Hilke Schellmann

Author, Journalist, Full time Faculty

Hilke Schellmann is an Emmy award winning investigative reporter and assistant professor of journalism at New York University.

As a contributor to The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian, Schellmann writes about holding artificial intelligence (AI) accountable. In her book, The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired, And Why We Need To Fight Back (Hachette), she investigates the rise of AI in the world of work. Drawing on exclusive information from whistleblowers, internal documents and real‑world tests, Schellmann discovers that many of the algorithms making high‑stakes decisions are biased, racist, and do more harm than good.

Her four part investigative podcast and print series on AI and hiring for MIT Technology Review was a finalist for a Webby Award.

Her documentary Outlawed in Pakistan, which played at Sundance and aired on PBS FRONTLINE, was recognized with an Emmy, an Overseas Press Club, and a Cinema for Peace Award amongst others. In her investigation into student loans for VICE on HBO, she uncovered how a spigot of easy money from the federal government is driving up the cost of higher education in the U.S. and is even threatening the country’s international competitiveness. The documentary was named a 2017 finalist for the Peabody Awards.

A former Director of Video Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, Schellman also spearheaded video coverage as a Multimedia Reporter for the New York section of The Wall Street Journal. Her work has appeared in several publications including The New York Times, VICE, HBO, PBS, TIME, ARD, ZDF, WNYC, National Geographic, The Guardian, Glamour, and The Atlantic.

Schellmann’s work has been generously supported by the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, MIT Knight Science Fellowship, The Pulitzer Center AI Accountability Network and the NYU Journalism Venture Capital Fund.