"The only way for AI to be for the People is through taking a responsible approach to the development of artificial intelligence.
~ Mutale Nkonde
Mutale Nkonde is currently pursing a PhD at Cambridge University in the Department of Digital Humanities.
In March 2020 Nkonde started AI for the People (AFP) a public sector Responsible AI Team that focuses on product policy. It is built around the policy advocacy work Nkonde had been doing in Congress since 2017. When she was a fellow at Data and Society, and later at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard.
In 2019 Nkonde's efforts led to her becoming the lead advocate for the introduction of the Algorithmic Accountability Act (AAA). In 2023 Nkonde took part in one of Senator Schumer's AI Insight Panels and spoke on panels at the Congress Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference (CBC). Then in 2024 she took part in a series of White House Roundtables on AI. In 2025 AI for the People became shareholder activists, using their proxy votes to encourage the world's largest AI developers to adopt responsible approaches to the design, deployment and governance of AI products.
Nkonde has a BSc. (Hons) in Sociology from Leeds Metropolitan University, a Masters Degree in American Studies from Columbia University. And has held fellowships at Notre Dame, and Stanford and is currently a visiting policy fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute.