Kate Crawford

“One of the world’s most thoughtful researchers on the impact of AI delivers a sobering, but essential, read.”

— Financial Times

For two decades, Kate Crawford has been on the cutting edge of technology and AI research. She’s studied generative AI like ChatGPT, large-scale data systems, machine learning, and artificial intelligence—and, crucially, the context in which our technology operates. She has appointments at top research institutions around the world, and she’s a Professor at USC Annenberg, a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in New York, and the inaugural Visiting Chair for AI and Justice at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Kate has seen firsthand how technology can be used to exploit people and resources, but her work shows that we are at a crucial turning point for rethinking how these technologies are used for a more just and democratic society. If we understand what’s at stake, we can lay the foundation today for a better tomorrow.

Kate is the author of the award-winning Atlas of AI, a unique and grounded behind-the-scenes look at the complex topic of artificial intelligence. It was named to The Wall Street Journal‘s Five Best Books to Read to Get Smart About AI, and Nature called it “meticulously researched and superbly written.” She takes us into locations like lithium mines to Amazon warehouses to Jeff Bezos’ rocket base. Like a physical atlas, the book helps us understand the landscape of AI, the pathways that connect it, and where we fit into this vast technological world. Kate shows us a new way to understand and relate to AI, one that centers the stories and people behind the technology, and shows that these systems are neither artificial nor intelligent.

In addition to her books, articles and talks, Kate has also created award-winning collaborative projects with major artists around the world. Her Anatomy of an AI System with Vladan Joler depicted everything that goes into making a single Amazon Echo, and it won the Beazley Design of the Year Award, and is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the V&A in London. Kate has developed new ways to “excavate AI”—to dig into how these systems work, a technique she developed in her collaboration with the artist Trevor Paglen, Excavating AI. Their app ImageNet Roulette became a viral sensation when it showed people how AI classifies them, and the project won the Ayrton Prize from the British Society for the History of Science. Kate has led research groups and major institutes in both academia and industry, and she’s been published everywhere from Nature to The New York Times.