Samantha Shorey is a visiting assistant professor of communication at the University of Pittsburgh and a field researcher who studies automated technologies in the workplace. Samantha’s recent research as a co–principal investigatorI of the National Science Foundation–funded project “The Transformation of Essential Work” focused on the adoption and adaption of AI technologies by low-wage workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. With her collaborators on the project, she coauthored numerous research publications including “Patchwork: The Hidden, Human Labor of AI Integration within Essential Work” and “Machine Visions: A Corporate Imaginary of Artificial Sight.” She will be a panel member of Stanford University’s 100 Year Study of Artificial Intelligence (AI100) during the 2026 convening.
Before joining the University of Pittsburgh, Samantha was an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where she was a member of UT’s ethical AI research initiative, Good Systems. She earned her PhD in communication from the University of Washington, during which she conducted research in the department of human centered design and engineering and worked as a fellow at the Smithsonian Museum’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation. Her master’s degree is from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.