CURRENT POSITIONS
PRIMARY ROLE
Director | Bold Insight, Chicago, USA (Based in Paris) | 7/2022–Present
Design and lead global research and strategy programs at the intersection of languages, cultures, and AI. 70+ researchers, Fortune 10 clients.
ACADEMIC & ADVISORY AFFILIATIONS
Adjunct Senior Research Fellow | The Language Lab, Department of Linguistics, University of Western Australia | 9/2025–Present
Research collaboration on linguistic diversity, translation, language policy, and cross-cultural communication in technology contexts.
Board Member | EPIC People | 6/2025–Present
Appointed to EPIC’s executive board representing 13k+ research practitioners using social science and humanities expertise to create value for people and business.
Translator (JP–EN) | Freelance, Paris | 2014–Present
Selected industry clients: Mori Building Co., Ltd, Wakuden Group, NTT (Expo 2025), Toyota, Muji. Selected academic: Bloomsbury Academic, Journal of Religion in Japan (Brill), International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Government of Japan.
Senior Fellow / Speakers’ Excellence Committee | AI for Developing Countries Forum | 1/2025–Present
Invitation-only fellowship at one of the world’s largest AI organizations (8,000+ members, 150+ countries) working in partnership with the UN. Collaborate on research initiatives and vet speakers.
Program Advisory Group | Innovation Policy Ignition Programme (IPIP), Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge | 12/2025–Present
Cohort mentor and strategic input and guidance on program development for regional innovation ecosystems.
Associate Member | Sociotechnical Innovation and User Experience (STEIN-UX), School of Computing and Engineering, University of West London | 12/2025–Present
Interdisciplinary research group examining human-centered, ethical, and globally relevant digital futures.
EDUCATION
PhD, Asian Languages & Cultures / Japanese Buddhism | UCLA | 2015
MA, International Studies / Comparative Religion | University of Washington | 2008
BA, Political Science / Asian Studies | Colorado State University | 2004
RECENT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Jul 2026 Vietnam High-Level Policy Dialogue, Da Nang Economics–Finance–Technology Week 2026. Distinguished Speaker. July 7–8. scheduled
Jun 2026 UCL Futureproofing Anthropology. Panelist, UCL bicentenary event. June 5. scheduled
Jun 2026 Human Work Interaction Design 2026 (HWID 2026). Panelist, “The Future of Work” (with Matias Duarte and Theresa Machia). June 17–18. scheduled
Jun 2026 Data Care Festival. Provocateur: “Crafting AI: Cultural Representation and Fairness for Globally-Informed Creative Practices.” Inclusive AI Lab, Utrecht University. June 9–12. scheduled
May 2026 EPIC Learning & Networking Week 2026. Panelist: “It’s Not One Shot — Automation and Craftwork in Creative Production” (with Bhautik Joshi and Karl Mendonca). May 6.
May 2026 AI for Developing Countries Forum / AIFOD AI Weekly Review. Panelist: “Why Are Larger Models Becoming Less Transparent?” (with Fabrizio Degni, Christian Corredoira, and Georg Zangl). May 2.
Mar 2026 “Evaluating AI Across the Research Pipeline: Decoding the Risk Cascade (& What to Do About It).” Webinar, User Interviews. March 31.
Mar 2026 “Thinking Language, Fast and Slow: Speed, Data, and Decolonial Inquiry.” Webinar, BCS Sociotechnical SG. March 24.
Mar 2026 “Innovation Ecosystems, Fast and Slow.” Keynote, Innovation Policy Ignition Programme (IPIP) Residential Visit, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge. March 2.
Feb 2026 “Thinking Language, Fast and Slow: Speed, Data, and Decolonial Inquiry.” Conference “Decolonial Perspectives Across Disciplines: Data, Research and Teaching,” All Souls College, University of Oxford. February 26.
Jan 2026 EPIC2026 Kickoff, Chair and Co-host. February 4.
Dec 2025 AI for Developing Countries Forum. Panelist: “The Marketization Trap of Financial Inclusion.” Forum report
Nov 2025 The Future of Being Human: HCI Symposium 2025, MBZUAI, Abu Dhabi, UAE. Panelist: Data’s Many Lives.
Nov 2025 The Human Factor of AI Implementation, SBS, Zurich, Switzerland. Event Co-Organizer and Panel Moderator: Belonging or Breaking Apart.
Nov 2025 IBM TechXchange Dev Day - Open Source in Data and AI, Lausanne, Switzerland. Panelist and Speaker.
Oct 2025 22nd UX Masterclass, Bangalore, India. Speaker: Mind the AI Gaps in UX Research.
Sep 2025 21st EPIC conference, Helsinki, Finland. Salon Co-Host: Interactive AI & Cultural Complexity.
Jun 2025 GUACfest — Google UX for All Conference. Keynote Speaker: Build for Everyone with a Multidimensional Mindset.
Apr 2025 UXinsight Festival, Leiden, Netherlands. Speaker: Lost in Translation.
Jan 2025 AI for Developing Countries Forum, UN Geneva, Switzerland. Panel Moderator: Data Rights, Reconstruction, and Distribution.
RECENT CURATION & LEADERSHIP
EPIC Learning & Networking Week 2026 | Chair & Co-host. Curated four-day program: 14 sessions, 30+ speakers across industry (Google, Meta Reality Labs, Spotify, Canva, Intel Labs), Indigenous language technology (Te Hiku Media), civil rights and policy (National Fair Housing Alliance), and academic research (Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, Cambridge, Duke). May 4–7.
EPIC2026 Kickoff | Chair and Co-host with Abbas Jaffer (Visa). Lightning talks from Tey Bannerman, Ricardo Baeza-Yates (KTH), Maryam Mustafa (LUMS), Jacki O'Neill (Microsoft Research Africa), Simon Roberts (Stripe Partners; EPIC Board President), and Janet Vertesi (Princeton). Feb 4.
AWARDS
Most Impactful Project Award, UXalliance 20-Year Awards (2025) — for Decolonizing LLMs: An Ethnographic Framework for AI in African Contexts. Collaboration with Bold Insight, Google, Accenture, and Mantaray Africa.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
2026 Water Powers: Sacred Aquatic Animals of the Asia-Pacific (University of Hawai'i Press, co-edited monograph)
2026 “Winning the Game of Broken Telephone: A Blueprint for Evaluating AI Across the Research Pipeline.” The ResearchOps Review
2026 “What Are You Reading?” Interactions 33(3), ACM SIGCHI
2026 “The Goldilocks Kōan: Why There Are No 'Just Right' Names for AI” (Hasu Transitoire / Substack)
2026 “The Research Risk Cascade: Why Even '90% Accurate' AI Tools Break Pipelines” (Hasu Transitoire / Substack)
2025 “A New Framework for Studying Non-Deterministic LLM Interactions.” Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings
2025 “Confraternities.” In The New Nanzan Guide to Japanese Religions
2024 “Decolonizing LLMs: An Ethnographic Framework for AI in African Contexts.” Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference Proceedings