Statecraft for the AI Transition

Nicholas Brown is a Senior Fellow and Cofounder of CTS. His work focuses on the AI value chain, export controls, and technical and policy analysis of automation’s impacts.

Nicholas served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security from 2024 – 2025. In this role, he was responsible for designing export controls on advanced AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Nicholas previously worked at the RAND Corporation as a Technical AI Policy Research Scientist, where he developed technical analysis on advanced semiconductors and AI computing infrastructure.

Before entering policy, Nicholas worked as a software engineer at Google. He graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Physics.

Saif is the Founding Director of the Center for Technology & Statecraft (CTS). He is also a Distinguished Technology Fellow at the Institute for Progress (IFP).

Saif served in the White House as Director for Technology and National Security at the National Security Council from 2021 to 2023. In this role, he coordinated US policy on semiconductors, AI, and quantum technologies. His work included designing export controls on AI chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment, strategic planning for the CHIPS Act to revitalize US semiconductor manufacturing and R&D, and coordinating export controls in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Saif served as Counselor for Critical and Emerging Technologies to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and as her principal advisor and coordinator on AI policy from 2023 to 2025. His work covered AI innovation and investment, intellectual property, open-weight models, export controls, international AI policy, and AI standards and evaluation including designing what is now the US Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI).

Saif was also a Bipartisan Senior Advisor to the US House Select Committee on the CCP, a Visiting Professor of the Practice at the University of Maryland Applied Research Lab for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS), and a Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), where he published widely-cited policy research on semiconductor supply chains and AI chips.

Saif has testified before the Senate and the House on AI, semiconductors, and China policy and also served as the US national representative on the international expert advisory panel for the International AI Safety Report.

Saif also has experience as an IP lawyer in the technology industry and holds a JD from The Ohio State University and a BS and an MA in physics from Wayne State University.

Mary Clare McMahon is a Research Fellow at CTS. Her work focuses on U.S.-China competition in AI. She previously supported federal criminal prosecutions in the National Security and Cybercrime Section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Mary Clare holds an MA from Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University, a Certificate in Chinese and American Studies from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a BA in history from Yale University.

Amelia Michael is a Research Fellow at CTS. Her work focuses on frontier robotics and its interactions with AI and compute. She was previously a Research Scholar at GovAI, where she researched compute infrastructure, robotics, and the economics of frontier AI. Before that, she worked on AI, industrial policy, and international economics at the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and researched the economic impacts of advanced AI at the MIT FutureTech lab.

Amelia holds a BA in economics from Brown University. She is also an Adjunct Fellow at GovAI and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation.

Konstantin F. Pilz is a Research Fellow and Cofounder of CTS. His work focuses on U.S.-China competition in AI, semiconductor supply chains, and how AI capabilities translate to national security impacts.

Before co-founding CTS, Konstantin was a researcher and professor at RAND studying semiconductor and AI policy. His published research covers the semiconductor supply chain, AI supercomputers, the U.S. power grid, Chinese industrial policy, and the policy implications of rapid AI progress.

Konstantin holds an MA in Security Studies from Georgetown University. He has previously worked at the Special Competitive Studies Project and Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

James Sanders is a Research Fellow at CTS. His work focuses on national security implications of AI and international coordination to mitigate risks.

Before CTS, James worked on compute policy at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and researched AI capabilities and infrastructure at Epoch AI. Earlier in his career, he was a quantitative trader.

James holds a BA in mathematics from Rice University. He is also an adjunct associate fellow at CNAS.