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Amar Ashar is a senior researcher and Head of Algorithmic Policy at Spotify. His work focuses on algorithmic impact & responsibility, where he collaborates with product teams using AI/ML and generative AI technologies. He also serves as an advisor to the Trust & Safety Foundation, is a member of the T&S Professionals Association and Integrity Institute, and is a contributor to Stanford's Trust & Safety Teaching Consortium.

Previously, Amar was an assistant director of research at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. His research areas included issues of the ethics and governance of Artificial Intelligence with a focus on global governance, inclusion, and media/information quality. He has published research related to harmful and hate speech online, networked policymaking, and improving information for decision makers in the public and private sectors. He manages a number of strategic and emerging efforts at the Center and works closely with staff, fellows, faculty, affiliates, and alumni across the Berkman Klein community, as well as with numerous global partners and collaborators.

In his time at the Berkman Klein Center, Amar played a leadership role in the formation of various interdisciplinary and cross-sector networks including the Global Network of Internet & Society Centers and Digitally Connected. He has contributed to many of the Center's research and educational initiatives including: Media Cloud, AGTech Forum, Rethink Music, HyperPublic, Truthiness in Digital Media, Reshaping Knowledge Institutions in the Digital Age, Open Education, Cyberscholars, the Berkman Klein fellows program, Digital Public Library of America, Berkman@10, Oxford's Summer Doctoral Program, and IS2K7. Amar also directed the Center's flagship public forum for discussion and debate and transformed it into a leading venue for practitioners and researchers across the field of Internet & society to share cutting edge work.

Amar holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA from Boston College.


Projects & Tools

Past

AI: Autonomous Vehicles

As vehicles become more automated vehicles, we consider potential impacts on labor, questions about governance, bias, and inequality, and work to identify forms of transparency.

Past

AI: Global Governance and Inclusion

In a world challenged by growing domestic and international inequalities, policymakers face hard problems and difficult choices when dealing with AI systems.

Past

AI: Media and Information Quality

As autonomous systems play an increasing role in selecting the content we see online, questions arise about AI's influence on human judgment, opinions, and perceptions.

Past

Digital Ethics in Times of Crisis: COVID-19 & Access to Education and Learning Spaces

A global research sprint explores digital transformation at a pivotal moment in time

Past

Harmful Speech Online

The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is in the third year of a research, policy analysis, and network building effort devoted to the study of harmful speech, in close…

Past

Internet Governance

A multi-disciplinary, collaborative, and extended investigation into the multi-layered system that defines the function, structure, and operation of the Internet. 

The Ethics of Digitalization

Led by the Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), the Berkman Klein Center, and the Digital Asia Hub, and in collaboration with the Global Network of…


Publications

Publication
Dec 8, 2016

Understanding Harmful Speech Online

This paper offers reflections and observations on the state of research related to harmful speech online.

Publication
Sep 26, 2016

Networked Policy Making Avenues: Assessing the Role of Academics in Digital Policy

There are a growing number of examples that point toward a change in the way public policy is made in the digital age. This new context, which we refer to as networked…


News

News
May 28, 2020

Framework For the Ethical Use of Advanced Data Science Methods in the Humanitarian Sector

Action-orientated steps to innovate in an ethical, responsible, and practical way.

Action-orientated steps to innovate in an ethical, responsible, and practical way.

News
Jun 11, 2019

Artificial Intelligence in Society

A broad overview of the technical, economic, political, and social landscapes of AI, including its positive and negative impacts

News
Jul 11, 2018

Global Governance and Inclusion

Reframing the Global Debate Around AI

A look at lessons we’ve learned in our work as part of the Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative,

News
Feb 22, 2018

Why Inclusion Matters for the Future of Artificial Intelligence

The development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies hold tremendous promise for much of the world, including the Global South.


Community

Journal of Online Trust & Safety

Algorithmic Impact Assessments at Scale

Practitioners' Challenges and Needs

What challenges do practitioners face when implementing Algorithmic Impact Assessments?

Sep 18, 2024

Events

Event
May 21, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Auditing for Bias in Resume Search Engines

with Christo Wilson, Associate Professor Northeastern University

VIDEO & PODCAST: Are the algorithms that surface and rank your resume for job recruiters biased with respect to gender?