Vivek Chilukuri

Senior Fellow and Director, Technology and National Security Program

Research Areas

Vivek Chilukuri is senior fellow and program director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), where he studies how artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies are reshaping national security and great power competition.

Chilukuri’s research focuses on two of the defining technology contests of our time: the struggle between the United States and China to shape digital ecosystems in emerging markets and middle power strategies for AI sovereignty. His work on the former issue has taken him to Indonesia, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates for ground-level research culminating in a major 2025 report, Countering the Digital Silk Road.

Before CNAS, Chilukuri spent over six years shaping technology policy on Capitol Hill as a deputy chief of staff and legislative director for Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. In these roles, he worked on legislation to strengthen U.S. leadership in AI, quantum computing, advanced semiconductors, and next-generation telecommunications, and to expand broadband access across the country.

Earlier in his career, Chilukuri served at the U.S. Department of State as a policy advisor focused on countering violent extremism and terrorist recruitment through digital platforms. Before that, he worked as a program officer on the Middle East and North Africa team at the National Democratic Institute.

Chilukuri’s writing has appeared in  Foreign Policy, Time, Lawfare, and Nikkei Asia, and his analysis has been featured in outlets including The New York Times, Politico, NPR, BBC News, and Wired. He holds an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA in international studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated as a Robertson Scholar.