Shaping AI policy at the frontier
Navigating transformative AI will be incredibly challenging—we need the best people cooperating to tackle it. I lead teams, design programs, and do policy research to increase talent working on AI policy and coordination among key actors. I specialize in the international governance of advanced AI.
Black Sun #8, Søren Solkær (2017)
My work
I’m a Research Manager at the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy (IAPS). I lead IAPS’s international AI governance workstream and our portfolio of programs. I also work closely with the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, as a research affiliate, and the Oxford China Policy Lab, as a fellow. I’m a lawyer with experience in comparative policy and emergent technologies.
Research – My research interests include emerging governmental institutions handling advanced AI, the implications of stronger state involvement in developing AGI, and Sino-western relations on AI. I’m also supervising research on Brazilian AI legislation.
Programs – I design programs to find and bolster talented people to work on AI policy, mainly via the IAPS Fellowship. I also run coordination activities, such as one-off conferences and regular working groups, to ensure we‘re making the most of the talent we have.
People and teams – Managing people and getting teams off the ground are a core part of my work. I manage researchers and fellows at IAPS, am an advisor and board member of several nonprofits in the AI policy space, and mentor aspiring AI policy professionals in various programs.
Other work interests
Developing countries and AI – I co-founded and advise the Condor Initiative, an educational nonprofit that elevates talented students from LMIC to work on AI safety and governance. I’m enthusiastic about the role that developing countries can play in global AI policy, and also follow governance developments in regions such as Latin America, Africa, and South/Southeast Asia.
Governing emergent technologies – besides AI, I’ve worked on the governance of fields such as bio, nuclear, and space technology. At Rethink Priorities, I ran an incubator of nonprofits reducing global risks (of which the Vista Institute and Condor came out). At the Institute for Law and AI, I analyzed all constitutions ever written on their protection of future generations, and legal mechanisms to improve space governance.
Launch of the Endeavour shuttle, NASA (2011)
About me
My previous life as a lawyer – I’m a lawyer by training with a master’s degree from the London School of Economics in criminology. I worked for five years as chief of staff of Justices of Appeal at the Pernambuco State Court – that was during and a bit after law school, and I was the youngest chief of staff at the court then. During that time, I also co-led a group of 50 students and lawyers providing free legal counseling for inmates and doing human rights advocacy.
Personal – I live in Oxford, UK. Outside work, I love volunteering (from animal welfare to human rights, but more recently mostly advising nonprofits on AI policy), traveling (before moving to Oxford, my wife and I were “digital nomads” for two years, living in places ranging from Buenos Aires and Lisbon to Bangkok and Tokyo), have been training endurance sports (currently doing half-marathons, aiming for an Ironman someday), deeply enjoy visual arts and music, and love hunting for bookshops. I hail from Recife, in northeastern Brazil – the best region of the country, if you want the opinion of an impartial observer.
Impression, Sunrise, Monet (1872)