Ben Green

Core faculty

Ben Green

Assistant Professor of Information, School of Information and Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy

Ben Green Ben Green is an assistant professor in the University of Michigan School of Information and an assistant professor (by courtesy) in the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, w...

In the Media

Green: "Antagonism toward data centers is real and organic"

Jun 10, 2026 Fortune

Ben Green, assistant professor of information at the University of Michigan, told Fortune there's meanwhile abundant signs that antagonism toward data centers is real and organic. "Anyone who doubts it should just show up to any of the communities wh...

Green: "Antagonism toward data centers is real and organic"

News

Green shares data center concerns with Michigan lawmakers

Feb 15, 2026

Members of Michigan's House Subcommittee on Oversight heard testimony on data centers, during which the Ford School's Ben Green was invited to offer his expertise. CBS Detroit, Bridge Michigan, and WWMT covered the meeting and Green's contributions.

Green shares data center concerns with Michigan lawmakers

In the Media

Green addresses data center forum

Dec 4, 2025 Michigan Advance

Ben Green, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan School of Information and the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, explained that using programs like ChatGPT or video generation platforms requires a huge amount of energy, increasin...

Using algorithms in government: Opportunities, challenges, and paths forward

News

Green discusses local impacts of data centers

Nov 30, 2025

Ford School professor Ben Green's research on the impacts of data centers recently caught the eye of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, which asked him to deliver a presentation on the topic to its Citizens Advisory Council on Nov...

In the Media

Green comments on community push-back on data centers

Oct 29, 2025 Gizmodo

“I don’t think that the case is super compelling for what these data centers are bringing to the table,” Ben Green, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, told Gizmodo. “And I think that is borne out by just how...

In the Media

Faculty affiliate Ben Green quoted in Washington Post data center article

Oct 27, 2025 Washington Post

“It feels like there’s been a real shift over the last six months or so in terms of the public just becoming aware of what data centers are — and becoming increasingly skeptical,” said Ben Green, assistant professor of information in the Washington P...

Publication

Growth of data centers requires new policies to mitigate local community impacts

Jul 17, 2025

The rapid growth of data centers, with their enormous energy and water demands, requires targeted policy interventions to mitigate environmental impacts and protect local communities. A new report by the University of Michigan’s Science, Technology, ...

Growth of data centers requires new policies to mitigate local community impacts

News

DOGE Plan to Push AI Across the US Federal Government is Wildly Dangerous - Green

Mar 6, 2025

Ford School assistant professor (by courtesy) Ben Green, wrote an essay for Tech Policy on Elon Musk's new “AI-first strategy” for the federal government, and commented, "unleashing AI to revolutionize the federal government is a recipe for disaster....

In the Media

Green describes practical problems with algorithm oversight

Feb 4, 2025 Financial Times

Ben Green, professor at the Ford School, explains why human oversight of algorithms, such as the one that runs Google's Gmail spam protection, does not always work. He cites how "the human overseers are on a tight schedule — they have many cases to r...

News

STPP awarded MIDAS grant to advance equitable AI research

Jul 23, 2024

A research project from the Ford School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program was selected by the Michigan Institute for Data and AI in Society (MIDAS) as part of its 2024 Propelling Original Data Science grants to accelerate respon...

STPP awarded MIDAS grant to advance equitable AI research

News

Ford School welcomes new faculty that bridge research and policy engagement

Aug 21, 2023

A former foreign minister to Mali, a leading educational economist, a tech entrepreneur who explores indigenous technoscience are among the outstanding new faculty that add depth to the Ford School and connect student education, rigorous academic res...

Ford School welcomes new faculty that bridge research and policy engagement

News

Green discusses the fairness of algorithms at Harvard University

Jan 10, 2023

Postdoctoral scholar Ben Green recently joined Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society for a webinar focused on what fairness means in the context of algorithms and how fairness can be measured. Joined by other scholars stu...

Publication

Green discusses "substantive algorithmic fairness"

Oct 19, 2022

Ford School assistant professor Ben Green, and an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, says that if algorithms are to improve society, focusing only on whether they’re mathematically “fair” won’t get us ...

Publication

Green explores tech ethics and its boundaries in new paper

Feb 4, 2022

Who gets to define the ethics behind the use of technology in society? The discussion has become more pressing amid controversies related to misinformation, privacy, and algorithmic bias. Ben Green explores this question as editor of a special iss...

News

Green named Center for Democracy & Technology fellow

Jan 28, 2022

This week, the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) named Ben Green as a non-resident fellow. He joins Shobita Parthasarathy as one of 31 fellows from across the country that represent a wide range of fields and disciplines that inform CDT's resea...

Publication

Green’s paper receives Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award

Jan 13, 2022

The Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) recently awarded Ben Green, assistant professor and postdoctoral scholar, the Privacy Papers for Policymakers Award. The award is for Green’s paper, “The Flaws of Policies Requiring Human Oversight of Government Algo...

In the Media

Green explains relationship between pandemic and government surveillance

Dec 9, 2021 Los Angeles Times

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed governments to roll out higher surveillance systems without pushback from citizens. Such emergencies “can be moments where governments roll out new invasive forms of data collection and it just becomes the...

In the Media

Human oversight of automated decision-making doesn't work, says Green

Sep 28, 2021 Protocol

Commenting on his recent research, Ben Green told Protocol, “The point is not to say: Let's just allow these algorithms to be used without the human oversight. But if we're only comfortable with these algorithms because we have human oversight, we ac...

News

Green calls for increased regulation with government use of algorithms

Sep 22, 2021

Do algorithms help or hinder human decision-making? In a recent op-ed for The Hill, Ben Green, an assistant professor and postdoctoral scholar, argues that policymakers need to consider how humans interact with AI when regulating the use of AI in hig...

Publication

Should complex, high-stakes government decisions be reliant on predictive algorithms?

Aug 27, 2021

Machine learning is increasingly used for government decision-making to predict adverse outcomes. For instance, many cities and states in the U.S. have adopted pretrial risk assessments that inform decisions about whether to release criminal defendan...

News

Green takes a look at tech ethics

Jun 15, 2021

Technology companies have been at the center of many public controversies recently—from hacking threats and data security to fake news and manipulating algorithms. Do the ethics of technological advancement—"tech ethics"—have any influence on the com...

STPP Lecture Series

Using algorithms in government: Opportunities, challenges, and paths forward

Feb 8, 2021, 4:00-5:00 pm EST

Ben Green, assistant professor of public policy, and Shobita Parthasarathy, professor of public policy and director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, discuss the social and policy impacts of algorithms in government.

Policy Brief

What Happens When Data Centers Come to Town?

July 15, 2025

Duc Tuan "Terry" Nguyen, BA Public Policy '25, Ben Green, Assistant Professor, School of Information and Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

The rapid growth of data centers, with their enormous energy and water demands, necessitates targeted policy interventions to mitigate environmental impacts and protect local communities. To address these issues, states with existing data center tax ...