Carine Roos

I am a doctoral researcher at the University of Sheffield, affiliated with the School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations (SPIR) and the Centre for Machine Intelligence (CMI), where I examine how artificial intelligence infrastructures are reshaping democracy, power, and accountability. My research sits at the intersection of AI governance, democratic theory, and human rights.

My trajectory has been guided by a central question: who is allowed to participate in the future when technologies become the architecture of social life? This question began to take shape in 2011, during my work as a researcher with Brazil’s National Research Council (CNPq), where I conducted fieldwork in rural, riverine, and quilombola communities.

Over time, my research has evolved from questions of access and inclusion to the broader regimes of power that structure digital infrastructures. I examine how large technology platforms operate as political actors, shaping not only technical systems but the conditions of democratic life.

Building on this trajectory, I bring together democratic theory, feminist critique, and AI governance. In dialogue with the concept of AI countergovernance (Attard-Frost), I analyse how civil society, workers, and communities contest extractive data practices and reconfigure accountability. My work also explores how platforms operate as sociotechnical infrastructures shaped by design choices and business models that articulate power, inequality, and political influence.

Alongside my academic work, I have experience at the intersection of research, policy, and practice, including founding Newa and collaborating with international organisations such as UNESCO, GIZ, and the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee.