing on artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and privacy. His time in the private sector has informed his academic career at Duke.
“A portion of my work has a focus on the climate impacts of technology, both positive and negative. We want to identify the opportunities technology creates for making a better impact on climate, but also the costs that are associated with its pursuit,” Hoffman says.
One pressing example is the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and its demand for electricity. “We’ve been focused on semiconductor supply chains and artificial intelligence data center operations, and particularly the implications for energy consumption and load growth,” says Hoffman. “How can we forecast these impacts and make meaningful policy recommendations to shape incentives and governance responsibly?”
To further advance this theoretical and practical agenda, in early 2025, Hoffman co-founded the Deep Tech Initiative with economist Aaron Chatterji, Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor at the Fuqua School of Business. The Initiative focuses on five linked domains: semiconductors, renewable energy, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. Its aim is to create classes, host events and publish research that bring academic and industry policy perspectives together. “Both private and public capital are necessary,” Hoffman says. “The question is, what incentives need to be created, and what guardrails need to be put in place, to optimize those investments for the public good?”
Hoffman points to the Deep Tech’s unique economics/business/law/policy-first versus technology-first approach, and notes that while most universities struggle to bridge disciplines, Duke’s “interdisciplinary connective tissue” makes collaboration across schools and units unusually easy. Just as important is the blend of experience he and Chatterji bring: Hoffman with a global technology legal and industry background, Chatterji with government economic policy and now from his role as chief economist at OpenAI. Together, they have built a program that links the worlds of research, regulation, and capital investment, while applying strict criteria to keep partnerships aligned with Duke’s values and commitments.
Hoffman also talks eagerly about the “art of public policy” and in a new project (done in collaboration with North Carolina singer-songwriter Tift Merritt) probes how AI may reshape society’s capacity to pursue change. He and his students are examining how algorithmically generated art and music might shape public values and collective action on issues such as climate. “If creative output has historically connected people emotionally and driven them to act together for social change,” Hoffman asks, “what do we give up, what does it mean for democracy, if algorithms, not human beings, are deciding what stories we hear?”
Hoffman insists on connecting values to practice and emphasizes teaching students to interrogate their own values and align them with action. “Everything we do is political,” Hoffman says, “but our goal is to be nonpartisan by focusing on values. The Climate Commitment gives us a framework to act on those values and to build technologies and policies that serve society.”
Photos courtesy of the Sanford School of Public Policy