Fellows

Raluca Besliu is an independent Romanian journalist who lived and worked in West Africa, Germany, and the United States. She has published more than 600 articles on topics ranging from environmental and political affairs in Eastern Europe to human rights abuses in African countries, and has been featured in esteemed publications, such as The New York Times and Euronews. In 2024, she worked on an investigation into the use of synthetic media ahead of the European Parliament elections. Published in a two-part series in Il Manifesto, the research revealed the psychological and social effects of deepfakes, particularly on female politicians. She also contributed to fostering AI-related knowledge exchange and skills development within the journalistic community of the Bosch Alumni Network (BAN), a community of social changemakers supported by the Bosch Foundation.

Michael Bird is an award-winning investigative journalist and writer, most recently of Bears Uncovered, a project showing bear-human conflict in five countries, and fraud in the AI supply chain for AlgorithmWatch's fellowship alongside Nathan Schepers. His work has appeared in publications such as The Independent on Sunday, Vice, Mediapart, taz, Tagesspiegel, EU Observer and Business Insider, and he has contributed to BBC Radio and Deutsche Welle.

Adrienne is a investigative tech reporter for the Swiss magazin Republik.ch and the technology journalism blog dnip.ch that she co-founded and runs as editor in chief. She covers the topics digital ethics, privacy, big tech, cybersecurity, and AI, with focus on the intersection between democracy and technology. She completed a master's degree in political science, economic and social history, and constitutional law at the University of Zurich in 2009. From 2012 to 2014, she worked as a social media editor at the credit agency Orell Füssli Wirtschaftsinformationen (now CRIF AG), and from 2014 to 2016 as a social media editorial manager at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ). She also is the author of “Smartphone-Demokratie” (“Smartphone Democracy”).

Laura Galaup is a reporter with experience in investigative, political, and social journalism. Articles of hers were awarded with the Madrid Press Association Award and nominated for the Gabriel García Márquez Award. As a fellow in the 2024 Disarming Disinformation program at the International Center for Journalists, she investigated a prominent far-right disinformation agitator in Spain. After a year in New York, she currently lives in Madrid and works as a staff member at elDiario.es. She also contributes to outlets such as Univision, Cadena Ser, and La Marea. During her fellowship, Laura will examine how far-right organizations use AI to disseminate conspiracy theories and hate speech.

Marguerite Meyer is a freelance investigative journalist based in Switzerland. She has a background in history and political science, and works for international outlets on topics at the intersection of politics, finance, security, and defense, such as human rights and migration. She has investigated the military affiliations of the Swiss drone industry, human trafficking, and financial loopholes. Marguerite is a board member at the Swiss social enterprise and street paper Surprise, a member of the media diversity organisation NCHM*, and a FOIA association team member. She also is a 2024 European Collaborative Journalism Programme Fellow. Her motto is: people matter. During her AlgorithmWatch Fellowship, Marguerite will investigate the Swiss military-industrial AI complex.

Aniket Narawad is an independent (data) journalist based in Berlin and Brussels, specializing in the intersection of technology regulation and the environmental impact of emerging technologies. He holds an engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and a Master of Public Policy degree from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. Aniket has contributed to leading newsrooms such as Politico Europe, MLex Market Insight, and the German newswire DPA. His work was published in Al Jazeera, Thomson Reuters Context, and Clean Energy Wire, among others. Prior to his career in journalism, he worked as a data analyst in India's public policy sector. During his fellowship, Aniket will investigate on sustainability issues related to data centers in Germany and Europe.

Balz Oertli is a journalist with WAV Recherchekollektiv in Zurich, Switzerland. Formerly, he worked for the Swiss public broadcaster SRF. He focuses on the regulation of Big Tech in Switzerland. He frequently files Freedom of Information requests at all government levels and leads the multi-year project "das Geld+die Politik" (moneyinpolitics.ch) on financial transparency in Swiss politics.

Nathan Schepers is a software engineer with 20 years of experience in organizations of various types and sizes. During his time as an Algorithmic Accountability Reporting fellow, he has worked together with Michael Bird as a researcher, reporter and technical consultant on the working conditions and other work-related issues identified in the supply chain of AI-training companies.

Anna Toniolo is an Italian freelance journalist and member of FADA Collective. Her work focuses on inequalities, gender issues, and climate conflicts. She analyzes how the online sphere impacts individuals and communities. Her articles were published in Italian and international media outlets, such as L'Espresso, LifeGate, Green European Journal, The Daily Dot, EUobserver, The New Arab, and others. She writes and hosts "Veramente," a weekly podcast that explores the connection between current events and disinformation, and has been the voice of several episodes of "News from Planet Earth," a current affairs podcast produced by LifeGate. Her work has been supported by Journalismfund Europe.

Pablo is a freelance journalist specialized in the social and political impact of technology. He's the head behind several investigations on the use of AI and algorithms in the public and private sector, in which he worked with Lighthouse Reports, the American author Virginia Eubanks, and the government of Catalonia. He has also produced two documentary podcasts on the topic and has worked for the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). He is a regular contributor to Spanish outlets like El Confidencial and El Salto Diario and has also published previous research with AlgorithmWatch. During his fellowship, he will focus on discriminatory insurance practices in Spain.

