Francesca Rossi

Francesca Rossi
Born	(1962-12-07) December 7, 1962 Italy
Occupation(s)	Computer scientist, AI ethics expert
Years active	1993–present
Known for	AI ethics, constraint programming, combinatorial optimization

Francesca Rossi (born on December 7, 1962) is an Italian expert in computer science, currently serving as an IBM Fellow and the Global Leader for AI Ethics at IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center located in New York.

Education and career

Rossi completed her undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies in computer science at the University of Pisa, finishing by 1993. She remained there as an assistant professor until 1998 before moving to the University of Padova, where she progressed from associate to full professor until 2018. Between 2014 and 2015, she was appointed a Fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. In 2015, she transitioned to IBM Research as a distinguished researcher and was elevated to the role of IBM Fellow and executive in 2020.

Research interests

Her expertise lies in artificial intelligence, with a concentration on constraint programming, combinatorial optimization, preference modeling, knowledge representation, constrained reinforcement learning, ethically aligned AI, neuro-symbolic AI, and cognitive AI frameworks. Rossi’s contributions include integrating ethical considerations into AI decision-making processes to promote more responsible outcomes and tackling bias within AI systems. More recently, she has incorporated cognitive models such as Daniel Kahneman’s "thinking fast and slow" to advance AI functionality.

Rossi has authored over 230 scholarly articles and edited upwards of 20 academic volumes, notably the Handbook of Constraint Programming. She co-wrote "A Short Introduction to Preferences: Between Artificial Intelligence and Social Choice" (Morgan & Claypool, 2011) and penned "Il confine del futuro – Possiamo fidarci dell'Intelligenza Artificiale?" aimed at the Italian readership.

Awards, honors, and appointments

• President of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), term 2022–2024
• General chair for the ACM/AAAI Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society held in Montreal, August 2023
• Recipient of the Tecnovisionarie award in the AI ethics category from Women in Tech association, 2021
• General chair of the AAAI conference in 2020
• Radcliffe Fellow during 2014–2015
• President of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) from 2013 to 2015
• AAAI Fellow since 2012
• Awarded distinguished service by the Association for Constraint Programming in 2010
• Fellow of the European Association for Artificial Intelligence (EurAI) since 2008
• Served as president of the Association for Constraint Programming between 2003 and 2007

AI Ethics roles

Francesca Rossi plays a pivotal role in advancing AI ethics through both research contributions and leadership positions:

• Board member at Partnership on AI since 2016
• Distinguished Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Institute for the Ethics of AI from 2023 onward
• Steering Committee member and expert participant at the Global Partnership on AI since 2020
• Co-chair of the OECD expert group focused on AI futures in 2023
• Co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on AI for Humanity between 2020 and 2022
• Member of the European Commission’s High Level Expert Group on AI during 2018–2019
• Serving on the scientific advisory board for the Future of Life Institute since 2015
• Co-chairing IBM’s AI ethics board since 2019
• Co-chair for IJCAI’s special track on AI for good in 2022
• Program co-chair and steering committee member for the AAAI/ACM conference on AI Ethics and Society from 2018 onward
• Appointed IBM AI Ethics Global Leader starting in 2017

TEDx Talks

Francesca has presented four TEDx speeches centered on the themes of AI ethics and environmental sustainability:

• Sustainable AI, TEDx Osnabruck University, 2015
• Ethical Artificial Intelligence, TEDx Ghent, 2015
• Convivere con l’Intelligenza Artificiale, TEDx Lake Como, 2015
• Macchine che aiutano a pensare, TEDx Reggio Emilia, 2022

Podcasts

Her insights have been featured on multiple podcasts, notably including Fast and Slow AI alongside Daniel Kahneman (CERN SPARK, 2021).

Media coverage

Francesca’s expertise has been sought by prominent media outlets such as D di Repubblica, The Nikkei, Insider: Inside the Technology, Fortune, The Financial Times, The Economist, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Sydney Morning Herald, and Euronews.

Additionally, she has contributed articles like:

• How IBM is Working Towards a Fairer AI, Harvard Business Review, November 2020