FTC makes five new appointments

These additions will work with the agency’s chief technology officer and technologists as part of an informal AI strategy group and in partnership with policy experts to provide insight and advice on emergency technology issues.

“At this critical time for the agency, I’m thrilled to welcome to the FTC several new additions: Amba Kak, John Kwoka, Sarah Myers West, Olivier Sylvain, and Meredith Whittaker,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said. “Tackling unlawful conduct requires that we ensure our law enforcement and policy work are keeping pace with new market realities. These leaders in tech and economic policy will work alongside experts within the FTC and my office to help us realize that goal.”

Kak joins the FTC from New York University’s (NYU) Tandon School of Engineering to serve as senior advisor on artificial intelligence. While at NYU, she was the director of global policy at the AI Now Institute. Kak brings her comparative global expertise to policy issues. Recently she has focused on algorithmic accountability and biometric regulation.

She also has served as the global policy advisor at Mozilla, developing the organization’s policy position on network neutrality and data privacy regulation.

Kwoka returns to the FTC to serve as chief economist to the chair. He also has held positions with the antitrust division of the Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Most recently, he was the Neal F. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Economics at Northeastern University. He also has taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, George Washington University, and has had visiting positions at Northwestern University and Harvard University.

Myers West will be the advisor on artificial intelligence and also joins from NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, where she was a research scholar at the AI Now Institute. Her research focuses on the intersection of technology, labor, and platform accountability and the history and political economy of the tech industry. Myers West has testified before NYC City Council and has been invited to present her research at venues such as the National Science Policy Network, Internet Governance Forum, and National Human Genome Research Institute.

Sylvain will be the senior advisor on technology to the chair. Prior to joining the commission, he served as a professor of law at Fordham University, where he was an expert on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Sylvain’s areas of scholarship include administrative law, information law, U.S. data protection and privacy law, and other information-economy related matters.

While at Fordham, he was the director of the McGannon Center for Communications Research, the academic director of the Center for Law and Information Policy, and a research affiliate at the Center on Race, Law, and Justice.  

Whittaker also joins the FTC from NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering to serve as senior advisor on artificial intelligence to the chair. At NYU, she was the faculty director of the AI Now institute and the Minderoo Research Professor, where she focuses on critically examining the intersection of technology and policy, including the political economy of artificial intelligence and companies that develop and profit from it.

Whittaker founded Google’s Open Research Group and cofounded M-Lab, a globally distributed network measurement platform that provides the world’s largest source of open data on internet performance.