Biographies
J J Bryson
http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~jjb/
Full CV is available from http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~jjb/web/jb.html
150 character bio, May 2020
Expert in both natural and artificial intelligence, Bryson
publishes in both natural and social sciences, as well as ethics
and technology policy.
Hertie Bio, Dec 2019 (800 characters)
Bryson is recognised for broad expertise on intelligence and its
impacts, advising governments, transnational agencies, and NGOs
globally. She holds two degrees each in psychology and AI (BA
Chicago, MSc & MPhil Edinburgh, PhD MIT). From 2002-19 she was
Computer Science faculty at Bath; she has also been affiliated
with Harvard Psychology, Oxford Anthropology, Mannheim Social
Science Research, and the Princeton Center for Information
Technology Policy. During her PhD she observed confusion generated
by anthropomorphised AI, leading to her first AI ethics
publication “Just Another Artifact” in 1998. In 2010 she
coauthored the first national-level AI ethics policy, the UK's
Principles of Robotics. She presently researches the impact of
technology on human cooperation, and AI/ICT governance.
Hertie Bio, Feb 2020 (1400 characters)
Joanna J Bryson is an academic recognised for broad expertise on
intelligence, its nature, and its consequences. She advises
governments, transnational agencies, and NGOs globally,
particularly in AI policy. She holds two degrees each in
psychology and AI (BA Chicago, MSc & MPhil Edinburgh, PhD
MIT). Her work has appeared in venues ranging from reddit to the
journal Science. From 2002-19 she was Computer Science
faculty at the University of Bath; she has also been affiliated
with Harvard Psychology, Oxford Anthropology, The Mannheim Centre
for Social Science Research, The Konrad Lorenz Institute for
Evolution and Cognition Research, and the Princeton Center for
Information Technology Policy. During her PhD she first observed
the confusion generated by anthropomorphised AI, leading to her
first AI ethics publication “Just Another Artifact” in 1998. She
has remained active in the field including coauthoring the first
national-level AI ethics policy, the UK's (2011) Principles of
Robotics. She continues to research both the systems engineering
of AI and the cognitive science of intelligence, with present
focusses on the impact of technology on human cooperation, and new
models of governance for AI and ICT. She is presently the Hertie
School's Professor of Ethics and Technology, a position she took
up on 1 February 2020.
First Hertie Bio, Nov 2019 (300 words)
Joanna Joy Bryson is a globally-recognised leader in
intelligence broadly, including AI policy and AI ethics. She holds
two degrees each in psychology (BA Chicago & MPhil
Edinburgh) and AI (MSc Edinburgh & PhD MIT). From 2002-2019
she was employed in the Computer Science department at the
University of Bath, and she has also held postdoctoral,
sabbatical, and visiting positions at Harvard in Psychology,
Oxford in Anthropology, Nottingham and Mannheim in Social Science
Research, The Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition
Research, and the Princeton Center for Information Technology
Policy. Her original academic focus was the use of artificial
intelligence for scientific simulations of natural cognitive
systems. During her PhD she first observed the confusion generated
by anthropomorphised AI, leading to her first AI ethics
publication “Just Another Artifact” in 1998. In 2010 her work in
AI ethics was first recognised by a policy body when she was
invited to participate in the UK research councils' Robot Ethics
retreat, where she was a key author of the UK's (EPSRC/AHRC)
“Principles of Robotics”, the world’s first national-level AI
ethics soft policy. Since then she has continued researching the
impact of technology on economies and human cooperation,
transparency for AI systems, and participated in numerous policy
discussions for the UK (parliament, royal society, RCUK, FCA),
EU/EP/EC, OECD, Red Cross, Chatham House, WEF, UN as well as
national governments and NGOs in Switzerland, the US, Canada, and
Germany. At Bath she founded the Computer Science Department’s
Artificial Intelligence research group, and she still directs
outreach and impact for the UK's only Centre for Doctoral Training
in AI ethics, the Accountable, Responsible, and Transparent AI
(ART-AI) Centre. She is arriving at Hertie in February 2020 to
take up their full professorship on Ethics and Technology.
Less academic Hertie, 100 words, 2020
Joanna J. Bryson is a transdisciplinary researcher on the structure
and dynamics of human- and animal-like intelligence. Her research
covering topics from artificial intelligence, through autonomy
and robot ethics, and on to technology policy and human cooperation
has appeared in venues ranging from a reddit
to Science.
She holds degrees in Psychology from Chicago and Edinburgh, and
Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh and MIT. She has additional
professional research experience from Princeton, Oxford, Harvard,
and LEGO, and technical experience in Chicago's financial industry,
and international management consultancy. Bryson is presently
Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School of Governance.