Dr Yasir Gökce is the director of the Institute for Diplomacy and Economy (instituDE), an independent, research-driven NGO headquartered in Brussels. He received a PhD from Bucerius Law School in Hamburg, Germany. In his thesis, he inverstigated the intricate nexus of law, cyberspace, and information security. He also holds an MPA degree from Harvard University, an LL.M. degree from Ankara University, and an LL.B. degree from Bilkent University. Gökce was an in-house legal counsel in the International Law Department of the Turkish foreign service and has extensive diplomatic experience in various countries. Before and after his tenure in diplomatic service, he worked as an attorney and expert in information security. Currently residing in Germany, he is actively engaging in research, delving into subjects such as international human rights law.

Sara is a freelance researcher and a communications expert. Currently, she's pursuing her postgraduate degree at Tampere University. For her PhD, she investigates digital borders and everyday surveillance in the South West Asia and North Africa region. Previously, Sara has worked as a communications consultant, leading different research projects and the communications planning. She has engaged in diverse European and Middle Eastern research projects related to migration, human rights, technology, and media. As a Fellow at AlgorithmWatch, Sara will investigate what impact electronic IDs and the access to banking services have on human rights for foreigners and people with precarious legal status.

Maja-Lee is a urban researcher, PhD student at the Leuphana University Lüneburg, and co-founder of the interdisciplinary city research collective Akteurinnen für urbanen Ungehorsam in Hamburg, Germany. Assisted by a methodological toolbox of ethnographic and critical feminist thinking, she is currently researching Amazon’s monopoly on bits, bytes, and boxes. Overall, Maja-Lee’s work focuses on the automation of logistics in cities, tackling questions about (resisting) algorithmic architectures of oppression and hacking patriarchy towards more just urban futures.

Mathana is a Berlin-based ethicist, philosopher, activist, and storyteller. Their work examines the socio-cultural impact of AI and automated bias, ethics-based approaches to responsible AR/VR design and development, and the nascent proliferation of weaponized robotics in society. Mathana is the co-founder of the AI transparency project xplainr and has chaired the IEEE Standard Association's Global Initiative on the ethics of Extended Reality, where they brought together researchers and experts across industrial applications to facilitate the publication of cohesive best-practice recommendations for more socially responsible AR/VR/metaverse technologies. They also worked on creating harm-reduction frameworks within technical standards development around algorithmic bias and emotion recognition algorithms. During the fellowship, they will investigate applications of emotion recognition and detection algorithms in the European finance sector.

Samuel works as journalist for Bajour, an online media startup in Basel. He studied journalism in Hamburg and Luzern and worked for different newspapers. His fields of expertise are data journalism and crowd journalism. He was the project lead for the “Who Owns Basel” research which was published at Bajour in 2021. For his data story about cheating in the Swiss national sport "Schwingen" (a version of wrestling), he was awarded the third place in the Swiss press award competition in 2023.

Stavros is a reporter and editor for Solomon, a Greek investigative outlet. He has worked for Agence France-Presse, has participated in cross-border investigations with Lighthouse Reports and Investigate Europe, and his work was published in major media in several European countries. He was shortlisted for the European Press Prize 2021 and won the IJ4EU Impact Award 2022. In 2019, he was selected as a fellow for BIRN's Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence (BFJE). He also was a fellow in data journalism at Columbia University in New York.

Mathilde is a French journalist specialized in digital issues. A graduate of Sciences Po Paris, she has worked for The Guardian, RFI, 20 Minutes, Les Inrocks, Next INpact, and others. In 2023, she published the book Technoféminisme, comment le numérique aggrave les inégalités ("Technofeminism, how digital technology is exacerbating inequalities") with the French publishing house Grasset.

Alina has specialized in data and investigative journalism. She has bylines with Euronews, EUobserver, and AlgorithmWatch. With a team of colleagues from Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, she investigated the lobbying on the landmark EU proposal to regulate Artificial Intelligence, and found that it was designed to promote a widespread use of the technology in the public sector. As an AlgorithmWatch fellow, she will focus on researching the use of algorithms in courts and the mental health sector.

Pierluigi is a freelance journalist and editor. He covers social issues in Mediterranean countries. He’s one of the co-authors of Bagliore (Il Saggiatore, 2020) and editor at The Syllabus, a knowledge curation platform, and Alea, an independent anthropology magazine. With a background in computer science, he has always been interested in the social implications of automated systems, especially those that impact and harm the rights of migrants, minorities, and the poorest.

Nathalie is a PhD student with an academic interest in chatbots. She holds a research master’s degree in Communication Science from the University of Amsterdam. Her current research revolves around users’ responses to different framings of disclosure of customer care chatbots’ identity. During her fellowship at AlgorithmWatch, she looked into the use of chatbots in mental health, automatic fact-checking, and the digitization of the agricultural sector.

Kave is a human rights lawyer, loves ethical technology, and knows a lot about data protection law. He works with organizations for people with disabilities and writes articles for the Swedish Data Protection Forum. His fellowship project was to study deaf and hard-of-hearing people's views on “robot interpreters” and the ethical concerns that come with using them. He also wrote about why social sciences should be part of technical education.