Grahm Gaydos

I work on AI policy
at the layer where
promises get tested.

I'm Grahm Gaydos, an AI policy researcher and recent MSc graduate of the Oxford Internet Institute. My work concerns the institutional layer through which technology policy is actually delivered—the procurement criteria, assessment frameworks, and stakeholder negotiations that determine what governments acquire, who builds it, and whether it performs. I have led frontier-AI tool evaluation and governance design for Jefferson County, Colorado; published policy research with the Westminster Foundation for Democracy; addressed the United Nations; and completed an MSc with a thesis examining how federal procurement memoranda shape AI adoption.

500K+
Residents Served · JeffCo Emerging Technologies Team
3
Published Works
1
UN Floor Address · ICT Working Group
2028
USA Triathlon Olympic Track

Selected work

Download CV
2026

Procurement and Process: an interrupted time series analysis of federal AI contracting after the 2024 OMB AI procurement memoranda

Oxford Internet Institute · MSc thesis
+

An interrupted time series analysis of US federal contracting data examining whether the 2024 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) AI procurement memoranda measurably shifted agency-level AI adoption.

Identifies AI-related contract actions across roughly 7,200 agency-months and tests for level shifts at the M-24-10 (March 2024) and M-24-18 (September 2024) intervention points. Distinguishes between extensive-margin (frequency) and intensive-margin (volume) responses — a distinction with direct implications for how administrative AI policy is read as a regulatory instrument. Full chart and methodology →

For
MSc thesis · OII
Status
Submitted · August 2026
Tools
R · Stata · fixest
2026

From Pilot to Policy: why government AI pilots stagnate, and what that tells us about institutional capacity

AI for Policymaking · Essay
Research
+

An argument that the persistent failure of public-sector AI pilots to scale into deployment is not a technology problem or a funding problem — it is a structural feature of how the pilot apparatus itself is institutionally built. Pilots succeed because they are exempted from the procurement, governance, and accountability structures that deployment would have to operate within.

The same exemptions that make pilots succeed are the conditions that prevent them from progressing. Stagnation is the system working precisely as the institutional environment has forced it to.

For
AI for Policymaking · coursework
2026

Governed Opacity: the EU AI Act's unresolved tension between prohibiting and institutionalising information asymmetry

Law and the Internet · Coursework
Research
+

Argues that the EU AI Act draws no coherent conceptual line between harmful and productive information asymmetry — Article 5 prohibits certain forms of opacity outright, while Articles 57–63 institutionalise opacity as a precondition for innovation.

The Act's boundary between the two is not principled but procedural and distributive: it calibrates who benefits from informational asymmetry and on what terms, rather than resolving the underlying tension.

For
Law and the Internet · coursework
2025

Jefferson County's first frontier-AI governance framework

Jefferson Co. · Colorado
Applied
+

Contributed to the design and adoption of the County's first governance framework for frontier AI models, establishing institutional procedures for evaluating, piloting, and scaling emerging technologies across departments serving over 500,000 residents.

Led qualitative stakeholder interviews with department leads across government divisions and synthesised findings to shape the framework's evaluation, pilot, and scale-up procedures.

For
Jefferson County · adopted
2025

An 8-criterion structured assessment framework for AI tool procurement

Jefferson Co. · Colorado
Applied
+

Co-designed an 8-criterion structured assessment framework for evaluating frontier AI tools against procurement requirements, workflow constraints, governance risk, and political context. Combined qualitative evaluation with light quantitative scoring to reduce evaluator bias and produce a consistent evidence base for procurement decisions.

Used to assess frontier AI tools for County adoption; outputs informed leadership's technology decisions and were incorporated into the broader governance framework.

For
Jefferson County tool evaluation
2025

Five pilot proposals for departmental AI adoption

Jefferson Co. · Colorado
Applied
+

Authored five pilot proposals for the project management team evaluating frontier AI tools for departmental adoption. Each proposal assessed implementation feasibility, governance risk, and operational impact — translating abstract technology guidance into concrete pilot designs that the County could actually run.

For
Jefferson County project management
2025

The 2013 Healthcare.gov Launch & State Capacity in the Digital Age

Williams College · Senior thesis
Published
+

Mixed-methods study using qualitative and archival analysis of procurement documentation, government reports, and organisational case studies to trace how procurement failures upstream of the 2013 Healthcare.gov rollout determined delivery outcomes.

