Kevin Bankston is a Fellow at the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, where he researches the relationship between science fiction and real-world technical innovation (“the Sci-Fi Feedback Loop”) and the use of science fiction techniques for speculative design and strategic foresight (“Applied Sci-Fi”). He has published numerous articles on these topics for publications like The Atlantic and Slate magazine’s Future Tense, where he is also a fellow. His own short fiction has been published through Vice Media’s Terraform imprint, and commissioned by futurist consultancy Scifutures.com.
Outside of his research work, Kevin is an accomplished executive leader in the arena of technology law and policy. He is currently a Director of Privacy Policy at Meta Platforms, Inc., where he leads Meta’s AI Policy Team. He and his team are focused on building Meta’s internal approaches to responsible AI development, while also managing Meta’s external policy strategy around AI-focused legislative and regulatory proposals.
Prior to joining Meta in 2019, Kevin spent nearly 20 years in the public interest sector working to preserve online privacy, security, and free speech as an attorney and advocate at organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), most recently serving as the Director of the Open Technology Institute (OTI) technology policy program at the think tank New America, in Washington, DC. His work at OTI led to him being named by Washingtonian magazine as one of DC’s 100 top tech leaders of 2017.
Kevin has testified to Congress multiple times on a range of tech policy issues, and has appeared or been quoted in news outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Wired, Newsweek, TIME, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News, PBS, NPR, and more. He is currently a Truman Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project, and previously has served as a board member for the First Amendment Coalition, an advisory board member for Radio Free Asia’s Open Technology Fund, and a non-resident fellow at Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society. Kevin’s court argument before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in landmark litigation against the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program was featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary about Edward Snowden, Citizenfour. He received his JD at the University of Southern California Law School after receiving his BA at the University of Texas at Austin.