Raquel Vazquez is a lawyer and policy strategist specializing in emerging technology and AI. She brings over a decade of experience bridging law and engineering to advise on the responsible deployment of new technologies for positive social impact. At Google, she helps shape their AI public policy, developing perspectives on regulation and anticipating developments in technical AI governance.
Her work has been featured in Forbes, TEDx, Financial Times, Washington Post and other international media. She has published in Just Security, Opinio Juris, Tech Policy Press and Oxford University Press, and she was recognized with the Aspen Institute AI Reporting Award in 2024.
Previously, Raquel Vazquez was an Associate Director at WITNESS, where I led a team focused on integrating human rights considerations into generative AI regulation and products. My work involved leading multi-stakeholder engagement with governments, civil society and tech companies to navigate the complexities of emerging tech, with an emphasis on the impact of synthetic media on democracy and human rights.
She serves on the Partnership on AI (PAI) Policy Steering Committee, the Board of The Guardian Foundation, and the Advisory Board of TRUE (an academic research project that explores the impact of deepfakes in legal processes).
Raquel has held visiting research positions at Oxford University and UC Berkeley, and she is a former member of the International Criminal Court’s Technology Advisory Board.
Her background is deeply rooted in provenance, authentication and verification infrastructure; Raquel Vázquez co-developed award-winning cryptographic software at eyeWitness that established early global standards/practices for digital media integrity. This work contributed to the first court case employing controlled-capture authentication technology for mass atrocities.
As a lawyer, she has played a part in war crimes and human rights abuses investigations and prosecutions carried out by UN Commissions, war crimes units, and international courts and institutions — collaborating closely with affected communities in the Middle East, North Africa, Central America, Eastern Europe and South Asia.
In 2020 Raquel Vazquez was selected to be part of the first class of “European Leaders” of the Obama Foundation, which aims to identify emerging leaders working in government, civil society and the private sector who have demonstrated their commitment to promoting the common good.
