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Hilary Ross is an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center.

Currently, she is a technology policy program consultant. She is interested in the governance of emerging technologies, transparency, freedom of expression, information integrity, and the future of news. Previously, she worked on staff at the Berkman Klein Center, where she managed multiple fellowships and other types of programming. She also worked in industry on data transparency. She’s particularly interested in public interest work that bridges practitioner and research communities, and brings together tech policy, program management, research, and education. 

Hilary holds an MA from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, where she specialized in technology policy and international communication.


 


Projects & Tools

Responsible Generative AI: Accountable Technical Oversight

Generative AI is at a tipping point of adoption and impact, much like that of machine learning and AI years ago. But this time the stakes, regulatory environment, potential social…

BKC Policy Practice: Digital Pandemic Response

The BKC Policy Practice on Digital Pandemic Response is an interdisciplinary program that works with public and private decision makers on difficult questions around the use of…

Past

Assembly: Disinformation

The Assembly: Disinformation Program brings together participants from academia, industry, government, and civil society from across disciplines to explore and make progress on…


Publications

Nov 21, 2019

Content and Conduct

How English Wikipedia Moderates Harmful Speech

This study assesses the degree to which English-language Wikipedia is successful in moderating harmful speech


News

Rebooting Social Media
Nov 17, 2021

Student Groundwork

Initial explorations from research assistants at the Institute for Rebooting Social Media

To start spinning up the Institute, a team of staff and research assistants investigated the existing landscape of academic and civil society efforts to improve and reimagine…

News
Feb 25, 2021

Surveillance and the ‘New Normal’ of Covid-19: Public Health, Data, and Justice

BKC community members share insights as part of SSRC Public Health, Surveillance, & Human Rights Network.

SSRC report shares strategies for building a more responsible social infrastructure. 

Nov 24, 2020

Retrospective Contact Tracing: A Primer For State And Territorial Health Authorities

This policy memo details key features of retrospective contact tracing and lays out five recommendations for state and local public health authorities who are seeking to deploy…

Jul 8, 2020

Digital Contact Tracing: A Primer

How Data Can Support Contact Tracing, Explained by BKC's Jonathan Zittrain

Tech Solutions to Contact Tracing Explained by BKC’s Jonathan Zittrain

Aug 14, 2019

Apply for the 2020 Assembly: Disinformation Fellowship

Application closes on September 15 at 9:00pm EST

News
Jul 19, 2019

What We Created During Assembly 2019

Over three months the BKC and MIT Media Lab’s third annual Assembly program built four projects that offer ways to move forward on the thorny problems at the intersection of AI…

Harvard Business School Digital Initiative
May 6, 2019

Some assembly required: building an interdisciplinary superteam to tackle AI ethics

A diverse cohort of experts make up Assembly 2019 with a singular mission — tackling AI bias and collaborating on meaningful solutions.

Medium
Apr 29, 2019

Assembly: Building An Interdisciplinary Project From The Ground Up

Inside the first few weeks of the 2019 Assembly program

News
Mar 27, 2019

Inside The R&D Of AI Ethics

Designing a roadmap for AI governance

It’s clear that the roadmap for AI governance won’t rely solely on business or academic research. That's where Assembly comes in.

News
Jan 29, 2019

The “Dataset Nutrition Label Project” Tackles Dataset Health and Standards

Algorithms can only be as good as the data that underly them. Learn about one project that is pulling back the curtain on the quality of datasets.

Medium
Aug 22, 2018

Why We’re Hosting Assembly

In this Medium story, the Berkman Klein Center provides background on the Assembly program.


Community

Tech Policy Press

Ensuring Digital Services Act Audits Deliver on Their Promise

BKC Affiliate Hilary Ross, Jason Pielemeier, and Ramsha Jahangir critique the EU DSA audits.

Feb 19, 2024
All Tech is Human

Inside the Institute for Rebooting Social Media

Hilary Ross dives deep into the mission of the Institute for Rebooting Social Media at All Tech is Human's Responsible Tech University Summit.

Dec 29, 2021
CNN Business

Facebook's success was built on algorithms. Can they also fix it?

James Mickens and Hilary Ross discuss the drawbacks and potential solutions of social media algorithms.

Oct 10, 2021

Policy-palooza: How Congress, state and local governments can stabilize local news

Hilary Ross comments on how government may be able to help the state of local news. 

Jul 20, 2021
Day One Project

Expanding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to Fund Local News

Hilary Ross calls for the expansion of public media to combat disinformation.

Jul 9, 2021
BKC Medium Collection

What Digital Contact Tracing Can Teach Us About Public Trust, Health Equity, and Governance in the United States

Adam Nagy and Hilary Ross share reflections on public trust, equity, and governance from the Digital Pandemic Response Working Group

Oct 29, 2020
Harvard Gazette

Harvard students explore ethics in tech

Assembly Student Fellowship convenes students to tackle the biggest issues in tech today.

Sep 1, 2019
Medium

Announcing Assembly: Disinformation

New program explores disinformation in the digital public sphere from a cybersecurity perspective

Aug 14, 2019

Events

Event
Nov 18, 2021 @ 12:00 PM

The Technology Future We Want: Imagining Positive Futures for Social Media

EVENT RECAP: "Psychedelic Bubbles and a Non-Euclidian Costume Party: Imagining positive futures for social media"

Event
Oct 19, 2021 @ 1:00 PM

Private Social Media Data in the Public Interest: What’s Next?

VIDEO: This October 19 panel explored dilemmas, debates, and paths forward for public interest research access to social media data.

Event
May 17, 2021 @ 4:00 PM

Assembly Project Fellowship Showcase

An inside look at the work of the 2021 Assembly Fellows on Disinformation, Privacy, and Ethical AI

An inside look at the work of the 2021 Assembly Fellows on Disinformation, Privacy, and Ethical AI