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I Am Amazon
Interactive Google Earth experience exploring the world's largest rainforest through eleven stories co-created with indigenous communities, NGOs, and filmmaker Fernando Meirelles.
Lauren Pachaly
AI Ethics Researcher and Product Manager — studying AI's societal impact through a Global South lens on adoption, literacy, and ethics.
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About
AI Ethics Researcher and Product Manager with 25+ years of experience designing, scaling, and governing programmes at the intersection of culture, technology, education, and equity.
Across the last 18 years at Google, I have led long-term social impact and go-to-market initiatives for global consumer platforms, working closely with communities, NGOs, creative teams, policymakers, and senior leadership across Latin America, the United States, and global markets. In my current role, I lead product strategy focused on equity, regulatory compliance, and responsible AI.
I am also pursuing an MSt in AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge, where I explore intersectionality and systemic barriers in AI adoption, the measurement of AI literacy across demographics, and AI ethics in education. My technical foundation — a degree in Systems Analysis and six years in software development — enables me to engage directly with AI and machine learning systems through my studies and independent research, examining model behavior and evaluating outputs. My work bridges the technical grounding with deep practitioner experience in the Global South.
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Research focus
Intersectionality and systemic barriers in AI adoption
Users' access to and engagement with technology are shaped by a complex interplay of technological design, personal identity, and socio-economic factors. Digital experiences are increasingly filtered through platforms' and AI-driven perceptions of who users are. How do overlapping identity and socio-economic factors influence individual information needs? In which contexts do these multifaceted dimensions have the most significant impact? How effective are AI tools in addressing them? And how does intersectional identity, compounded by socio-economic conditions, correlate with AI proficiency and access?
Device-tier inequality in global AI access
Roughly half the global population reaches the internet — and AI — through smartphones, but smartphone capabilities vary enormously. Entry-level devices dominate in the Global South; premium devices and laptops co-exist in the Global North. How does AI proficiency vary across tiers and regions? How do widely-used AI applications perform across hardware constraints, and what does that mean for user experience? Can device tier serve as a scalable proxy for measuring the AI divide at the population level?
Measuring AI literacy across demographics
AI literacy is widely recognised as a digital-equity construct, yet no globally comparable measurement of it exists. Today's major indices track ecosystem capacity and readiness — infrastructure, governance, investment — not what people know or can actually do with AI. The literacy scales that do exist remain fragmented and uncalibrated across languages and cultures. What would it take to build the first cross-culturally validated AI literacy framework at country level — one that combines competency measures with systemic barriers (devices, connectivity, language, education, accessibility) and embeds intersectional disaggregation from the outset?
AI ethics in K-12 education
Children and adolescents are growing up alongside AI — through homework, search, social media, and increasingly through agents acting on their behalf. Most school systems still treat AI as a tool to be banned or permitted, not as a subject to be taught. What would it take to embed ethics in the use of technology and AI in K-12 curricula? How should this education extend to the networks around young people — guardians, teachers, schools? And what does early ethical literacy do for the next generation's capacity to engage critically with technology overall?
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Professional experience
Across 18 years at Google, my work has spanned brand and creative leadership for consumer products, social impact programmes in education and equity, and product management for trust and AI governance. My career began at Oracle as a Java Specialist.
2022 → now
Group Product Manager · Inclusion, Equity, Privacy, Regulatory Trust — Google
2010 → 2022
Brand, Marketing, and Social Impact leadership (LATAM) — Google
1998 → 2008
Sales Executive — Google · Java Specialist — Oracle
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Selected writing
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The Autonomy Condition: Ethics and Agency in Human–AI Assistant RelationshipsFirst Class
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AI Has Joined the Group: Collective Agency Over Sociotechnical Systems — A Perspective from BrazilFirst Class
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AI, Identity, and Equity: Examining Intersectionality and Systemic Barriers in Digital Information Access and AI Proficiency
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AI Access and Proficiency: The Role of Smartphone Device Tiers in Global AI Equity
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Selected work
Social impact, education, sustainability, and consumer campaigns led at Google across Brazil, Latin America, and globally.