Sarah Myers West

Her award-winning research and writing blends social science, policy, and history to address the intersection of technology, labor, and accountability.

Sarah is the lead author of several AI Now flagship research projects including Discriminating Systems: Gender, Race and Power in AI. She co-designed AI Now’s Gender, Race and Power in AI and Labor research agendas, and coordinated research for AI Now’s annual reports, among others. Prior to AI Now, she was the Wallis Annenberg Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Southern California, and has received Google Policy and New America Cybersecurity Fellowships.

Sarah has served as a Senior Advisor on AI at the Federal Trade Commission, and is a Visiting Research Scientist at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University. She holds Doctoral and Masters Degrees in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, a Masters in Public Diplomacy from Annenberg and the Dornsife School of International Relations, and a BA with Distinction in Media Studies from the University of Virginia.

Her forthcoming book, Tracing Code (University of California Press), draws on years of historical and social scientific research to examine the origins of data capitalism and commercial surveillance. Her writing is published in journals including Social Studies of Science, New Media & Society, the International Journal of Communication, Policy & Internet and Business and Society, and her research is featured in the Wall Street Journal, NBC , the Associated Press, and Motherboard, among others.

Email: sarah [at] ainowinstitute.org