Rashida Richardson

Rashida Richardson is a lawyer, researcher and Senior Counsel of Artificial Intelligence at Mastercard. She also serves as the Director of Policy Research at AI Now Institute at NYU, a research institute that studies the social implications of artificial intelligence. As Director of Policy Research, she designs, implements, and coordinates AI Now’s research strategy and initiatives on the topics of law, policy, and civil rights.

Richardson joined AI Now after working as Legislative Counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of New York (NYCLU), where she led the organization’s work on privacy, technology, surveillance, and education issues. Prior to the NYCLU, she was a staff attorney at the Center for HIV Law and Policy, where she worked on a wide-range of HIV-related legal and policy issues nationally, and she previously worked at Facebook Inc. and HIP Investor in San Francisco.

Her research examines the social and civil rights implications of data driven technologies, including artificial intelligence. Richardson collaborates with legal advocacy, research, and community based organizations to develop and inform policy interventions and regulatory strategies regarding data driven technologies, government surveillance, racial discrimination, and the technology sector.

In 2020, Richardson appeared in the Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma", which explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society.

Richardson currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Wesleyan University, the Advisory Board of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, the Board of Directors of the College & Community Fellowship, and she is an affiliate and Advisory Board member of the Center for Critical Race + Digital Studies. She received her BA with honors in the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan University and her JD from Northeastern University School of Law.