Eduardo Albrecht

Focus Areas: Artificial Intelligence, Conflict Resolution, AI Governance, Emerging Technologies, Democracy & Civil Society

Eduardo Albrecht is a political anthropologist with a history of work across government, non-profit, academic, and multilateral organizations. His research focuses on uses of artificial intelligence in state and international organization decision-making processes.

Currently he is as senior fellow at the United Nations University’s Centre for Policy Research, where he conducts research on uses of AI technologies in the United Nations conflict prevention and response architecture. In the past he served as visiting fellow at the European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) and the International Peace Institute (IPI), and has worked for various national governments (Japan, South Korea, United Kingdom) and the World Bank leading research teams and gaining direct experience designing innovative AI-based governance tools.

His research has been presented at venues including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and numerous other organizations as well as dozens of academic conferences organized by leading political and social science associations.

Since receiving his PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in 2010 he has published a wide variety of academic papers, policy publications, and full-length monographs. His most recent publication, "Predictive Technologies in Conflict Prevention: Practical and Policy Considerations for the Multilateral System," synthesizes key trends and discusses how multilateral organizations may seek to strengthen their predictive capacity in ethical and inclusive ways.

His new book, Political Automation: An Introduction to AI in Governance and its Impact on Citizens (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2024) investigates uses of AI to produce public policy decisions in a range of geographic contexts and seeks to better theorize the changing role of citizens in the act of policy production. The book is the first to utilize an ethnographic framework to compare the impact of AI technology on changing state-citizen relations in the West, East, and Southern Hemisphere.

Albrecht has also taught, and continues to teach, extensively, including as associate professor at Pukyong National University in South Korea, visiting faculty at John Cabot University in Rome, International Relations program director at Mercy University, and as adjunct associate professor in the Master's Program in International Affairs at the City University of New York's (CUNY) Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership.

Education

• PhD, University of London, SOAS
• MA, University of London, SOAS
• BA, John Cabot University