Steven Luo

Steven Luo

Computer Science PhD Student at Carnegie Mellon University.

Hi, I’m Steven! 👋

I am an incoming PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University in the School of Computer Science’s Software and Societal Systems Department, where I am supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. My research interests broadly lie in simulating behaviors with LLMs, human-AI collaboration, tools for decision-making, and technology/AI policy (with recent work on conversational AI systems, privacy, governance, and accountability).

I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 2026 with a B.A. in computer science as well as minors in data science and public policy, where I was supported by the Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholarship and the SEED Scholars Honors Program. At Berkeley, I worked with Professor Serina Chang in the BAIR Lab and helped build the Tech Policy Initiative at CITRIS and the Banatao Institute.

In addition to my academic pursuits, I enjoy teaching (especially CS education and science communication), reading, cooking, as well as watching the symphony and opera. I’m also a student in the UC Berkeley carillon program studying with Simone Browne and a member of the Berkeley Carillon Guild. This year, I’m challenging myself to read one book every month (with occasional accompanying blogs). Have titles to suggest or thoughts to share? Feel free to reach out — I’d love to hear from you!

If you would like to contact me, you can email me at sfluo (AT@) berkeley (DOT.) edu. Thanks for stopping by!

News

  • [May 2026] New preprint about a large-scale human evaluation of AI responses to politically controversial questions [PDF]
  • [Apr. 2026] Co-organized “Governance at the Technological Frontier: Translating Research into Policy for AI Oversight” with CITRIS as well as the Simons Institute [Schedule]
  • [Apr. 2026] I was awarded a 2026 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!
  • [Mar. 2026] My paper on preconditions for using LLM simulations to inform policy was accepted to the PoliSim workshop at ACM CHI 2026. See you in Barcelona! [PDF]
  • [Feb. 2026] My co-authored paper on co-created visions of open source and openness in AI was accepted to ACM FAccT 2026!
  • [Feb. 2026] Attended the Junior Scholars Workshop at ACM CS&Law 2026.
  • [Feb. 2026] Organized the first CITRIS Tech Policy Workshop on Design, Advertising, and Privacy in Conversational AI Systems, with a second workshop to follow in April as well as a white paper and policymaker briefing.
  • [Dec. 2025] Organized a tech policy symposium at the CITRIS Institute. (DailyCal Article, CITRIS Blog)
  • [Oct. 2025] Presented a poster at the Summit on Responsible Computing, AI, and Society hosted by Georgia Tech!
  • [Aug. 2025] I participated in the Brown CNTR Tech & Policy Summer School, visiting Providence and D.C. (Brown News)
  • [Apr. 2025] My policy memo defining a limited private right of action for AI harms in K-12 eduction won 2nd place at the 2025 Berkeley AI Policy Hackathon!
  • [Feb. 2025] Hearti won the Grand Prize: Most Impactful award at Stanford’s TreeHacks!
  • [Jan. 2025] I was admitted to the EECS Honors Program.