Karen Hao | |
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Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology (BS) |
Occupations |
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Notable credit(s) | The Atlantic (2023–Present) The Wall Street Journal (2022–2023) MIT Technology Review (2018–2022) Quartz (2017–2018) |
Website | www |
Karen Hao | |||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 郝珂灵 [1] | ||||||
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Karen Hao is an American journalist and data scientist. Currently a contributing writer for The Atlantic and previously a foreign correspondent based in Hong Kong for The Wall Street Journal and senior artificial intelligence editor at the MIT Technology Review,she is best known for her coverage on AI research,technology ethics and the social impact of AI. [2] [3] Hao also co-produces the podcast In Machines We Trust and writes the newsletter The Algorithm. [4]
Previously,she worked at Quartz as a tech reporter and data scientist and was an application engineer at the first startup to spin out of X Development. Hao's writing has also appeared in Mother Jones, Sierra Magazine , The New Republic ,and other publications.
Hao graduated from The Lawrenceville School in 2011. [5] She studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,graduating with a B.S. in mechanical engineering and a minor in energy studies in 2015. [6] She is a native speaker in both English and Mandarin Chinese. [2]
Hao is known in the technology world for her coverage of new AI research findings and their societal and ethical impacts. Her writing has spanned research and issues regarding big tech data privacy,misinformation,deepfakes,facial recognition,and AI healthcare tools.
In March 2021,Hao published a piece that uncovered previously unknown information about how attempts to combat misinformation by different teams at Facebook's using machine learning were impeded and constantly at odds by Facebook's drive to grow user engagement. [7] [8] [9] Upon its release,leaders at Facebook including Mike Schroepfer and Yann LeCun immediately criticized the piece through Twitter responses. [10] AI researchers and AI ethics experts Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell responded in support of Hao's writing and advocated for more change and improvement for all. [11]
Hao also co-produces the podcast In Machines We Trust,which discusses the rise of AI with people developing,researching,and using AI technologies. [12] The podcast won the 2020 Front Page Award in investigative reporting. [13]
As a data scientist,Hao occasionally creates data visualizations that have been featured in her work at the MIT Technology Review and elsewhere. In 2018,her "What is AI?" flowchart visualization was exhibited as an installation at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. [14]
She has been an invited speaker at TEDxGateway,the United Nations Foundation,EmTech,WNPR,and many other conferences and podcasts. [15] [16] Her TEDx talk discussed the importance of democratizing how AI is built. [17]
In March 2022,she was hired by The Wall Street Journal to cover China technology and society,while being based in Hong Kong. [18]
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Joy Adowaa Buolamwini is a Canadian-American computer scientist and digital activist formerly based at the MIT Media Lab. She founded the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL),an organization that works to challenge bias in decision-making software,using art,advocacy,and research to highlight the social implications and harms of artificial intelligence (AI).
Rajapakse Konara Mudiyanselage Bilesha Yudhanjaya Bandara Wijeratne is a Sri Lankan science fiction author,activist and researcher,classified as part of a new wave of South Asian science fiction writers. His work has appeared in Wired,Foreign Policy and Slate. His novel The Salvage Crew has been lauded as one of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2020.
Mauro Martino is an Italian artist,designer and researcher. He is the founder and director of the Visual Artificial Intelligence Lab at IBM Research,and Professor of Practice at Northeastern University.
Laci RisëMosley is an American actress,comedian and podcaster. She performs improv comedy at UCB Los Angeles and co-starred in the Pop comedy series Florida Girls. Mosley is best known for her podcast Scam Goddess,which focuses on historical and contemporary scams and cons. She was a cast member on Florida Girls,A Black Lady Sketch Show,Lopez vs Lopez,and the iCarly revival series. As of 2025 Mosley is a main cast member on Fox comedy Going Dutch and the host of the television adaptation of her podcast of the same name,Scam Goddess.
Rashida Richardson is a visiting scholar at Rutgers Law School and the Rutgers Institute for Information Policy and the Law and an attorney advisor to the Federal Trade Commission. She is also an assistant professor of law and political science at the Northeastern University School of Law and the Northeastern University Department of Political Science in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities.
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Black in AI,formally called the Black in AI Workshop,is a technology research organization and affinity group,founded by computer scientists Timnit Gebru and Rediet Abebe in 2017. It started as a conference workshop,later pivoting into an organization. Black in AI increases the presence and inclusion of Black people in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) by creating space for sharing ideas,fostering collaborations,mentorship,and advocacy.
The News Literacy Project (NLP) is an American nonpartisan national education nonprofit,based in Washington,D.C.,that provides resources for educators,students,and the general public to help them learn to identify credible information,recognize misinformation and disinformation,and determine what they can trust,share,and act on. It was founded in 2008 by Alan C. Miller,a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times Washington bureau.
Inioluwa Deborah Raji is a Nigerian-Canadian computer scientist and activist who works on algorithmic bias,AI accountability,and algorithmic auditing. Raji has previously worked with Joy Buolamwini,Timnit Gebru,and the Algorithmic Justice League on researching gender and racial bias in facial recognition technology. She has also worked with Google’s Ethical AI team and been a research fellow at the Partnership on AI and AI Now Institute at New York University working on how to operationalize ethical considerations in machine learning engineering practice. A current Mozilla fellow,she has been recognized by MIT Technology Review and Forbes as one of the world's top young innovators.
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