Jacob (Jake) Metcalf, PhD, leads Data & Society’s AI on the Ground program, which uses social science to develop robust analyses of AI systems, effectively assess their impact, and inform their future design, use, and governance. His work focuses primarily on how AI accountability is structured, emphasizing how impacted and vulnerable communities can assert power over the design, measurement, and documentation of the consequences of data and AI systems. Jake’s work makes use of technoscientific approaches to understanding how technology and society are intertwined. Recent topics for his research include participatory assessment practices, New York City’s Local Law 144 for auditing bias in hiring algorithms (including a Best Paper prize at FAccT 2024), new organizational roles that have developed around responsible AI in tech companies, the rise of red-teaming as an AI accountability practice, and how assessment practices can provide standing for legal recourse for AI harns. His forthcoming projects include a study of AI procurement practices in municipal governments and the relationship between AI, climate, and wildfires in California. He recently co-edited a special issue of First Monday on the consolidation of power in AI with Jenna Burrell.  

Jake founded Data & Society’s Algorithmic Impact Methods Lab (AIMLab), which is now led by his colleague Tamara Kneese. He is a co-PI for the Community Led Impact Measurement of AI and Technology for Equity (CLIMATE) Hub, funded by the NSF ReDDDoT program. He was previously a co-PI on the National Science Foundation-funded multi-site project, Pervasive Data Ethics for Computational Research (PERVADE), studying how data ethics practices are emerging in environments that have not previously grappled with research ethics, such as industry, IRBs, and civil society organizations. He regularly advises policymakers and regulatory agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. 

Jake’s consulting firm, Ethical Resolve, provides a range of ethics services, helping clients make well-informed, consistent, actionable, and timely business decisions that reflect their values. He also serves as the chair of the Ethics Subgroup for the IEEE P7000 Standard. Jake holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He lives amongst the redwoods of the Santa Cruz mountains.