--- description: Find out why Heidy Khlaaf made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence. title: TIME100 AI 2025: Heidy Khlaaf image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d86e8e4968ca7d3/6998c92766d4e34699cbcbea/Heidy-Khlaaf.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 26, 2025 # Heidy Khlaaf Chief AI scientist, AI Now Institute by [Harry Booth](/author/harry-booth/) ## Harry Booth Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Booth is a reporter at TIME.  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Courtesy Photo) As generative AI heads for military integration, Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute has emerged as a leading critic, arguing that the rush to incorporate AI relies on a flawed “arms race” narrative. “Why is AI adoption the measure to win the race when these systems are faulty and likely to harm your national security?” says Khlaaf, who in 2021 helped architect a [risk assessment framework](https://openai.com/index/a-hazard-analysis-framework-for-code-synthesis-large-language-models/ "undefined") using a methodology that would later become de facto across industry. An April [paper](https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.15088 "undefined") co-authored by Khlaaf argued that regulators and elected representatives, not private corporations, should decide what counts as “safe enough,” drawing on risk thresholds and norms established over decades in other high-stakes domains like nuclear power plants—which she once audited. Khlaaf cautions against relying on companies’ assurances about safety, because terminology around the issue is often revised, redefined and in some cases "washed down," as AI companies push for accelerated adoption. “What is important to me is that we keep the same safety and security thresholds that made the U.S. a military powerhouse since post World War II," she says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305862/heidy-khlaaf/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305862/heidy-khlaaf/"},"headline":"Heidy Khlaaf","datePublished":"2025-08-26T20:03:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:43.960Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305862/heidy-khlaaf/","keywords":["Tech","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","TIME100 AI 2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d86e8e4968ca7d3/6998c92766d4e34699cbcbea/Heidy-Khlaaf.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Harry Booth","jobTitle":"Booth is a reporter at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/harry-booth/"}],"creator":"Harry Booth","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9d86e8e4968ca7d3/6998c92766d4e34699cbcbea/Heidy-Khlaaf.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305862/heidy-khlaaf/","name":"Heidy Khlaaf"}}]}] ```