Berenice Fernández Nieto is a researcher specialising in AI governance, digital rights, and corporate accountability. She holds a PhD in Cybersecurity from the IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca and the University of Bari “Aldo Moro,” within the track in the human, economic, and legal aspects of cybersecurity. Her doctoral research examined the social and human rights implications of generative AI and informed the development of tools to support its responsible design, development, and deployment.
In collaboration with the Institute for Human Rights at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, she developed a Human Rights Impact Assessment Tool for generative AI and an AI Ethics Incentive Scheme exploring financial, reputational, and collaborative incentives for responsible corporate practices.
She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in International Relations from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies (IMSISS), awarded by the University of Glasgow, the University of Trento, and Charles University in Prague.
She currently contributes to the ERC-funded Three Generations of Digital Human Rights project, led by Professor Yuval Shany. Her previous research roles include positions at Data-Pop Alliance, the Centre for Security Studies at ETH Zurich, and the Centre for Security Studies at the University of Santiago de Compostela.
Berenice has worked on projects for organisations including UN Women, Oxfam, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ), the French Development Agency (AFD), and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA).
She serves as Features Editor at the Cambridge Journal of Artificial Intelligence. Other research and professional affiliations include the Centre for International Security and Economic Strategy (CISES), the Information Society Law Center at the University of Milan, the African Centre for Digital Transformation, the AI & Trust Working Group at the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, the United Nations University Global Artificial Intelligence Network, and AMASSURU.