Becca Ricks (she/her) is a researcher, programmer, and artist whose practice challenges the opacity of AI systems. Blending critical inquiry with design, she explores how algorithms shape human experience, focusing on the power imbalances embedded in technological infrastructures.
Currently, Becca is the Head of Open Source Research at Mozilla Foundation, where she explores how users engage in forms of resistance and exercise control over their experiences online. She was named as one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and served on steering committees for the Partnership on AI’s ABOUT ML project and Ford Foundation’s Public Interest Technology network. Becca completed a 2017-2018 technical fellowship at Human Rights Watch. She holds a master’s degree from NYU-ITP, where her research explored the implications of algorithmic categorization.
Becca’s interdisciplinary work spans digital inquiry, machine-knit textiles, generative texts, and 3D modeling, unknotting the entanglements between code and culture. Her practice is rooted in both material and digital experimentation, creating tactile representations of computational processes. Becca is a co-founder of tendernet, an art/tech collective exploring critical AI futures through speculative design workshops.
Becca has spoken at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, MIT, the Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art, the Walker Art Center, RISD, and a number of other venues. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, Washington Post, and WIRED.
Currently, Becca is the Head of Open Source Research at Mozilla Foundation, where she explores how users engage in forms of resistance and exercise control over their experiences online. She was named as one of 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and served on steering committees for the Partnership on AI’s ABOUT ML project and Ford Foundation’s Public Interest Technology network. Becca completed a 2017-2018 technical fellowship at Human Rights Watch. She holds a master’s degree from NYU-ITP, where her research explored the implications of algorithmic categorization.
Becca’s interdisciplinary work spans digital inquiry, machine-knit textiles, generative texts, and 3D modeling, unknotting the entanglements between code and culture. Her practice is rooted in both material and digital experimentation, creating tactile representations of computational processes. Becca is a co-founder of tendernet, an art/tech collective exploring critical AI futures through speculative design workshops.
Becca has spoken at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center, MIT, the Toronto Museum of Contemporary Art, the Walker Art Center, RISD, and a number of other venues. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, Washington Post, and WIRED.