Billy Perrigo
👋🏼 Hey!
I'm Billy, a tech correspondent at TIME magazine. I mostly write about how artificial intelligence and social media platforms are reshaping our world.
I broke the news that OpenAI used outsourced Kenyan workers earning less than $2 per hour to detoxify ChatGPT—work that left many of them traumatized.
I was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2022 for my article Inside Facebook's African Sweatshop. The details first revealed in that story are the basis of two ongoing lawsuits against Meta in Kenya, and preceded a successful vote to unionize by many of the affected workers.
As well as covering AI 'from below,' as a historian might put it, I have also interviewed the world's most influential AI CEOs, including OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei.
And I love profiling smaller companies and nonprofits that are trying to improve the tech ecosystem like Karya, Signal, Block Party, and Polis.
My previous role at TIME was on the international team. As well as reporting tech-focused stories, I covered news from around the globe including the COVID-19 pandemic, the fallout from Brexit in the U.K., and the transformation of India under Narendra Modi.
I have a first-class degree in modern history from the University of Warwick. My dissertation was a study of how emerging communications technologies facilitated the rise of Hindu nationalism in postcolonial India. As a student, I was an investigative reporter and deputy news editor for my university newspaper, the Warwick Boar.
I'm open to TV, radio, podcast, and IRL public speaking invitations. Here's how to contact me.
I'm Billy, a tech correspondent at TIME magazine. I mostly write about how artificial intelligence and social media platforms are reshaping our world.
I broke the news that OpenAI used outsourced Kenyan workers earning less than $2 per hour to detoxify ChatGPT—work that left many of them traumatized.
I was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize in 2022 for my article Inside Facebook's African Sweatshop. The details first revealed in that story are the basis of two ongoing lawsuits against Meta in Kenya, and preceded a successful vote to unionize by many of the affected workers.
As well as covering AI 'from below,' as a historian might put it, I have also interviewed the world's most influential AI CEOs, including OpenAI's Sam Altman, Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei.
And I love profiling smaller companies and nonprofits that are trying to improve the tech ecosystem like Karya, Signal, Block Party, and Polis.
My previous role at TIME was on the international team. As well as reporting tech-focused stories, I covered news from around the globe including the COVID-19 pandemic, the fallout from Brexit in the U.K., and the transformation of India under Narendra Modi.
I have a first-class degree in modern history from the University of Warwick. My dissertation was a study of how emerging communications technologies facilitated the rise of Hindu nationalism in postcolonial India. As a student, I was an investigative reporter and deputy news editor for my university newspaper, the Warwick Boar.
I'm open to TV, radio, podcast, and IRL public speaking invitations. Here's how to contact me.