Spencer Kaplan

I’m a cultural and linguistic anthropologist. I examine how new technologies inform what it means to be human, including what it means to be a better human. I currently study relationships between humans and large language models, focusing on those who live most closely with the technology: the very researchers and engineers who make them. My work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the American Ethnological Society.

I am currently a PhD candidate at Yale University. Previously, I received an MPhil in Social Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and a BA in Economics from the University of Chicago. My research is motivated by experience working for an AI startup and, before that, consulting for investment banks and other large companies.

Things I’ve been up to:

– Writing an ethnography of Bay-Area AI researchers and engineers
– Visiting Scholar at NYU, organizing The Past and Future of Work Group
– Published articles on blockchain in New Media and Society and Burning Man in Platypus
– Upcoming in summer 2026: PhD Intern at Microsoft Research