Ashley Belanger

Ashley is a senior policy reporter for Ars Technica, dedicated to tracking social impacts of emerging policies and new technologies. She is a Chicago-based journalist with 20 years of experience, currently most interested in monitoring regulatory developments around AI, cryptocurrency, social media, and the semiconductor industry. She has contributed investigative reporting to major outlets, including Teen Vogue, National Geographic, The Boston Globe, and Frontline, and served as fact-checker for Scientific American and Undark Magazine. Ashley has a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Florida and a master’s in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her investigative reporting on policy failures to prevent domestic and sexual violence has been funded by Knight Science Journalism and the National Geographic Society. In fall 2023, her reporting tracking authoritarian efforts to criminalize VPNs and restrict online speech to silence Iranian protestors will be featured in an anthology from Saqi Books. When she's not buried in a mound of legal documents, she enjoys hiking with her mutt and thrifting for vintage science books. Connect with Ashley on Bluesky or LinkedIn.