Professor Renée Cummings: The Criminologist Now Shaping Ethical AI

Let me tell you about Professor Renée Cummings.

There’s a woman who started her career as a criminologist and expert on therapeutic justice — a specialist in the criminal mind — and she has turned that entire, rare lens on Big Tech. She’s now one of the world’s most trusted voices on ethical AI. Her name is Professor Renée Cummings.

The Work

Renée is a Professor of Practice in Data Science at the University of Virginia, where she joined as its first “Data Activist in Residence.” She’s the founder of Urban AI, focused on responsible and safe AI for cities. She’s a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a distinguished member of the World Economic Forum’s Data Equity Council.

She’s trained as a criminologist, a criminal psychologist, and a therapeutic-jurisprudence specialist. That’s a rare background — she understands how systems and technology can surveil, predict, and punish people. And she uses that understanding to push tech companies and policymakers to build AI that doesn’t recreate the biases of the past. She’s advised the U.S. Senate and policymakers on responsible AI, data rights, and algorithmic justice.

In 2023 she won the VentureBeat AI Innovator Award. She’s been named among the world’s top 100 women in AI ethics.

The Roots

Born in Trinidad & Tobago, Renée built her education at City University of New York — a B.A. and M.A. in counseling from Hunter College, a psychology degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and a Columbia University role as community scholar and AI adviser to Columbia College.

She also launched the AI Detectives Club, which teaches AI literacy to young people — because she believes the people who will need to question this technology should be learning how to do it early. In 2026 she keynoted on AI and race at the University of Calgary’s law school and continues to co-lead UVA in the Public Interest Technology University Network.

Why It Matters

Here’s what makes Renée Cummings so important: most people teaching AI ethics come from computer science. Renée comes from the study of how systems actually punish and control people. That’s the perspective AI needs most right now.

A woman from Trinidad who understood the criminal justice system better than most now helps decide how cities and governments use AI without harming the people who can least afford to be harmed. She brought the human — the truth of how power works — into the AI conversation.

Quick facts:

• Professor of Practice in Data Science, University of Virginia
• Founder, Urban AI · Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brookings
• WEF Data Equity Council · Top 100 Women in AI Ethics
• Training: criminology, criminal psychology, therapeutic justice (CUNY/Hunter/John Jay)
• Launched AI Detectives Club for youth AI literacy