The argument: the launch crisis was a procurement crisis before it was a software crisis. Sets up the procurement-as-governance frame extended in the MSc thesis.

For
Senior thesis · Political Science
2024

AI & Democracy: Landscape, Risks & Opportunities for the Democracy Support Sector

Westminster Foundation for Democracy
Published
+

Managed a 3-month research project from scoping through publication, delivering a 15,000-word policy report on AI and democracy promotion. Incorporated a literature review of 50+ sources, stakeholder insights, and a policy memo with recommendations now used to inform organisational strategy.

Developed a working definition of AI for the democracy support sector and translated it into a briefing deck presented to WFD staff and external partners, packaging complex policy research for varied audiences.

For
Westminster Foundation for Democracy
Length
15,000 words
2024

AI & Electoral Integrity

Williams Class of 1945 World Fellowship
Published
+

Eight-week fellowship project on AI's impact on democratic practices and elections — synthesising primary sourcing, case studies, stakeholder interviews, and quantitative data collection. The report deliberately resists the genre's pull toward speculation; the goal was a usable baseline rather than scenario-building.

For
Class of 1945 Fellowship
2024

Digital Innovation and Governance: how states should respond to authority challenges from digital platforms

Oxford · Coursework
Research
+

A 5,000-word essay produced under tutorial supervision at Oxford, examining how states — particularly those with limited means or resources — should respond to challenges to their authority from digital platforms. Treats sovereignty as a multidimensional resource rather than a binary status, and traces what kinds of state responses are actually viable across legal, physical, and political dimensions.

For
Williams-Exeter Programme (WEPO)
Length
~5,000 words
2023

UN floor address & youth statement on ICTs

2023 NPT PrepCom · NAPF
Applied
+

Selected by peers to draft the youth statement for the 2023 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee, and delivered the address on the role of information and communications technologies in security policy. Briefed parliamentarians and members of Congress on the AI–nuclear nexus throughout 2023.

Prepared speech materials for civil society partners and UN representatives, helping communicate policy positions on AI governance, emerging technologies, and international security in clear, public-facing language.

For
2023 NPT PrepCom · UN floor
2023

Generative-AI use policy guidance for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

NAPF · Reverse the Trend
Applied
+

Researched the AI–nuclear nexus and produced internal-use policy guidance on organisational use of generative AI for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. The guidance covered acceptable use cases, governance considerations, and the boundary between research and operational deployment in a small-organisation context.

Spearheaded internal discussions with NAPF staff about implementing the guidance in day-to-day work.

For
NAPF · internal use
2022

Executive appointment orders & board pipeline

Office of the Governor · Colorado
Applied
+

Drafted executive appointment orders and governmental memos at the Office of Boards and Commissions; managed candidate pipeline across 12 active board vacancies, coordinating with appointees and agency staff on state-level operations.

For
Office of Boards & Commissions

About

Grahm Gaydos

I grew up in Colorado and studied Political Science at Williams College, where I also competed in NCAA Cross Country and Track. I was drawn to policy work by a recurring observation: the distance between what governments say about technology and what they deliver is usually determined by the institutional infrastructure underneath—who translates regulation into implementation, who shapes requirements before decisions are formalised, and who holds the standing to see a recommendation through. I have spent the past several years working precisely where those gaps close: in Jefferson County, at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, at the United Nations, and most recently at the Oxford Internet Institute, where I completed my MSc.

I am equally at home in a policy review, a stakeholder negotiation, or a research seminar, and I translate readily among the three. I write quickly and precisely—I would rather deliver a five-page brief that moves a decision than a fifty-page report that goes unread—and I am candid about whether a recommendation will survive contact with the institution it must operate within, and prepared to redraft it until it will. Beyond my research, I compete on the USA Triathlon National Development Team, with the aim of qualifying for the 2028 Olympic Games.

I am open to fellowships, research roles, and policy positions—particularly with teams working on the institutional conditions of AI deployment.

Speaking at the UN
2023NPT PrepCom
Working at Oxford
2026OII
Triathlon race
2025NDT
Williams graduation
2025Williams
At work
2025Oxford
At the Colorado Capitol
2022Colorado Capitol

Let's talk.

Open to fellowships, research roles, and policy positions in 2026—particularly with teams working on AI procurement, governance, or the institutional conditions of frontier AI deployment. Reasonably fast on email.