Professor Karahalios among 20 technologists, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and creative thinkers pushing artificial intelligence in unexpected directions.

We’re thrilled to celebrate MIT Media Lab professor Karrie Karahalios, head of the Social Algorithms group, who was named to Fast Company’s AI 20—an annual list spotlighting visionary technologists reshaping the role of AI in society.

Karahalios is the sole academic professor on the 2025 list, a distinction that underscores the importance of her work at the intersection of research, ethics, and empowerment. Her pioneering investigations into social computing and algorithmic fairness aim to return agency to individuals navigating opaque digital systems. At the Media Lab, she’s advancing the design of contestable systems—AI interfaces that let users “talk back” to algorithms, challenging moderation decisions or tuning content feeds in ways that respect personal values.

As we build these systems, and they seem to be permeating our society right now, one of my big goals is not to ignore human intuition and not to have people give up agency.

In an AI landscape dominated by corporate scale and speed, Karahalios brings a critical, human-centered voice. Her work exemplifies the Media Lab’s commitment to ensuring AI serves as a force for dignity, equity, and thriving—not just efficiency.

She joins a remarkable group of innovators, including Koray Kavukcuoglu of Google (a Media Lab member organization), Michelle Pokrass of OpenAI, Kimberly Powell of NVIDIA, and Kyle Fish of Anthropic. Each is advancing AI in ways that center ethics, creativity, and the human experience—pushing the boundaries of what’s possible while keeping people at the core.

As AI increasingly permeates daily life, Karahalios reminds us that the future of this technology doesn’t belong solely to machines or markets—it belongs to people. And to shape that future wisely, we need thoughtful, principled academics like her at the table.