Chris Russell joined Exeter College as a Fellow by Special Election in 2023. He is the Dieter Schwarz Associate Professor, AI, Government and Policy.
Dr Russell’s work lies at the intersection of computer vision and responsible AI. His career to date illustrates a commitment to exploring the use of AI for good, alongside responsible governance of algorithms.
His recent work on mapping for autonomous driving won the best paper award at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). He has a wide-ranging set of research interests, having worked with the British Antarctic Foundation to forecast arctic melt; as well as creating one of the first causal approaches to algorithmic fairness. His work on explainability with Sandra Wachter and Brent Mittelstadt of the OII is cited in the guidelines to the GDPR and forms part of the TensorFlow “What-if tool”.
Dr Russell has been a research affiliate of the OII since 2019 and is a founding member of the Governance of Emerging Technology programme, a research group that spans multiple disciplines and institutions looking at the socio-technical issues arising from new technology and proposing legal, ethical and technical remedies. Their research focuses on the governance and ethical design of algorithms, with an emphasis on accountability, transparency, and explainable AI.