Morgan Briggs

Morgan is the Senior Research Associate for Data Science and Ethics for the Public Policy Programme, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Digital Environment Research Institute (DERI) at Queen Mary University of London. Trained as a data scientist, she works on a variety of projects relating to human rights and AI, the use of data science to improve public service provision and policy innovation, as well as the ethical considerations of data science methodologies. Morgan has experience leading cross-disciplinary teams, partnering with organisations like the ICO, UNICEF, the Scottish AI Alliance, UNESCO, the Office for AI, the Council of Europe’s Committee on Artificial Intelligence, and the Global Partnership on AI. She leads on outputs that span multiple teams and produces reports and academic papers. In 2023, she completed a secondment with the Director and Co-Director for Public Policy focused on developing a new strategy and research agenda relating to digital society and policy.

Morgan’s research has centred on human rights and responsible AI. She currently co-leads a project in collaboration with the Committee on Artificial Intelligence (CAI) at the Council of Europe on developing the first-ever Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law Impact Assessment for AI Systems (HUDERIA). She also contributed to the writing and production of Human Rights, and Democracy, and the Rule of Law Assurance Framework for AI Systems produced for the Council of Ministers, as well as a Primer to support the Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence’s (CAHAI) Feasibility Study, which was translated into French and Dutch.

Morgan also co-leads a programme of work on Children and AI. This programme of work began first with involvement in UNICEF’s Pilot Partner Programme and continued with the development of and research on the project, Exploring Children’s Rights and AI with the Scottish AI Alliance and Children’s Parliament. Related to this project, Morgan led the Institute’s response to the Department for Education’s Call for Evidence on Generative AI in Education. Currently, Morgan is a researcher on a LEGO funded project Understanding the impacts of generative AI use on children.  

In addition to her work in the Public Policy Programme, Morgan is a researcher on multiple projects related to Trustworthy Digital Infrastructure at the Institute.  

Her past work includes projects such as Project ExplAIn which focused on AI explainability building upon the Turing and ICO’s co-badged guidance, Explaining decisions made with AI,  and Advancing Data Justice Research and Practice commissioned by the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), where she contributed to the production of documentary episodes and five major written outputs including a use case repository and guides for policymakers, impacted communities, and developers.  

In addition to her work at the Turing, Morgan brings her background in social data science to topics such as food security and remote sensing, renewable energy, and ethical considerations of data science methodologies and digital technologies. She has advised various NGOs on applications of data science and AI to various projects relating to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Morgan has a BSB from Wake Forest University where she studied Business Data Analytics and Religion. She also holds an MSc in Social Data Science from the University of Oxford, awarded with distinction.

