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 AI evals and tech for social good

I have deep expertise in UX research and design, open source software (OSS), and GenAI. Throughout my 15+ year career, I have led groundbreaking initiatives in the private sector and international civil society that have reached hundreds of thousands of people. I am currently the Executive Director of Humane Intelligence, an AI evaluations organization that helps responsibility unlock the power of AI for good at scale. As the ED of Humane Intelligence, I conceptualized and oversaw the release of our AI red teaming software under an OSS license, helped develop an ontology-based contextual AI evals methodology, created a new strategy that helped me generate 7 figures of revenue in record time for the organization.

Previously, I was the Director of Program Management, AI Safety at MLCommons, where I oversaw the core team that created the AI risk benchmark, AILuminate. As the Director of Tech for Social Good at GitHub, I helped launch the first OSPO in the United Nations (UN) system. While at the UN, I was one of the first people globally to introduce UX research and design, where I led the design and development of novel tech solutions in public health, food security, and disaster risk management. 

While NYC is home, I have extensive experience working in four continents, in both English and French, and I regularly travel abroad to conduct field research and speak. I have presented and keynoted at the India AI Impact Summit, UNGA, Cornell Tech, IGF, Nasdaq, KIKK Festival, Nordic.Design, and RightsCon, among others. 

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:

World-Health-Organization-WHO-Logo

Announcements

  • October 2026 – My paper on ontology-based contextual AI evaluations is available here.
  • In July 2026, I was a guest contributor on BBC Newsday and spoke about AI, security, and society. Listen here.
  • Noor Shams hosted a private book event for What It Meant to Survive in Queens, NYC on June 20th. Read more.
  • Read my Humane Intelligence blog post about the relationship between AI evaluations and AI safety.

Featured Videos

Featured Talk

I’ve given keynote talks at design and other tech conferences in Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, India and the United States. Hear an older talk at KIKK in Namur, Belgium on “Substantive Tech” to the right/below.

See a complete list of talks here

Unless otherwise stated, all content by Mala Kumar on malakumar.com is under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0