Sandra Wachter

Dr. Sandra Wachter is Professor of technology and regulation at the University of Oxford at the Oxford Internet Institute and is Humboldt Professor of technology and regulation at the Hasso Plattner Institute.

At the Oxford Internet Institute, Professor Sandra Wachter leads and coordinates the Governance of Emerging Technologies (GET) Research Programme that investigates the legal and ethical implications of AI, big data, and robotics as well as internet and platform regulation. Professor Wachter also serves as a policy advisor for governments, companies, and NGOs around the world on regulatory and ethical questions concerning emerging technologies. 

Professor Wachter publishes widely in top journals, including Science and Nature and focuses on legal, ethical, and technical aspects of AI and inferential analytics, explainable AI, algorithmic bias, platform regulation, profiling, as well as emotion- and facial-recognition software. The societal impact of generative AI and hallucinations in areas such as the future of work, misinformation, free press, and human rights is also at the heart of her research agenda. 

Professor Wachter is an affiliate and member at numerous institutions, such as the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Values, Ethics and Innovation, UNESCO, European Parliament Working Group on AI Liability,  Law Committee of the IEEE, World Bank’s Task Force on Access to Justice and Technology, United Kingdom Police Ethics Guidance Group, British Standards Institution, Law Faculty at Oxford, Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, Oxford Martin School and the Oxford University Press. 

Previously, Professor Wachter was a visiting Professor at Harvard Law School. Prior to joining the OII she studied at the University of Oxford and the Law Faculty at the University of Vienna. She has also worked at the Alan Turing Institute, Royal Academy of Engineering and the Austrian Ministry of Health.