Host a book club event for What It Meant to Survive , my second novel! Available everywhere books are sold.
Welcome! My name is Mala Kumar and I am a global leader in tech / AI for social good
I have deep expertise in UX research and design, open source software, and AI / ML for social good. Throughout my 15+ year career, I have led groundbreaking initiatives that have reached 50,000+ people globally and contributed to the SDGs. I am currently the Interim Executive Director of Humane Intelligence, an AI evaluations organization that helps responsibility unlock the power of AI for good at scale. Previously, I was a Director at MLCommons, where I helped build its inaugural AI safety benchmark. Prior, I was the Director of Tech for Social Good at GitHub. I spent the year after and the decade prior to GitHub working at the United Nations and other INGOs, in both English and French. Since 2007, I have lived and worked extensively in four continents. While NYC is home, I regularly travel to speak at conferences, run meetings, and conduct field research. Separate to my tech work, I am the author of two novels. My second novel What it Meant to Survive was published on October 1, 2024.
Email me at malakumarconsulting [at] gmail [dot] com or use the button below to get in touch.
My previous employers:
I am currently open to:
Announcements
- My first six months as Interim Executive Director of Humane Intelligence have been a big success! Read about our initiatives to release our AI red teaming app under an OSS license and to scale our bias bounty program on Zindi. These are flagship initiatives of the new strategy I set.
- I wrote an Op-Ed with Rumman Chowdhury about why AI evals need to reflect reality. Read that here.
- Read my article on the paradox of “tolerant” LGBTQ communities.
Video Series
I’m one of the few people I know who went from the social sector to the tech industry. I have a series of videos to help others do the same:
Featured Talk
I’ve given keynote talks at design and other tech conferences in Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the United States. Hear my talk at KIKK in Namur, Belgium on “Substantive Tech” to the right/below.
Unless otherwise stated, all content by Mala Kumar on malakumar.com is under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
