#SoCaltech: Elizabeth Won
“My background is in applied math, but my dream was always to go to law school. I did a SURF [Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program] project after my junior year under Professor Jennifer Jahner to expose myself to some legal research. Using case studies of ongoing disputes, we identified how AI in the legal system is currently treated as one of two things: something with agency or something that we use as a tool. These are both metaphors used to wrap our heads around AI because we don’t currently have strict legislation on how to use and how to govern AI. By nature, innovative technology consistently predates specific legal codification, leading law to turn to past precedents. However, because there is a lack of precise conceptual language, precedents become a type of metaphor. We explored different ways that science fiction literature looked at AI to see how these metaphors can lead to implications in our understanding and treatment of AI. Science fiction works like Frankenstein and short stories by Ted Chiang and Philip K. Dick allowed us to see abstract debates and discussions surrounding AI systems in a more concrete form. This brought together our study of the English language and the case studies, as it helped make sense of why specific governing bodies would look at AI the way they did through the language used. It also lent ways to talk about the consequences of looking at AI a certain way and how to take responsibility when something goes wrong in an automated system, which is everywhere in the news right now.
“Even though everyone at Caltech is focused on STEM, there was actually a great deal of diversity in people that I met. When I work on any type of problem, especially in law school and beyond, it’s very interdisciplinary. Carrying with me all different nuggets of perspective from my peers will be very beneficial going forward.”
Elizabeth Won is a 2026 graduate who double-majored in applied and computational math and English. An avid swimmer, she was a member of the Caltech swim team for four years. Won plans to attend Harvard Law School in the fall.
#SoCaltech is an occasional series celebrating the diverse individuals who give Caltech its spirit of excellence, ambition, and ingenuity. Know someone we should profile? Send nominations to magazine@caltech.edu.