Diplomatic Hertie, 60 words, 2019
Joanna Bryson is expert in intelligence – both natural and
artificial. With degrees in Social and Computer Sciences from
Chicago, Edinburgh and MIT, her scientific research appears in
venues from reddit to Science, and her policy voice is heard in the
UN, EU, CoE, OSCE, and OECD. From February 2020, Bryson will
be Professor of Ethics and Technology at the Hertie School of
Governance, Berlin.
More academic, early 2019
Joanna Bryson is a Reader (tenured Associate Professor) at
the University of Bath. She has broad academic interests in the
structure and utility of intelligence, both natural and
artificial. Venues for her research range from reddit
to Science.
She is best known for her work in systems AI and AI ethics, both of
which she began during her PhD in the 1990s, but she and her
colleagues publish broadly, in biology, anthropology,
sociology, philosophy, cognitive science, and politics.
Current projects include “The Limits of Transparency for
Humanoid Robotics” funded by AXA
Research, and “Public Goods and Artificial Intelligence” (with
Alin Coman of Princeton University’s Department of Psychology and
Mark Riedl of Georgia Tech) funded by Princeton’s University Center for Human
Values. Other current research includes understanding
the causality behind the correlation between wealth inequality and
political polarization, generating transparency for AI systems, and
research on machine prejudice deriving from human semantics.
She holds degrees in Psychology from Chicago and Edinburgh, and in
Artificial Intelligence from Edinburgh and MIT. At Bath she
founded the Artificial
Intelligence research group (one of four in the Department of Computer
Science) and heads their Artificial
Models of Natural Intelligence. Bryson is director of
outreach and impact for the UK's only Centre for Doctoral Training
in AI ethics, the Accountable, Responsible, and Transparent AI
(ART-AI) Bath.
More rock-n-roll (August 2019)
Joanna Bryson is an Associate Professor (Reader) at the University
of Bath. Bryson’s first and third degrees were in Psychology
(Chicago, Edinburgh), while her second and fourth were in Artificial
Intelligence (Edinburgh, MIT), so she approaches AI from the
perspective and for the purpose of understanding human behaviour.
Before her postgraduate education she did programming and system
administration in Chicago's financial industry, and between graduate
degrees she consulted for a number of companies on AI, notably LEGO.
Bryson has worked off and on in AI ethics since 1996; her first work
in policy was as coauthoring the UK research councils’ Principles of
Robotics in 2010. Policy work and supporting systems AI research now
takes up increasing amounts of her time. In the past few years she’s
consulted to the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Canadian
Institute for Advanced Research on the impact of AI on society, the
Red Cross on autonomous weapons, Chatham House on the impact of AI
on the nuclear threat, the OSCE and WEF on AI and cybersecurity, and
the UN on social media, the militarisation of AI, and its
governance. She has also spoken on the regulation of AI to the
Council of Europe, the British Parliament, Government, and Financial
Conduct Authority, the Canadian Government, the European Parliament
and Commission, the OECD, and the US Federal Reserve. She
further engages directly with corporations on AI policy, most
infamously with Google, but also Facebook, airbnb, Microsoft,
salesforce and others.
More academic rock-n-roll (August 2019)
Joanna Bryson is an Associate Professor (Reader) at the University
of Bath. Bryson holds a BA and MPhil in Psychology (Chicago,
Edinburgh), and an MSc and PhD in Artificial Intelligence
(Edinburgh, MIT). Before her postgraduate education she did
programming and system administration in Chicago's financial
industry, and between graduate degrees she consulted for a number of
companies on AI, notably LEGO. Bryson has worked off and on in AI
ethics since 1996; her first work in policy was as coauthoring the
UK research councils’ Principles of Robotics in 2010. In the recent
years she has consulted to the Swiss National Science Foundation and
the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research on the impact of AI on
society, the Red Cross on autonomous weapons, Chatham House on the
impact of AI on the nuclear threat, the OSCE and WEF on AI and
cybersecurity, and the UN on social media, the militarisation of AI,
and its governance. She has also spoken on the regulation of AI to
the Council of Europe, the British Parliament, Government, and
Financial Conduct Authority, the Canadian Government, the European
Parliament and Commission, the OECD, and the US Federal
Reserve. She further engages directly with corporations on AI
policy, including Google (ongoing as well as their short-lived
Advanced Technology External Advisory Committee), Facebook, airbnb,
Microsoft, and salesforce. Bryson is director of outreach and impact
for the UK's only Centre for Doctoral Training in AI ethics, the
Accountable, Responsible, and Transparent AI (ART-AI) Centre at
Bath.
