Beth Coleman

Beth Coleman is an Associate Professor of Data & Cities at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology (UTM) and the Faculty of Information, where she directs the City as Platform lab. Working in the disciplines of Science and Technology Studies, generative aesthetics, and Black poesis, her research focuses on smart technology & machine learning, urban data and civic engagement, and generative arts. She is the author of Hello Avatar and multiple articles, including “Race as Technology.” She was a 2021 Google Artists and Machines Intelligence awardee and is a continuing Senior visiting researcher with Google Brain and Responsible AI. She is a founding member of the Trusted Data Sharing group and incoming research lead on AI policy and praxis at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology & Society. Her research affiliations have included the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University; Microsoft Research New England; Data & Society Institute, New York; and expert consultant for the European Commission Digital Futures. She served as the Inaugural Director of the U of T Black Research Network Institute Strategic Initiative. She is currently working on the exhibition “Speculative AI: Octavia Butler and Other Possible Worlds,” and the monograph, Imitation of Life: Generative AI in/as Society.