Kevin Klyman
Technology Policy Strategist
What I Do
I am a policy researcher who advocates for responsible uses of technology to reduce harm and advance peace. I am currently a researcher with the Avoiding Great Power War project at Harvard's Kennedy School, where I publish research on how technology can help prevent war between the United States and China, and Stanford's Center for Research on Foundation Models, where I investigate the harms stemming from large AI models. My writing has been published by Foreign Policy, TechCrunch, Just Security, The American Prospect, The National Interest, South China Morning Post, The Diplomat, Inkstick, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Publications
Resume
A Safe Harbor for AI Evaluation and Red Teaming (2024) — a paper on the importance of independent evaluation of AI models
On the Societal Impact of Open Foundation Models (2024) — a paper on the benefits and risks of "open-source" AI models
The Foundation Model Development Cheatsheet (2024) — a paper providing resources on responsible foundation model development
Foundation Model Transparency Reports (2024) — a paper on transparency reporting for foundation models
Considerations for Governing Open Foundation Models (2023) — a policy brief on governance issues related to open-source large language models
The Foundation Model Transparency Index (2023) — a study that assesses the level of transparency of top AI companies
Biden Takes Measured Approach on China Investment Controls (2023) — an essay in Foreign Policy on outbound investment controls
Do Foundation Model Providers Comply with the Draft EU AI Act? (2023) — a piece of research for Stanford's Center for Research on Foundation Models examining large AI models
The US Wants to Make Sure China Can't Catch Up on Quantum Computing (2023) — an essay in Foreign Policy
Making #NatSec More Inclusive (2022) — a comment in Inkstick
China's tech crackdown could give it an edge (2022) — an op-ed in The Diplomat arguing China's tech crackdown might just work
Who really benefits from digital development? (2022) — an article in TechCrunch finding that digital development projects may have unintended consequences
The Great Tech Rivalry: China vs the US (2021) — a report for the Kennedy School on ML, 5G, quantum information science, semiconductors, biotech, & green tech in China and the US
Collaborating to measure digital transformation: Sharing the Digital Impact Alliance’s draft Digital Transformation Indicator Library (2021) — a dataset of over two thousand indicators of readiness for digital investment that I collected and cleaned
Stopping Killer Robots: Country Positions on Banning Fully Autonomous Weapons and Retaining Human Control (2020) — a first of its kind report describing national policies regarding fully autonomous weapons
UC Berkeley is making the student housing crisis worse (2019) — an investigation published in the San Francisco Chronicle
Accounting for Political Tensions in Post-Cold War Sino-Mongolian Relations (2019, available upon request)
Cluster Munition Monitor (2018) — a report that exposed war crimes in bombings in Syria and Yemen
Campaign to Stop Killer Robots Report on Activities (2018) — a report documenting the campaign's influence on policymakers
Cited By
Policies I've Written
United Nations Joint Statement on Data Protection and Privacy in the COVID-19 Response — a privacy policy adopted by the UN, the World Health Organization, and the World Bank
Land Value Recapture Policy and Inclusion in the Adeline Corridor Plan — a tax to fund affordable housing in Berkeley, California using revenue stemming from increases in land value
Banning the box on housing — a law preventing landlords from discrimination against formerly incarcerated tenants in Berkeley
Affordable housing action plan (Housing Related Referrals) — an ordinance codifying the prioritization of various affordable housing initiatives in the city of Berkeley
Opposition to President Trump’s first military budget (Oppose the National Defense Authorization Act) — a law that made Berkeley the only city in the country to formally oppose one of President Trump’s military budgets
Presentations
The Technology Olympics: Could China Win Gold? (2022) — presented at Harvard Kennedy School
Technology Policy at the United Nations (2021) — presented to Foreign Policy for America's NextGen Initiative
Harnessing mobile phone data in response to COVID-19 (2020) — presented to UN agencies and several National Statistical Offices in Africa
Explanations for political tensions in post-Cold War Sino-Mongolian relations (2020) — presented at the annual plenary for young scholars of the Institute for New Economic Thinking
Data privacy risks and data protection: What happens when sensitive peacekeeping data leaks? (2020) — presented to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations
The risks of government-backed data sharing initiatives to combat COVID-19 (2020) — presented to the UN Privacy Policy Group
Podcasts
Which foundation models comply with the AI Act? — Interviewed by Euractiv's Tech Brief
The DSR Daily Brief — Interviewed by the Deep State Radio network
How Big Tech used COVID to pull of one of the biggest grifts in history — Interviewed by The Real News Podcast
Affiliations
Visiting Fellow at the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab
Co-President of the Board of the John Gardner Fellowship Association
Emerging Expert at the Forum on the Arms Trade
Co-lead of the Technology Working Group at Foreign Policy for America's NextGen Initiative
Researcher at Stanford's Center for Research on Foundation Models
Researcher at Harvard's Avoiding Great Power War Project
I'd love to hear from you
© 2024 by Kevin Klyman
My email is my first name dot last name at berkeley dot edu