Heidy Khlaaf

Dr. Heidy Khlaaf is a safety expert that specialises in the evaluation, specification, and verification of complex or autonomous software implementations in safety-critical systems. She has an extensive and broad range of expertise in leading system safety audits (e.g., IEC 61508, DO-178C), varying from UAVs to large nuclear power plants, that contribute to construction of safety cases for safety-critical software.

She has helped establish and pioneer the field of AI Safety Engineering, and is known for her work leading the safety evaluation of Codex at OpenAI where she developed a framework that measures a model’s performance outcomes against a cross functional risk assessment, now a de facto methodology used across AI labs.

She was previously the Engineering Director of the AI Assurance team at Trail of Bits, where she led the cyber evaluations as part of the launch of the UK AI Safety Institute, and unveiled the LeftoverLocals vulnerability. She was awarded her Computer Science Doctorate in Formal Verification from University College London, and received awards for her work on the first automated algorithm to verify CTL* specifications for software systems.

Her unique expertise at the intersection of systems engineering and machine learning is recognised in the industry, as she is a committee member of ISO SC 42, the Network of Experts for UNSG’s AI Advisory Body, and the WEF Certification Working Group.