Silvia de Freitas Dal Ben Furtado is a Ph.D student at the School of Journalism in the University of Texas at Austin, where she researches automated journalism and the sociotechnical networks involved in the development of Artificial Intelligence systems applied in the newsrooms.
She has a master's in communication (2018) from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and her dissertation earned Adelmo Genro Filho Award granted by SBPJor - Brazilian Association of Researchers in Journalism. She completed her B.A. in Journalism and in Radio and Television from UFMG, with an Exchange Program at the University of Nottingham (UK).
As a journalist, she worked as a culture reporter and editor for four years at Portal Uai, Estado de Minas' newspaper website in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She also worked for more than ten years at D2R Studios as an executive producer of films, videos, games, apps and new media.