Kevin Klyman

Kevin Klyman is a technology policy strategist focused on artificial intelligence, U.S.-China competition, and regulating emerging technologies. In addition to being an MIP candidate at Stanford, he is a Technology Policy Researcher at Harvard’s Avoiding Great Power War Project, an Emerging Expert at the Forum on the Arms Trade, and a prospective JD candidate at Harvard Law School.

Klyman’s writing on the technology and geopolitics has been published in Foreign Policy, TechCrunch, Just Security, The American Prospect, The Diplomat, Inkstick, The National Interest, and South China Morning Post. He is the author of “The Great Tech Rivalry: China vs. the U.S.” with Professor Graham Allison, which has been cited by The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and NPR among others.

Klyman’s research primarily addresses responsible development and use of large AI models in the United States, Europe, and China. He also conducts research related to compute governance, quantum computing export controls, telecommunications infrastructure deployment, clean energy supply chains, biotechnology supply chains, digital trade agreements, digital technology regulators, and digital development institutions.

Klyman has led tech policy initiatives for a variety of the world’s leading international organizations. As an Artificial Intelligence and Digital Rights Fellow at United Nations Global Pulse, the AI lab of the UN Secretary-General, he headed the organization’s work on national AI strategies and coordinated the UN’s Privacy Policy Group. Klyman helped lead the development of a risks, harms, and benefits assessment for algorithmic systems that is now used across the UN. His other projects included working with engineers to address risks posed by the UN’s machine learning-based tools, organizing international consultations on data governance frameworks, and drafting data sharing agreements between the UN and the private sector. After the onset of the pandemic, Klyman coauthored a new privacy policy in partnership with the World Health Organization—the “Joint Statement on Data Protection and Privacy in the COVID-19 Response”—which was adopted by the UN as a whole.

As a Policy Fellow at the UN Foundation’s Digital Impact Alliance, Klyman built a database that is now used by the World Bank and the UN Development Programme to assess countries' readiness for digital investment. He also worked with the German and Estonian governments to spin up the GovStack initiative in order to assist governments in providing digital services. At the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, Klyman directed research on countries’ policies regarding autonomous weapons, resulting in the landmark report “Stopping Killer Robots: Country Positions on Banning Fully Autonomous Weapons and Retaining Human Control.”

Klyman has also contributed to a number of policy arenas aside from technology. At Human Rights Watch, he helped expose war crimes in Syria and Yemen through open-source intelligence gathering and coauthored a report about the illegal use of cluster munitions. As a Legislative Assistant to the Mayor of Berkeley, California, he drafted a dozen pieces of legislation that nearly doubled the city’s investments in affordable housing. Additionally, as a Legislative Assistant to an elected commissioner on the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board, he authored enabling legislation that paved the way for Berkeley to become one of the first and only cities in the country to ban housing discrimination against formerly incarcerated tenants.

Klyman attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate, graduating with highest honors in political science along with a degree in applied mathematics concentrating in computer science. He is an award-winning debater who achieved the highest ranking in Berkeley’s history in American parliamentary debate and was Co-President of Berkeley’s parliamentary debate team; he has also coached multiple national debate champions. His thesis on Chinese foreign policy won the Owen D. Young Prize as the top paper in international relations and he received the John Gardner Public Service Fellowship as one of Berkeley’s top three public service-oriented graduates. He serves as Co-President of the John Gardner Fellowship Association, a 501(c)3.