Takoma Park, Maryland
Greg Maly
I am the AI & Data Science Editor at The Outlaw Ocean Project, where I architected much of the data infrastructure and the machine learning and natural language processing pipelines behind Bait to Plate, a database that traces seafood from fishing vessel to retail shelf and links hundreds of thousands of entities across more than 100 countries to documented crimes and labor abuses. It launched in October 2026 with the Project’s Food for Feed investigation and was featured in The New York Times Magazine.
Before journalism, I worked on the same problem in other fields. I was an early member of the State Department’s Office of Advanced Analytics in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, built machine learning disease forecasts for the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), and founded the Data Science and Digital Products team at DAI Global, which I grew to 15 people serving programs in more than 80 countries. I co-founded Exchange.Design and served as its CTO.
I have spoken on technology and society at Google, the World Bank, PeaceCon, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University. I am an intermittent advisor at the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Technical Assistance, teach at the University of Maryland’s College of Information, and sit on the Maryland Responsible AI Council. As a personal project, I maintain the Technology Policy Data Project, which connects reported incidents involving digital products to the bills and lawsuits that bear on them. I write at gregmaly.substack.com.
Now
AI & Data Science Editor
Leading the integration of data science into investigative journalism. Architected much of the data infrastructure and the machine learning and NLP pipelines behind Bait to Plate, which covers ships, manning agencies, aquaculture farms, and brands. Launched October 2026 with Food for Feed. It is a complicated moment to bring machine learning into a newsroom. The tools are useful. The work is building data pipelines that meet the high bar investigative reporting sets for evidence.
Watch video Case study
Advisory, teaching & other work
Adjunct Lecturer
Teaching Data Engineering Methods and Data Preparation for Analytics to master’s and undergraduate students.
Maryland Responsible AI Council
Committee Member
Established by Governor Wes Moore to advise Maryland state agencies on the responsible development and use of AI, from procurement and service delivery to education, healthcare, and transportation, with attention to testing, transparency, accountability, and privacy. Reviewing draft legislation.
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Advisor, Office of Technical Assistance
Intermittent technology advisory for the department, and implementation with international counterparts.
Before
Associate Director, Data Science & Digital Products
Founded the Data Science and Digital Products team at the Center for Digital Acceleration and grew it to 15 people serving every business unit across 80-plus countries, running six enterprise applications for thousands of users. Portfolio included USAID Digital Frontiers, the agency’s $90M flagship digital program.
Exchange.Design
Co-founder & CTO
Grew the firm past $1 million in revenue in 18 months, helping mission-driven organizations adopt AI and data science methods. Departed early 2026.
U.S. Department of State
Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations
Early member of the Office of Advanced Analytics, working as a conflict data analyst.
Earlier — Data science advisor, UN Foundation Data2X. Advisor to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Taught at the Department of State and the U.S. Institute of Peace.
Selected builds
The Technology Policy Data Project, a personal project: a research platform connecting reported incidents involving digital products to the bills and lawsuits that bear on them, with a bill comparison tool covering more than 14,000 bills from all 50 states. Guitar Story, another personal project, tracing who has owned guitar brands over time, where their instruments were built, and where the wood comes from. USAID Knowledge Rescue, a retrieval system over 150,000 documents from USAID’s public archive, built after the collection went offline. EvidenceBase.ai, an evidence tool used by more than 50 nonprofits. Machine learning disease forecasts for Mozambique and Somalia under the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), one of the longest-running humanitarian early warning systems, operating since 1985.
Elsewhere
Talks at Google New York, the World Bank, PeaceCon at George Mason University, and Johns Hopkins University, and guest lectures in courses at George Washington University. MA, Josef Korbel School, University of Denver. BA in Policy, Ethics & Conflict, a self-designed major, St. Mary’s College of Maryland.