Sarah Myers West
Co-Executive Director
Sarah has spent the last fifteen years interrogating the role of technology companies and their emergence as powerful political actors on the front lines of international governance. Sarah brings this depth of expertise to policymaking in her current role co-directing AI Now, with a focus on addressing the market incentives and infrastructures that shape tech’s role in society at large and ensuring it serves the interests of the public. Her forthcoming book, Tracing Code (University of California Press) draws on years of historical and social science research to examine the origins of data capitalism and commercial surveillance.
Sarah’s award-winning research is featured in leading academic journals and prominent media platforms including the Washington Post, the Atlantic, the Financial Times, Nature and the Wall Street Journal. She regularly advises members of Congress, the White House, European Commission, UK Government, Consumer Financial Protection Board and other US and international regulatory agencies and the City of New York, and has testified before Congress on issues including artificial intelligence, competition and data privacy.
She recently completed a term as a Senior Advisor on AI at the Federal Trade Commission, where she advised the Agency on the role of artificial intelligence in shaping the economy by working on competition and consumer protection matters. She currently serves on the OECD’s AI Futures Working Group, and has affiliations as a Visiting Research Scientist at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University and at Cornell University’s Citizens and Technology Lab. She holds Doctoral and Masters Degrees from the University of Southern California, where she was the Wallis Annenberg Graduate Research Fellow, and has received Google Policy and New America Cybersecurity Fellowships, as well as a Foreign Language and Area Studies Scholarship.
Email: sarah [at] ainowinstitute.orgContributed to
(47) Publications
Former FTC AI Advisor Reflects on Tech’s Tricky & Faulty Incentive Structure
Analytics India
February 8, 2024
OpenAI quietly deletes ban on using ChatGPT for “military and warfare”
The Intercept
January 12, 2024
AI Now Managing Director Sarah Myers West Gives Remarks Before Heads of Agency, International Competition Network
Sarah Myers West
October 18, 2023
Congress is racing to regulate AI. Silicon Valley is eager to teach them how.
Washington Post
June 17, 2023
The EU is leading the way on AI laws. The US is still playing catch-up
The Guardian
June 13, 2023
The Senate Is Getting a Crash Course on How to Regulate AI—From the AI Industry
Vanity Fair
June 6, 2023
The White House AI R&D Strategy Offers a Good Start – Here’s How to Make It Better
Tech Policy Press
May 30, 2023
Open AI’s Sam Altman urges AI regulation in Senate Hearing
The New York Times
May 16, 2023
Why use of AI is a major sticking point in the ongoing writers’ strike
New Scientist
May 15, 2023
The rise of AI will only make Big Tech more powerful, researchers warn
Business Insider
April 25, 2023
Generative AI risks concentrating Big Tech’s power. Here’s how to stop it.
MIT Technology Review
April 18, 2023
Opinion | Competition authorities need to move fast and break up AI
Financial Times
April 17, 2023
General Purpose AI Poses Serious Risks, Should Not Be Excluded From the EU’s AI Act | Policy Brief
AI Now Institute
, ,April 13, 2023
The Technology 202: Former FTC advisors urge swift action to counteract ‘AI hype’
The Washington Post
April 11, 2023
500 Top Technologists and Elon Musk Demand Immediate Pause of Advanced AI Systems
Gizmodo
March 29, 2023
Google’s Bard AI chatbot has now been released to the public
New Scientist
March 21, 2023
Sam Altman says ‘potentially scary’ AI is on the horizon. This is what keeps AI experts up at night
EuroNews
February 28, 2023
How AI chatbots are changing how we write and who we trust
On Point (NPR/WBUR)
January 10, 2023
Mental health service criticised for experiment with AI chatbot
New Scientist
January 10, 2023
Discriminating Systems: Gender, Race, and Power in AI – Report
AI Now Institute
,April 1, 2019
What Do We Mean When We Talk About Transparency? Toward Meaningful Transparency in Commercial Content Moderation
AI Now Institute
,February 22, 2019
Evaluating the Legitimacy of Platform Governance: A Review of Research and A Shared Research Agenda
AI Now Institute
,June 22, 2018
Cryptographic Imaginaries and the Networked Public
AI Now Institute
,May 15, 2018
Censored, Suspended, Shadowbanned: User interpretations of content moderation on social media platforms
AI Now Institute
,May 8, 2018
Data Capitalism: Redefining the Logics of Surveillance and Privacy
AI Now Institute
,July 5, 2017