List of publications and other written works 

• Briggs and M. Cross. (2024). Generative AI: Threatening Established Human Rights Instruments at Scale. In 4th International Conference on Applied Artificial Intelligence (ICAPAI), Halden, Norway. 8 pages.
• Leslie, D., Rincón, C., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Borda, A., Bennett, SJ., Burr, C., Aitken, M., Mahomed, S., Wong, J., Hashem, Y., and Fischer, C. (2024). Responsible Data Stewardship in Practice. The Alan Turing Institute.
• Leslie, D., Rincón, C., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Borda, A., Bennett, SJ., Burr, C., and Fischer, C. (2024). AI Safety in Practice. The Alan Turing Institute.
• Leslie, D., Rincón, C., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Borda, A., Bennett, SJ. Burr, C., Aitken, M., Mahomed, S., Wong, J., Waller, M., and Fischer, C. (2024). AI Explainability in Practice. The Alan Turing Institute.
• Leslie, D., Rincón, C., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Borda, A., Bennett, SJ., Burr, C., Hadjiloizou, S., and Fischer, C. (2024). AI Accountability in Practice. The Alan Turing Institute.
• Leslie, D., Rincón, C., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Borda, A., Bennett, SJ. Burr, C., Aitken, M., Katell, M., Fischer, C., Wong, J., and Kherroubi Garcia, I. (2023). AI Fairness in Practice. The Alan Turing Institute. AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Fairness in Practice | The Alan Turing Institute
• Leslie, D., Rincón, C., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Borda, A., Bennett, SJ. Burr, C., Aitken, M., Katell, M., Fischer, Wong, J., and Kherroubi Garcia, I. (2023). AI Sustainability in Practice Part Two: Sustainability Throughout the AI Workflow. The Alan Turing Institute. AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Sustainability in Practice Part Two: Sustainability Throughout the AI Workflow | The Alan Turing Institute
• Leslie, D., Rincón, C., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Borda, A., Bennett, SJ. Burr, C., Aitken, M., Katell, M., Fischer, Wong, J., and Kherroubi Garcia, I. (2023). AI Sustainability in Practice. Part Two: Sustainability Throughout the AI Workflow. The Alan Turing Institute. AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: AI Sustainability in Practice Part One: Foundations for Sustainable AI Projects | The Alan Turing Institute
• Leslie, D., Rincón, C., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Borda, A., Bennett, SJ. Burr, C., Aitken, M., Katell, M., Fischer, Wong, J., and Kherroubi Garcia, I. (2023). AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: An Introduction. The Alan Turing Institute. AI Ethics and Governance in Practice: An Introduction | The Alan Turing Institute
• Mahomed, S., Briggs, M., Wong, J., & Aitken, M. (2023). Navigating Children’s Rights and AI in the UK: A roadmap through uncertain territory. Research Square Preprint. 
• Mahomed, S., Aitken, M., Atabey, A., Wong, J., Briggs, M. (2023). AI, Children’s Rights, & Wellbeing: Transnational Frameworks: Mapping 13 Frameworks at the Intersections of Data-Intensive Technologies, Children’s Rights, and Wellbeing. The Alan Turing Institute.
• Response to the Department for Education’s Call for Evidence on Generative AI in Education. The Alan Turing Institute. (August 2023). 
• Briggs, M. & Leslie, D. (February 2023). Insights from Phase 2 of Project ExplAIn
• Leslie, D., Katell, M., Aitken, M., Singh, J., Briggs, M., Powell, R., Rincón, C., Chengeta, T., Birhane, A., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., and Mazumder, A. (2022). Advancing data justice research and practice: An integrated literature review. The Alan Turing Institute in collaboration with The Global Partnership on AI.
• Leslie, D., Katell, M., Aitken, M., Singh, J., Briggs, M., Powell, R., Rincón, C., Chengeta, T., Birhane, A., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., and Mazumder, A. (2022). Advancing data justice research and practice: An interim annotated bibliography and table of organisations. The Alan Turing Institute in collaboration with The Global Partnership on AI.
• Leslie, D., Briggs, M., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., Rincón, C., Raval, N., Birhane, A., Powell, R., Katell, M.,and Aitken, M. (2022). Data justice stories: a repository of case studies. The Alan Turing Institute in collaboration with The Global Partnership on AI.
• Leslie, D., Katell, M., Aitken, M., Singh, J., Briggs, M., Powell, R., Rincón, C., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S. (2022). Data justice in practice: A guide for impacted communities. The Alan Turing Institute in collaboration with The Global Partnership on AI.
• Leslie, D., Katell, M., Aitken, M., Singh, J., Briggs, M., Powell, R., Rincón, C., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S., and Burr, C. (2022). Data justice in practice: A guide for developers. The Alan Turing Institute in collaboration with The Global Partnership on AI.
• Leslie, D., Katell, M., Aitken, M., Singh, J., Briggs, M., Powell, R., Rincón, C., Perini, A., Jayadeva, S. (2022).Data justice in practice: A guide for policymakers. The Alan Turing Institute in collaboration with The Global Partnership on AI.
• Aitken, M. & Briggs, M. (2022). Engaging children with AI ethics. In AI, data science, and young people. Understanding computing education (Vol 3). Proceedings of the Raspberry Pi Foundation Research Seminars.
• Leslie, D. and Burr, C., Aitken, M., Katell, M., Briggs, M., and Rincon, C. (2021). Human Rights, Democracy, and the Rule of Law Assurance Framework for AI Systems: A Proposal. The Alan Turing Institute.
• Briggs, M., Aitken, M., & Leslie, D. (2021). Is the public sector ready for child-centred AI? Scotland AI Strategy Guest Blog Series.
• Pauwels, E., Briggs, M., Aitken, M., Leslie, D. (2021).  Case Study: Understanding AI Ethics and Safety for Children The Alan Turing Institute. UNICEF. 
• Briggs, M. (2021). SatDash: An Interactive Dashboard for Assessing Land Damage in Nigeria and Mali. In ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies (COMPASS) (COMPASS ’21), June 28-July 2, 2021, Virtual Event, Australia. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 15 pages.
• Leslie, D., Burr, C., Aitken, M., Cowls, J., Briggs, M. (2021). Artificial intelligence, human rights, democracy, and the rule of law: A primer. The Council of Europe.
• Leslie, D., Burr, C., Aitken, M., Cowls, J., Briggs, M. (2021), Intelligence artificielle, droits de l’homme, démocratie et État de droit. Guide introductif, Conseil de l’Europe. Translation by the Council of Europe.
• Leslie, D., Burr, C., Aitken, M., Cowls, J., Briggs, M. (2021), Artificiële intelligentie, mensenrechten, democratie, en de rechtsstaat: Een introductie. The Council of Europe - i.s.m. KDM en ALLAI, Nederlandse vertaling door Valcke, P., Muller, C. en Goetry, B.
• Leslie, D. & Briggs, M. (2021). Explaining decisions made with AI: A Workbook (Use case 1: AI-assisted recruitment tool).
• Leslie, D. & Briggs, M. (2021). Explaining decisions made with AI: A Workbook (Use case 2: Machine learning for children’s social care).  
• Wright, J., Leslie, D., Raab, C., Kitagawa, F., Ostmann, F., & Briggs, M. (2021). Privacy, Agency, and Trust in Human-AI Ecosystems Interim Report (short version).  
• Advancing Data Justice Research and Practice Team. Interim Report. (2021). Prepared for the 2021GPAI Summit.  
• Leslie, D. & Briggs, M. (2021). Project ExplAIn enters its next phase.