Sneha Revanur

Sneha Revanur (born 2004) is an Indian-American activist. She is the founder and president of Encode Justice, a youth organization advocating for the global regulation of artificial intelligence. In 2023, she was described by Politico as the "Greta Thunberg of AI".^[1]

Early life and education

Revanur was born and raised in San Jose, California, where she attended Evergreen Valley High School and was a delegate to the United States Senate Youth Program.^[2] Growing up, both of Revanur's parents worked in tech, as does her older sister.^[3] She describes how her upbringing in Silicon Valley influenced her activism: "I was exposed early on to a culture of thinking that every problem in society can be fixed with some sort of computational solution—whether that's a mobile app or a machine-learning model ... there was always this view that innovation was some sort of silver bullet ... I often say that, had I been born anywhere else, Encode Justice would not exist."^[4]

Revanur is now a student at Williams College in Massachusetts, where she studies political economy and hopes to attend law school after graduation.^[5]

Activism

In the spring of 2023, Revanur led a coalition of 10 youth-led organizations to send a joint letter to congressional leaders and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy calling for the inclusion of young people on AI oversight and advisory boards.^[1][6] She has stated that the project was sparked by concerns around the impact of generative AI on society following the release of GPT-4. Later that year, Revanur was invited to meet with Vice President Harris as the youngest participant on a roundtable of civil society leaders convened to discuss threats posed by AI.^[7][8] Revanur described this as "a pretty significant turning point" in "increasing legitimization of youth voices in the space".^[9]

Encode Justice

Revanur founded Encode Justice in July 2020, at age fifteen, after coming across California Proposition 25, a ballot measure that would have replaced the use of cash bail statewide with pretrial risk assessment algorithms.^[10][11] She describes being alarmed by the challenge of algorithmic bias after reading a 2016 ProPublica investigation, inspiring her decision to oppose Proposition 25: "That was a very rude awakening for me in which I realized technology is not this absolutely objective, neutral thing as it's reported to be."^[12] The group expanded its membership and mobilized students to participate in voter outreach and public awareness efforts. After Proposition 25 failed to pass, Revanur broadened Encode Justice's focus to include other societal challenges related to AI use, including surveillance, disinformation, and job loss.^[4]

Encode Justice now spans around 1,000 young people, primarily high school and college students.^[13] Since its founding, Encode Justice has contributed to AI policy initiatives including the Biden administration's Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.^[14][15][9] The organization also runs a workshop program and has established a global chapter network.^[13]

Revanur has expressed growing concern over the possibility of larger-scale "catastrophic" harms from AI.^[4] In October 2023, Encode Justice published a joint statement with the Future of Life Institute supporting the creation of a U.S. AI licensing regime to address these risks.^[16] At the Washington Post's Futurist Summit, Revanur referenced the statement and spoke against "infighting" among AI experts driven by a "zero-sum view of AI governance."^[17]

Awards and honors

In 2023, Revanur was the youngest individual named to