PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Trevor Paglen

Trevor Paglen is an artist whose work examines how machine vision reads images and classifies people. He earned degrees at UC Berkeley and the Art Institute of Chicago, and wrote about autonomous vision in 2016. His 2009 book explored classified military infrastructure, and The Last Pictures reflected on humanity’s long-term footprint on Earth in 2012. With Kate Crawford, he examined training data and facial analysis in 2019 and 2020. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2017 and the LG Guggenheim Award in 2026; as of October 2026, he lives and works in New York.

Born
1974

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

  1. By 2008

    Degrees in art and geography

    By 2008, he earns a BA from UC Berkeley, an MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago, and a geography PhD from UC Berkeley.

  2. 2009

    A book on secret infrastructure

    In 2009, his book Blank Spots on the Map: The Dark Geography of the Pentagon's Secret World examines classified detention facilities, military outposts, satellites, and CIA front companies.

  3. 2012

    The Last Pictures

    In 2012, his book The Last Pictures considers the long-term footprint of humankind on Earth.

  4. 2016

    Invisible Images

    In 2016, he writes “Invisible Images: Your Pictures Are Looking at You,” an essay about the implications and dangers of autonomous vision systems.

  5. 2017

    A MacArthur Fellowship

    He receives a MacArthur Fellowship in 2017.

  6. 2019

    Excavating AI

    In 2019, he coauthors “Excavating AI” with Kate Crawford, an essay about the politics of machine-learning training sets.

  7. 2020

    ImageNet Roulette and Making Faces

    In 2020, ImageNet Roulette uses ImageNet's “person” categories to expose harmful labels in training data. In 2020, he and Kate Crawford create Making Faces, an exhibition and cultural program in Paris about the history of facial analysis and facial-recognition systems.

  8. As of October 2026

    Artist in New York

    In February 2025, he serves as the Spring 2025 Leslie and Brad Bucher Artist-in-Residence at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University in Houston. In 2026, he receives the LG Guggenheim Award and publishes How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI through Verso. As of October 2026, he is an artist who lives and works in New York, and The Most Merciful Thing in the World runs at FotoFocus Center from October 2026 through January 2027.

Career

  1. 2025Rice UniversityArtist-in-Residence

Education

  1. 2008University of California, BerkeleyBA
  2. 2008School of the Art Institute of ChicagoMFA

From the biography.

  1. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Rice University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  2. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Rice University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  3. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Rice University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  4. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labsIncludes University of California, Berkeley. The median h-index is 48 at universities and 14 at frontier AI labs. We compare publishing careers, recent citations, dual appointments and job moves across 2,420 university researchers and 308 frontier-lab researchers.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Trevor Paglen yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. Trevor Paglen - MacArthur Foundation macfound.org. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. Trevor Paglen Selected as the 2026 LG Guggenheim Award Recipient lgcorp.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Excavating AI: The Politics of Images in Machine Learning Training Sets excavating.ai. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. ImageNet Roulette – Trevor Paglen paglen.studio. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Making Faces – Trevor Paglen paglen.studio. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Trevor Paglen | Moody Center for the Arts moody.rice.edu. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Biography – Trevor Paglen paglen.studio. Checked 21 October 2026.
  8. How to See Like a Machine by Trevor Paglen: 9781836742166 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books penguinrandomhouse.com. Checked 21 October 2026.
  9. Trevor Paglen: the most merciful thing in the world all-about-photo.com. Checked 21 October 2026.