Ranjit Singh is the director of Data & Society’s AI on the Ground program, where he oversees research on the social impacts of algorithmic systems, the governance of AI in practice, and emerging methods for organizing public engagement and accountability. His own work focuses on how people live with and make sense of AI, examining how algorithmic systems and everyday practices shape each other. His current research examines the integration of AI tools into scientific practice, focusing on how these tools transform reasoning, evidence standards, and epistemic accountability in the sciences. He also guides research ethics at Data & Society and works to sustain equity in collaborative research practices, both internally and with external partners.His broader research agenda focuses on the ordinary ethics of how people make sense of and respond to data-driven technologies. His work draws on majority world scholarship, public policy analysis, and ethnographic fieldwork in settings ranging from scientific laboratories and bureaucratic agencies to public services and civic institutions. At Data & Society, he has previously led projects mapping the conceptual vocabulary and stories of living with AI in/from the majority world, framing the place of algorithmic impact assessments in regulating AI, and investigating the keywords that ground ongoing research into the datafied state.

He holds a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Cornell University. His dissertation research focused on Aadhaar, India’s biometrics-based national identification system, advancing public understanding of how identity infrastructures both enable and constrain inclusive development and reshape the nature of Indian citizenship.