Alex Hanna, Ph.D.

Alex Hanna, Ph.D. is director of research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR). A sociologist by training, her work centers on the data used in new computational technologies, and the ways in which these data exacerbate racial, gender, and class inequality. She also works in the area of social movements, focusing on the dynamics of anti-racist campus protest in the US and Canada. She holds a BS in Computer Science and Mathematics and a BA in Sociology from Purdue University, and an MS and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Hanna is the co-author, with Emily M. Bender, Ph.D., of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want , a book about AI and the hype around it. Hanna and Bender also run the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 series, playfully and wickedly tearing apart AI hype for a live audience online on Twitch and her podcast.

Hanna has published widely in top-tier venues across the social sciences, including the journals Mobilization, American Behavioral Scientist, and Big Data & Society, and top-tier computer science conferences such as CSCW, FAccT, and NeurIPS. She serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies and sits on the advisory board for the Human Rights Data Analysis Group. She is also recipient of the Wisconsin Alumni Association’s Forward Award, has been included on FastCompany’s Queer 50 (2021, 2024) List and Business Insider’s AI Power List, and has been featured in the Cal Academy of Sciences New Science exhibit, which highlights queer and trans scientists of color.