Vora, Ankur
Ankur (pronounced ‘un-kur’) leads public engagement on AI for science at DeepMind, an artificial intelligence lab headquartered in London. His career to date has focused on technological transformation and its societal impacts, holding various policy and strategic communications related roles in both government and private sector. At DeepMind, this has included leading the public launch of the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database, and piloting new formats for science communication. At Google, Ankur helped create the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, to counter violent extremist activity online, and the Be Internet Legends program to help younger children safely and confidently navigate the web. Ankur was previously in the UK Civil Service, where he was deputy editor for the 2015 Budget at HM Treasury; helped develop a digital transformation strategy for jobcentres at the Department for Work & Pensions; was seconded to work with the insurance industry on climate change related impacts; and while at the Department for Education, helped establish a cross-industry Adoption Leadership board to reduce the number of children waiting to be adopted.
Outside of work, Ankur has worked as a freelance photographer for concerts and events, and co-founded an arts organisation, Paperback Pictures, to promote diversity and inclusion in theatre.