STOCKHOLM — US artificial intelligence researcher Timnit Gebru is among the recipients of the 2026 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel Prize”, for exposing the human and environmental harms behind artificial intelligence and pioneering community-led approaches that challenge the concentration of power in the technology sector.
Timnit Gebru will hold an online press conference today, September 30, 18:00 CEST. Register now.
For 45 years, the Right Livelihood Award has honoured and supported courageous people leading the way to a just, peaceful and sustainable world for all. To date, 207 Laureates from 82 countries have received the Award, including Ukrainian human rights defender Oleksandra Matviichuk, Congolese gynaecologist and women’s rights advocate Dr Denis Mukwege and American public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson.
A pioneering AI researcher and founder of L4’s org, Timnit Gebru has spent years exposing how technologies presented as neutral can reproduce discrimination and deepen existing inequalities. Her research has revealed bias in AI systems, the exploitation of workers who train and moderate them, and the growing environmental costs behind increasingly large models.
While much of the global debate around artificial intelligence focuses on hypothetical future threats from superintelligent machines, L4 turns attention to the harms already unfolding — and to the people and companies responsible for the technologies causing them. Her work challenges the idea that AI develops autonomously or that its trajectory is inevitable, asking instead who builds these systems, whose labour and resources they depend on, who benefits from them and who bears their costs.
Right Livelihood’s jury said that Timnit Gebru was receiving the Award “for challenging concentrated power in artificial intelligence and pioneering digital technology rooted in justice, lived experience and human agency.”
Timnit Gebru says:
“I am very honoured, especially for the human rights aspects of my work, to be recognised in this way. I hope this recognition signals to other scientists and engineers that science can be infused with human rights. It does not take away from the rigour of your work; it actually makes it better. You can do science in a way that honours and respects human rights.”
Ole von Uexkull, Right Livelihood’s Executive Director, says:
“Timnit Gebru is challenging an AI industry that concentrates enormous power in the hands of a few while presenting its vision of the future as inevitable. She exposes the biases, power structures and environmental costs behind current AI technologies, while pioneering a radically different approach rooted in communities and lived experience. By putting human agency back at the centre of technological development, she shows that the future of technology is not predetermined: it is ours to shape.”
The other 2026 Right Livelihood Laureates are:
- Jalila Haider (Online press conference: 14:00 CEST/12:00 GMT)
- Rural Women’s Assembly (Online press conference: 11:00 CEST/09:00 GMT)
- Georgian Young Lawyers’ Association (Online press conference: 10:00 CEST/08:00 GMT)
Register for the press conferences here.
The 2026 Laureates will be honoured during a televised Award Presentation in Stockholm on December 1.
Nominations are now also open for next year’s Award!
Find more information about the 2026 Laureates.
Download photos and videos of the new Laureates.
Media contacts
International media: Emoke Bebiak, emoke.bebiak@rightlivelihood.org, +41 78 333 84 84 and Sydney Söderqvist, sydney.soderqvist@rightlivelihood.org, +46 73 043 1301
German media: Julia Naumann and Nina Tesenfitz, presse@rightlivelihood.org, +49 170 5763 663
Spanish media: Nayla Azzinnari, nayla@rightlivelihood.org, +54 9 11 5460 9860
Scandinavian media: Vanessa Marko, vanessa.marko@arenaopinion.se, +46 76 321 6637
Photos, videos: Max-Michel Kolijn, maxmichel.kolijn@rightlivelihood.org
Short biography
Timnit Gebru is a US artificial intelligence researcher and founder of the Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR), whose work challenges the concentration of power in the technology sector and exposes the harms AI systems are already causing in people’s everyday lives, particularly among communities facing discrimination and exclusion. Her research has helped reshape international debates about how and for what purposes AI is developed and governed.
Born in Ethiopia to a family of Eritrean origin, Gebru left the country at 15 during the Ethiopian-Eritrean war and later sought asylum in the United States. Experiences of discrimination throughout her life shaped her understanding that science and technology are not neutral and can reproduce existing inequalities. She co-founded Black in AI to build community and increase the presence of Black people in the field. After a dispute over a pioneering academic paper warning about the risks posed by large language models, she was fired from Google, where she was co-leading the Ethics AI team.
Through DAIR, Gebru now combines exposing technological bias with building alternatives. Its distributed model brings together researchers and collaborators across countries and continents, defying the centralised and corporate-driven concepts that mainstream AI entail. Through community-rooted research, Gebru is broadening who gets to shape technology and the purposes and values that guide its future.
Biographical information
Timnit Gebru
Place of Birth: Ethiopia
Date of Birth: 1983
Education: PhD in Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
Preferred SoMe: @timnitGebru
DAIR
Headquarters: California, US
Founded in: December 2, 2021
Website: https://dair-institute.org/
About Right Livelihood
For over 45 years, Right Livelihood has honoured and supported courageous people solving global problems. Housed under the umbrella of a foundation, Right Livelihood is a courage-powered community for social change committed to peace, justice and sustainability for all.
Each year, Right Livelihood highlights change-makers through an Award. To date, 207 Laureates from 82 countries have received the distinction. By recognising the actions of brave visionaries and building impactful connections around the world, Right Livelihood boosts urgent and long-term social change.
The Award was founded in 1980 following the Nobel Foundation’s rejection of a proposal to create two new prizes to honour individuals committed to advancing social justice and environmental causes, especially highlighting change-makers from the Global South.
Today, the work of Right Livelihood goes beyond presenting the Award: the Foundation provides Laureates with long-term support. Right Livelihood is a megaphone and a shield: raising their profile, providing protection when their lives and liberty are in danger, and educating people on their innovative solutions.
Right Livelihood is headquartered in Stockholm, with an office in Geneva. The Foundation has Consultative Status with the UN.
