Mary L. Gray is Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research and Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. She maintains a faculty position in the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering with affiliations in Anthropology and Gender Studies at Indiana University. Mary, an anthropologist and media scholar by training, focuses on how people’s everyday uses of technologies transform labor, identity, and human rights. Mary’s research has been covered by popular press venues, including The Guardian, El Pais, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Nature, The Economist, Harvard Business Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Forbes Magazine. Her publications include books, such as Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America and Ghost Work: How to Stop Silicon Valley from Building a New Global Underclass as well as scholarly journal articles that span computer science, LGBTQ studies, and science technology studies.

Mary is also recognized as a leading expert in the emerging field of AI and ethics, particularly research at the intersections of computer and social sciences. She sits on several boards, including Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research and the California Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, in addition to chairing the Microsoft Research Ethics Review Program—the only federally-registered institutional review board of its kind in the tech industry. In 2020, Mary was named a MacArthur Fellow for her contributions to anthropology and the study of technology, digital economies, and society.