For grant applications (Aug 2019)
Joanna Bryson is a globally-recognised leader in both artificial
intelligence itself and AI ethics. With two degrees each in
psychology and AI (BA Chicago, MSc & MPhil Edinburgh, PhD MIT)
her original focus was the use of artificial intelligence for
scientific simulations of natural cognitive systems. During her
PhD she first observed the confusion generated by
anthropomorphised AI, leading to her first AI ethics publication
“Just Another Artifact” in 1998. In 2010 her work in AI ethics was
first recognised by a policy body when she was invited to
participate in the EPSRC/AHRC Robot Ethics retreat, where she was
a key author of the EPSRC/AHRC “Principles of Robotics”, the
world’s first national-level AI ethics soft policy. Since then she
has continued researching the impact of technology on economies
and human cooperation, transparency for AI systems, and
participated in numerous policy opportunities for the UK
(parliament, royal society, RCUK, FCA), EU/EP/EC, OECD, Red Cross,
Chatham House, WEF, UN as well as national government and NGOs in
Switzerland, the US, Canada, and Germany. She came to Bath in 2002
where she founded the Computer Science Department’s Artificial
Intelligence research group, and she was made Reader in 2010. She
directs outreach and impact for the UK's only Centre for Doctoral
Training in AI ethics, the Accountable, Responsible, and
Transparent AI (ART-AI) Centre at Bath.
Longer (by Eugenia Zuroski, for the McMaster Whidden Lectures,
February 2018)
There is no pithy or efficient way, I discovered, of summarizing
Joanna Bryson’s area of expertise and academic credentials. She is
currently a Reader (Associate Professor) in the Department of
Computer Science at the University of Bath, and an affiliate of
Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy. She
holds degrees in psychology and behavioral science from the
University of Chicago and the University of Edinburgh, and degrees
in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh and MIT.
At Bath, she founded the Artificial Intelligence research group and
heads their Artificial Models of Natural Intelligence. She has held
fellowships in various fields at Harvard, the University of
Nottingham, the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition
in Austria, and Oxford University. Dr. Bryson has published widely
and copiously in venues ranging from the top academic journal
Science to the website Reddit (where she hosted an outstanding Ask
Me Anything thread last year). She has lent her expertise to various
governments as a consultant on AI ethics, to the Red Cross on
autonomous weaponry, and to LEGO in the development of the
Mindstorms series.
Broadly, Dr. Bryson’s research demonstrates a deep and sustained
engagement with cognition and intelligence both natural and
artificial. Her scholarly trajectory has been driven by remarkable
creative energy and fluid movement between different areas of
expertise in order to frame and address complex problems concerning
human behavior, society, governance, and ethics.
Members bio for the University of Bath Council, 270 words,
2017ish
Joanna J.
Bryson is a transdisciplinary researcher on the structure and
dynamics of human- and animal-like intelligence. Her research covers
topics ranging from artificial intelligence, through autonomy and
robot ethics, and on to human cooperation. Her work has
appeared in venues ranging from a reddit
to Science.
Bryson's first degree is in Behavioural Science (non-clinical
psychology) from Chicago (1986), she also holds an MSc in
Artificial Intelligence and an MPhil in Psychology from Edinburgh
(1992, 2000) and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from MIT (2001).
She joined Bath in 2002 in their Department of Computer Science,
where she was promoted to Reader (tenured associate professor) in
2010. She founded and for several years lead their Artificial
Intelligence research group, and is affiliated with Bath's
Institutes for Policy
Research and Mathematical
Innovation, as well as their Centres for
Networks and Collective Behaviour and for Digital
Entertainment. She has held visiting academic
positions with Princeton's Center for Information
Technology Policy, the Mannheim Centre for Social
Science Research (MZES, 2011-2014), the Department of Anthropology
Oxford (Harvey Whitehouse's Explaining Religion project,
2010-2011), The Methods & Data Institute at Nottingham
(agent-based modelling in political science 2007-2008), and the
Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution & Cognition Research in
Austria (on the biological origins of culture, 2007- 2009).
Before coming to Bath, she conducted academic research in
Edinburgh's Human Communication Research Centre (1999-2000), and
Harvard's Department of Psychology (2001-2002). Additionally, she
has professional experience in Chicago's financial industry
(1986-1991), international organization management consultancy
(1993-1994), and industrial AI research (for LEGO, 1995,
1998).
Bryson has served on the Senate, Council, and Court for the
University of Bath, representing the Academic Assembly. She is
presently a member of the College of the British Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and serves as a member
of the editorial board for several academic journals, including
Adaptive Behaviour, AI & Society, Connection Science, and The
International Journal of Synthetic Emotions.
Sun 17 May 2020 18:20:21 CEST