J.B. Branch

J.B. Branch is the Big Tech accountability advocate for Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. He leads Public Citizen’s advocacy efforts on artificial intelligence (AI) accountability, consumer data and privacy rights, tech product safety, platform oversight, and child online safety protections.

J.B. is an expert on AI governance, agentic AI, the intersection of civil liberties and technology, as well as tech policy. His analysis on AI governance, technology policy, and civil rights has been published in Tech Policy Press, Slate, The Root, and Harvard Kennedy School Policy Review among others. He has advised foreign governments, the White House, federal agencies, members of Congress, governors, state attorneys general, and the California legislature on AI and tech policies.

Prior to joining Public Citizen, J.B. helped create the infrastructure for Louisiana’s automated expungement system; advised the Department of Justice on privacy concerns surrounding locative devices and registries for people with Autism; and held a legal fellowship with the Center for AI and Digital Policy where he promoted AI policies that ensured democratic values for AI.

J.B. graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the Pennsylvania State University Schreyer Honors College, a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center where he was a Public Interest Law Scholar graduating with honors, and an M.P.A. from Harvard Kennedy School where he was both a Gleitsman Fellow through the Center for Public Leadership and a Harvard/MIT AI Safety Fellow.