Our Team

Nita Farahany, JD, PhD

Nita Farahany is one of the world’s foremost experts on the ethical, legal, and societal implications of emerging technologies and their impact on our brains.

A distinguished professor at Duke University and the founding director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society, she has shaped global conversations on cognitive liberty and mental privacy.

Her groundbreaking work, including her latest book, The Battle for Your Brain, has had extraordinary global impact, shaping legal frameworks, ethical guidelines, and public discourse. Farahany is a frequent commentator for national and international media, with her insights featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, BBC, NPR, CBS News, CNN, Politico, The Atlantic, and TED Radio Hour. She has made notable television and film appearances, including a feature episode on Azeem Azhar's Exponential View (Bloomberg series), Brains on Trial with Alan Alda (PBS), I Am Human (which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival), CNN’s A.I. and the Future of Humanity with Anderson Cooper, and Hacking Humanity (Al Roker Entertainment). She will also be featured in The UnXplained with William Shatner all with estimated reach of over 50 million viewers globally.

Her thought leadership extends beyond traditional media, with widespread engagement in digital spaces, including over 3 million views on her TED talks, tens of thousands of podcast listeners, and extensive discussions of her work across major online platforms. She has been featured in The TED AI Show, The Big Tech Show, Privacy Files, and Machines Like Us, Armchair with Dax Shepherd, the Scott Galloway Podcast, and the Jordan Harbinger show and she has been a guest on numerous high-profile podcasts, including Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara, The Gray Area with Sean Illing, The Thinking Atheist, and 80,000 Hours Podcast. She has also been recurring guest on NBC News with Gadi Schwartz in the Future of Everything segment and has been interviewed multiple times by Greta Van Susteren.

For her pioneering contributions, she was named to the 2024 Vox Future Perfect 50, a list recognizing the world’s most impactful thinkers and innovators shaping the future.

Appointed by President Obama in 2010, she served on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issuesuntil 2017. She has also served as President of the International Neuroethics Society, co-chair of the Neuroethics Working Group of the U.S. Brain Initiative, and on scientific and ethics advisory boards for multiple corporations. Farahany is co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law and the Biosciences and serves on the Board of Advisors for Scientific American. She holds an A.B. in Genetics, Cell, and Developmental Biology from Dartmouth College, a J.D. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Duke University, an M.A. from Duke, and an A.L.M. in Biology from Harvard University. She clerked for Judge Judith W. Rogers of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit before beginning her academic career.

jack pilkington, Msc

Jack Pilkington is Research and Policy Director at Duke University’s Cognitive Futures Lab, where he explores the implications of new developments in neurotechnology and artificial intelligence, and how to ensure they benefit humanity. Current interests include the intersection of AI and neurotechnology, and how to incentivize responsible innovation in the neurotechnology industry.

At The Royal Society, the UK’s independent scientific academy, he led an interdisciplinary group of world-leading scientists to produce the landmark iHuman report on neurotechnology and pioneered innovative public dialogue approaches to inform policy development. The work catalyzed major UK research funding programs and helped shape international frameworks for governing the emerging field through the OECD, UNESCO, and Council of Europe. It won the Colin Blakemore Award for supporting researchers from lower-income countries to advance this global dialogue.

At Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation, he developed a working model for anticipatory regulation that led to the formation of the Regulatory Horizons Council, revolutionizing the UK’s regulatory approach to innovation.

He holds an MSc in Social Cognition from University College London and a BSc in Psychology from the University of Manchester, and has served on key advisory bodies, including the British Standards Institute’s Advisory Committee on Brain-Computer Interfaces and the Society for Computers and Law. He is a keen practitioner of strategic foresight and futures methods, having worked with the UK Government’s horizon scanning networks to help policymakers anticipate and shape emerging technologies.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Margot Hanley, PhD

Dr. Margot Hanley bridges the worlds of technology ethics and neuroscience as a postdoctoral researcher at Duke University’s Cognitive Futures Lab. Her research examines the intersection of artificial intelligence and neurotechnology, with particular focus on responsible innovation: ensuring emerging technologies align with human values and wellbeing. She earned her doctorate in information science from Cornell Tech, where she specialized in the ethical and policy implications of commercial neurotechnologies.

As a member of the Presidential Task Force on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technologies and the Scholastic Awards AI Task Force, Dr. Hanley shapes policy frameworks for responsible AI integration. Her multidisciplinary background includes a BA in Economics from Oberlin College and an MA in Sociology from Columbia University, complemented by five years of industry experience on Warby Parker’s technology team. Beyond academia, Dr. Hanley is a research-based artist whose work has been exhibited at Mmuseumm in New York City. Through her studio, M85, she creates conceptual artwork which explores the complex relationship between technology and being human.

Ryan Rodriguez

Ryan Rodriguez is an Associate in Research at Duke Science & Society, where he focuses on AI ethics under the supervision of Nita Farahany. He has a BA in Cognitive Science from UC Berkeley and an MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Duke University. Before Duke, Ryan worked as a data scientist at Visa, where he developed fraud detection models to enhance the security of e-commerce and real-time payments.