KATE CRAWFORD

THE TRUTH TELLER + ARCHAEOLOGIST 
A leading global voice on th ethics, power and material realities of artificial intellgience

“Many people are understandably drawn to thinking about AI as being almost magical. You know, we type a question into a text box and we get this immediate answer. We can summon a picture of literally anything with just a few words. But there's a lot more going on behind that magic show, and there's a lot more at stake. People are rarely getting access to the deepest stories of what's going on, and this is definitely the moment for it, because we are all part of this world of generative AI, whether we like it or not”

Crawford co-founded the AI Now Institute, a leading research centre focused on examining the societal implications of AI and shaping policy conversations globally.

Kate Crawford is a senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research, the inaugural visiting chair of AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure, and the Miegunyah distinguished visiting fellow at the University of Melbourne. She co- founded the AI Now Institute at New York University, and leads the Foundations of Machine Learning international working group.

She lives in New York City.

Her current work:
Senior Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research, New York

Research Professor, USC Annenberg

Inaugural Visiting Chair for AI and Justice, École Normale Supérieure, Paris

Co-founder of the AI Now Institute at NYU

Crawford leads global research into the social, political, environmental and ethical consequences of AI connecting the dots between data systems, labour, policy and planetary impact.

Further reading:

Books:
Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence (2021) — a seminal critique of AI’s material infrastructures, named one of the best books of the year by Financial Times and praised across major outlets for reframing how we think about intelligence, labour, and extractive systems.

Recognition:
Sally Hacker Prize (for Atlas of AI) — awarded by the Society for the History of Technology

Featured on Time’s list of influential people in AI (2023)

Atlas of AI translated into multiple languages and awarded multiple international prizes