Dr. Rebecca Portnoff

About Dr. Rebecca Portnoff

Dr. Rebecca Portnoff has dedicated her career to defending children from sexual abuse. She holds a B.S.E. from Princeton and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, both in Computer Science, and has been working in the intersection of machine learning (ML)/AI and child safety for over a decade.

She is currently Vice President of Data Science & AI at Thorn, where the ML/AI and algorithmic solutions her team builds have global impact: used across hundreds of law enforcement agencies, hotlines and technology companies. She acts as an ecosystem leader to address emerging threats against children via novel research, standard setting and cross-sector collaborations, bridging the gap between child safety experts, policymakers and technologists.

Her work was among the first to establish technical and policy solutions to prevent generative AI-facilitated child sexual exploitation and abuse. These solutions have been adopted by major platforms like Google and OpenAI, as well as integrated into groundbreaking global scientific standards and regulatory tools. 

Rebecca is an MIT Tech Review 35 under 35 innovator, and Fast Company AI 20. She serves on multiple advisory boards, including the Internet Watch Foundation Board, the UNICRI AI for Safer Children Advisory Board and the National Advisory Committee on the Trafficking of Children and Youth in the United States. She has presented her work at venues ranging from AWS:reInvent to the White House, and her work has been recognized and featured by outlets such as The NYTimes, the WSJ, the AP, Forbes and more.s such as The NYTimes, the WSJ, the AP, Forbes and more.