AI Now is approaching a year since the launch of our 2023 Landscape Report - and what a year it’s been. We’re proud of the work we’ve put out into the world, but most particularly we are appreciative of our community: we’re a small team kept buoyant by a wide network of collaborators. With that in mind, we’d like to share a few team updates to celebrate.
Several new members will be joining AI Now’s team in the coming months:
Brian Merchant will join us as Journalist In Residence, interrogating the business model underpinning the AI boom of the past year.
Frederike Kaltheuner will join us as Senior EU and Global Governance Lead, where she’ll develop AI Now’s engagement in Europe and in global governance fora on issues of the concentration of power in tech. Leevi Saari has also joined us as an EU Policy Fellow, researching key movements in the policy landscape and their implications across the Atlantic.
Mehtab Khan will join us as Visiting Policy Fellow, contributing to deepening our research engagement on AI regulatory issues.
Alix Dunn has joined us as Senior Advisor, providing strategic and operational guidance to the organization as we grow in this new chapter. Alix is the CEO and founder of Computer Says Maybe.
Lucy Suchman has joined us as a Faculty Advisor. Lucy’s ongoing critical scholarship and advocacy on issues relating to artificial intelligence and contemporary war fighting has profoundly shaped the field. We encourage you to read her most recent piece, “The Algorithmically Accelerated Killing Machine”, and to watch her salon on our series, “What is AI?”.
Three of AI Now’s fellows have moved on to new exciting roles. We are grateful for their contributions this past year, and congratulate them on the road ahead:
Ben Winters, who worked with us as a Senior Policy Fellow, will be joining the Policy and Strategy Section of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division as an Attorney Advisor.
Anna Lenhart, who worked with us as a Visiting Policy Fellow, is now Specialized Faculty at GW Institute for Data Democracy and Politics on leave to the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Anna collaborated with us as we interrogated the FDA model for AI regulation and shared learnings; an initial read-out of this work is available here.
Jai Vipra, who worked with us as a Research Fellow, will be embarking on her PhD in Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University, after a CyberBRICS Fellowship. Jai is the lead author of the Computational Power and AI report.
We’ll also continue collaborating with Kerry McInerney, PhD on our work analyzing the so-called US-China AI Arms Race and its impacts on tech policy, and with Jane Chung of Justice Speaks Strategies as our Communications Advisor on our narrative and communications work.
Amba Kak and Sarah Myers West will continue to lead the Institute as co-Executive Directors. We will be announcing plans to expand the team further with additional hires soon - please watch this space!
