Mutale Nkonde

Mutale Nkonde is a Zambian journalist and artificial intelligence policy researcher. She founded the nonprofit, AI for the People, aimed at reducing algorithmic bias.

Early life and education
Nkonde was born in Zambia and raised in the United Kingdom. She later lived in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan. Nkonde studied in the neurology department at Leeds Metropolitan University for three years before completing a B.Sc. with honors in sociology. She earned a M.A. in American studies from the Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Nkonde is pursing a Ph.D. in digital humanities as a Harding distinguished postgraduate scholar at University of Cambridge.

Career
Working as a journalist, Nkonde moved to New York City in 2005. She started working in politics during the Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign. Nkonde worked as the director of labor of Bill Lynch Associates. She later founded the management consultancy firm, Nkonde & Associates.

Following the publication of Weapons of Math Destruction in 2016, Nkonde began researching algorithmic bias. She co-authored the 2019 article, Advancing Racial Literacy in Tech with Jessie Daniels and Darakhshan Mir. Nkonde founded AI for the People, a nonprofit advocating for the reduction of algorithmic bias. It supported the drafting of the "Algorithmic Accountability Act" introduced by Yvette Clarke to the United States House of Representatives in 2019. In 2019, Nkonde became a fellow at both the Harvard Law School Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society and the civil society lab at Stanford University. In 2021, she won a New York Emmy Award for her storytelling efforts on a news segment covering to facial recognition. In 2024, Nkonde supported the development of the AI policy platform of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Personal life
Nkonde and her husband separated in 2010. As of 2014, Nkonde resided in Brooklyn with her two sons.