Jenna Burrell is Data & Society’s Director of Research. She oversees all aspects of our research program at Data & Society, ensuring the rigor and integrity of our work. Before joining D&S she was a professor at the School of Information at UC Berkeley. Her research focuses on how marginalized communities adapt digital technologies to meet their needs and to pursue their goals and ideals. At Berkeley she was the co-director of the Algorithmic Fairness and Opacity Group (AFOG) which brought together faculty and students from across campus to facilitate research on how algorithmic systems can be designed, used, or regulated to support more equitable and just societies. Burrell is the author of Invisible Users: Youth in the Internet Cafes of Urban Ghana (MIT Press). These days she spends a lot of time thinking about ways of protecting human control and autonomy in the wake of artificial intelligence and the possibilities for democratizing tech. She earned a PhD in Sociology from the London School of Economics and a BA in Computer Science from Cornell University.
Jenna Burrell

All Work
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blog post
PointsD&S's Janet Haven and Jenna Burrell discuss why it should not be up to the tech industry to “set forth the values that will shape the future of these systems, or to reassure the public that they’re the good guys.” Read on PointsApril 2023 -
Press Coverage
BloombergA small but growing number of people are using jailbreak prompts to get AI chatbots to sidestep human-built guardrails. As Jenna Burrell explains, these prompts can give people a sense of control over new tech — but they’re also a kind of warning. Read on BloombergApril 2023 -
Press Coverage
The Christian Science MonitorAs news outlets and their consumers reorient themselves to a media landscape where AI plays an increasingly large role, Jenna Burrell clarifies what these tools can actually do — and what they can’t. Read on The Christian Science MonitorMarch 2023 -
blog post
Arab NewsMarch 2023 -
blog post
PointsA concise guide to investigating the datafied state through documents. Read on PointsMarch 2023 -
Press Coverage
Popular ScienceChatGPT's imitation of sentience will “confuse people who read machine consciousness, motivation, & emotion” into its human-like replies, says Jenna Burrell. Read on Popular ScienceFebruary 2023 -
Press Coverage
SemaforFor Semafor’s “10 Minute Text,” Gina Chua chatted with Jenna Burrell about chatbots, the labor behind them, and how they may be enabling further consolidation of wealth and power. Read on SemaforFebruary 2023 -
Panel
IJNetIn a panel for IJNet, Jenna Burrell dove into the pros of ChatGPT and how it can be a tool for journalists, as well as its limitations and what journalists should be cautious about. Read on IJNetFebruary 2023 -
op-ed
PoynterFebruary 2023 -
event
video
Data & SocietyOn Thursday, April 14th, 2022, Dr. Julia Ticona discussed her new book Left to Our Own Devices at Data & Society’s Book Forum Series with Labor Futures Program Director Aiha Nguyen and Director of Research Jenna Burrell. Read moreApril 2022