Alexander Cohen (b. 1988) is an American and Austrian artist, musician, and scholar whose work critiques technology narratives. His current work focuses on the public-facing performances of corporations and academics who attempt to draw the boundaries of what can and cannot be said about the ethics of Artificial Intelligence (AI). His recent publications have traced how apocalyptic narratives around the promise and threat of AI have been used to preempt regulation and advance eugenic ideologies. Alex’s past work has raised awareness around emotion recognition surveillance technologies in public spaces, explored Jewish mysticism through technologically mediated ritual, and fostered collaborative instrument design approaches for collective musical improvisation. He designed wearable instruments, composed music, and danced as part of Driven Arts Collective and has had an extensive career as a performing musician in conventional and experimental genres. He has previously worked as the Technical Director for the Music Technology at Georgia Tech and as a Lecturer in Digital Audio Production at NCSU.

As an improvising musician, Alex has performed with William Winant, Rent Romus, Joshua Allen, gabby fluke-mogul, Camille Emaille, Tom Weeks, Seiyoung Jang, Majid Araim, and the Atlanta Improvisor’s Orchestra. He holds a BM in Jazz Guitar from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Wendell Logan, Bobby Ferrazza, and Marcus Belgrave. He completed an M.A. in Music Composition and his M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Media at Mills College, where he studied under Roscoe Mitchell, Maggi Payne, Zeena Parkins, Pauline Oliveros, Chris Brown, Fred Frith, and Les Stuck.