Humanity AI today welcomed Beth Goldberg as the philanthropic initiative’s first executive director. In this role, she will partner with a growing number of influential funding partners to oversee the initiative’s strategic vision and its $500 million grantmaking commitment. She steps into the role after spending eight years leading research and development at Jigsaw, a Google incubator that builds free and open-source technologies to enhance human agency.
“Right now, it can feel like AI is happening to us, not with us — we hear we are benefitting from game-changing technology but have little say in how it shapes our livelihoods, our classrooms, and our democracy,” said Beth Goldberg, executive director of Humanity AI. “I am honored and energized to step into this role because Humanity AI is uniquely positioned to change that reality, taking us from an AI story we watch unfold to a vision we create together. Realizing this vision will require deep collaboration, and I am eager to join forces with our funder partners and a broad coalition to support the communities and builders who are claiming the power to ensure these technologies serve us all.”
At Jigsaw, Goldberg spearheaded research and developed public-interest technologies designed to ensure that AI amplifies, rather than erodes, human agency. By bridging the gap between frontline communities and the tech ecosystem, she forged cross-sector collaborations — convening ideologically diverse groups, including civil society, elected officials, researchers, industry experts, and technology users — to demonstrate how technology can be built with and for the people using it. In one such effort to elevate public voice at the local level, Goldberg worked alongside community members and elected officials in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where they co-designed America’s largest digital town hall using AI.
“Beth has demonstrated what it means to center humanity and human agency in the age of AI,” said John Palfrey, president of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. “She not only has the experience but the vision and foresight to lead Humanity AI. This is reflected throughout every stage of her career, and I can’t wait to see what comes next with Beth and her sharp perspective at the helm of Humanity AI.”
Goldberg is also a senior fellow at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs, where she teaches a graduate course on AI and democracy. Her public-interest technology career began in civil society, investigating human rights guardrails for internet infrastructure with Article 19 and expanding information access in authoritarian regimes with Freedom House.
Goldberg has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Financial Times, and her research has been published in top journals including Science and Nature. She has also worked with the federal government as a member of the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law for solutions to counter disinformation at the National Academy of Sciences.
“Beth has spent her career at the forefront of technology’s impact on society, and she deeply understands what’s at stake as AI reaches into every part of our lives,” said Michele Jawando, CEO of Omidyar Network. “She has an investigator’s instinct for getting to the root of hard problems — studying up close how technology shapes real people and communities — and a gift for convening the unlikely allies needed to solve them. Beth brings exactly the expertise this moment demands, and as Humanity AI moves from commitment to action, I can’t think of anyone better to steer it toward the future we envision: one where AI serves everyone.”
Goldberg is taking the helm at an exciting time for Humanity AI, as the initiative prepares to announce its first open call for bold and innovative grants later this summer. Through the open call, Humanity AI will invest $10 million in U.S.-based work that supports communities’ collective power to reimagine how AI is built, governed, and used with a focus on education, labor and the economy, and humanities and culture. For more information or updates about Humanity AI, visit humanityai.ai.
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About Humanity AI
Humanity AI is a $500 million five-year collaborative grantmaking initiative dedicated to ensuring artificial intelligence serves the public good. It is supporting U.S.-based efforts that prioritize an economy that values people and enables us to thrive, security for people and our communities, and greater creativity for all people. Founding partners include the Doris Duke Foundation, Ford Foundation, Lumina Foundation, Kapor Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Omidyar Network, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and Siegel Family Endowment. Humanity AI is a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.