Apryl Williams

Senior Fellow, Trustworthy AI

2022-2024

United States

Dr. Apryl Williams is a critical scholar working at the intersection of technology, race, and society. Before joining Mozilla, Apryl held fellowships at the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center and Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. Apryl is a jointly appointed Assistant Professor in Digital Studies and the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan and an affiliate of NYU’s Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies.

Fellowship Project

Apryl is raising awareness about automated systems that impact the daily lives of marginalized peoples.

During her fellowship, she will facilitate harm reduction across online dating platforms that use racialized algorithmic systems. She will also explore new paths of data transparency and accountability for unjust treatment of marginalized users.

Apryl approaches this work with expertise in race and gender, although harm reduction strategies extend to all marginalized peoples. She has published a book on racial and gender biases in online dating platforms, and ran workshops on Algorithmic Reparation and Algorithmic Reparation. Apryl has created and tested Algorithmic Reparation “best practices” for builders, tech companies, technologists, and scholars.