Biographies

Long Academic Hertie School Bio, December 2022 (300 words)

Joanna Joy Bryson is a globally-recognised leader and expert in intelligence broadly, including AI policy and AI ethics. Her original academic focus was the natural sciences, using 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 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. Her present research focuses on the impact of technology on economies and human cooperation, transparency for and through AI systems, interference in democratic regulation, the future of labour, society, and digital governance more broadly. She also consults frequently on policy, including to the UK (parliament, royal society, RCUK, FCA), EU/EP/EC, OSCE, OECD, Red Cross, Chatham House, CoE, IEEE, WEF, UN as well as government bodies in Switzerland, the US, Canada, and Germany. In 2020, Germany nominated her to the first cohort of experts for the Global Partnership of AI, where she chaired an AI Governance committee. She holds two degrees each in psychology (BA Chicago & MPhil Edinburgh) and AI (MSc Edinburgh & PhD MIT). From 2002-2019 she was Computer Science faculty at the University of Bath, where she founded and led their AI research group; she has also held postdoctoral, sabbatical, or 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. She has been the Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School, Berlin since February 2020.

Shorter Academic Hertie School Bio, December 2022 (150 words)

Joanna J Bryson is an academic recognised for broad expertise on intelligence, its nature, and its consequences. Holding two degrees each in psychology and AI (BA Chicago, MSc & MPhil Edinburgh, PhD MIT), Bryson is since 2020 the Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School in Berlin, where she is a founding member of the Centre for Digital Governance. From 2002-2019 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. Bryson advises governments, corporations, and NGOs globally, particularly on AI policy. Her research has appeared in venues ranging from reddit to Science. It presently focuses on the impacts of technology on human societies and cooperation, and improving governance of AI and digital technology.

Less Academic, February 2024 (100 words)

Joanna J. Bryson is an academic expert specialised in both natural and artificial intelligence. Her research ranges from systems engineering of Artificial Intelligence (AI), through autonomy, behavioural ecology, cognition, ethics, cooperation, and on to technology policy. Her work appears in venues ranging from reddit to Science. She holds degrees in Psychology from Chicago and Edinburgh, and AI from Edinburgh and MIT. She has additional professional research experience from Princeton, Oxford, Harvard, and LEGO, and digital systems engineering experience in the financial and manufacturing sectors. Since 2020, Bryson is Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School of Governance, in Berlin.

Diplomatic Hertie, January 2021 (60 words)

Diplomatic/Executive Hertie May 2021 (100 words, 800 characters)

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, OECD. Since February 2020, Bryson has been Professor of Ethics and Technology at Hertie School, Berlin, where she cofounded their Centre for Digital Governance. Since June 2020 she has served as one of nine German-nominated experts on the Global Partnership for AI, where she co-chairs the AI Governance committee.

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 [link to Publications page] 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.

My Expertise in AI, October 2021

I have a PhD in the field of (from MIT) and also a masters degree (from Edinburgh). I actually first taught AI as a teaching assistant in 1986, but have done so much more frequently since becoming a professor in 2002. I have published extensively in the area. I was one of Google's nominees to its Advanced Technology External Advisory Council, and am presently a nominee of Germany as an expert in the Global Partnership for AI. I have done a lot of policy consultation for various organisations including the UN, OECD, OSCE, Council of Europe, EU (EP/EC), governments of Germany, UK, USA, Canada, Switzerland, ICRC, Chatham House.

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, August 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, 2017-ish (270 words)

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.

See also Joanna’s main biography on the About tab.