PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Sayash Kapoor

Sayash Kapoor is a computer scientist whose work tests AI systems and explains their limits to public readers. After earning a computer science BTech from IIT Kanpur in 2019, he worked as a software engineer at Facebook and began a Princeton Ph.D. in 2021. With Arvind Narayanan, he developed AI Snake Oil as a book project and newsletter, then published their 2024 book. Their 2025 paper AI as Normal Technology set out a framework for understanding AI's social effects through adoption and institutions. Princeton named him a Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellow in 2026; as of October 2026, he is an incoming assistant professor at UC Berkeley's School of Information with an appointment starting in July 2027.

Works
68
Citations
2,192
h-index
15

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Sayash Kapoor

Timeline

  1. 2019–2021

    From Facebook to Princeton

    He earns a computer science BTech from IIT Kanpur in 2019, works as a software engineer at Facebook, and starts a Princeton Ph.D. in 2021.

  2. 2022

    The AI Snake Oil project

    He and Arvind Narayanan introduce the AI Snake Oil book project in 2022 and use a blog to share their research with readers.

  3. 2023

    A TIME100 AI honor

    His AI Snake Oil newsletter carries his analysis of AI claims to readers, and TIME includes him in its 2023 list of the 100 most influential people in AI. He and Narayanan also publish REFORMS, a checklist for machine-learning research reporting, through their newsletter.

  4. 2024

    AI Snake Oil published

    With Arvind Narayanan, he publishes AI Snake Oil on September 24, 2024; Nature includes the book among its 10 best books of 2024.

  5. 2024

    Machine-learning reporting guidelines

    He helps lead a 19-researcher team that publishes guidelines for responsible machine-learning research in May 2024.

  6. 2025

    AI as Normal Technology

    With Narayanan, he publishes AI as Normal Technology in April 2025, a paper on how technology adoption and institutions shape AI's social effects.

  7. 2026

    A fellowship and policy award

    Princeton names him a Porter Ogden Jacobus Fellow in 2026, its top distinction for graduate students. He is a 2026 Siebel Scholar and an IP3 Information Policy Award honoree in October 2026.

  8. As of October 2026

    Berkeley faculty appointment

    His earlier roles include senior fellow at Mozilla and Laurance S. Rockefeller Graduate Prize Fellow at Princeton. He completes his computer science Ph.D. requirements in August 2026 and is an incoming assistant professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Information, with an appointment starting in July 2027. His research focuses on evaluating AI agents and frontier systems.

Sources and credits

Photo: cs.princeton.edu; Sayash Kapoor; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: cs.princeton.edu. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. ‘Newsletter helped us dissect fake claims about AI in real-time’: Indian duo on TIME magazine’s list of most influential voices in AI indianexpress.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. ‘Forget about those disciplinary boundaries’: Narayanan and Kapoor on collaboration in AI research and policy dailyprincetonian.com. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Introducing the AI Snake Oil book project normaltech.ai. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Start reading the AI Snake Oil book online normaltech.ai. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Science has an AI problem. This group says they can fix it. engineering.princeton.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. AI as Normal Technology normaltech.ai. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Sayash Kapoor wins Jacobus Fellowship, Princeton’s top graduate student honor engineering.princeton.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Bio - Sayash Kapoor cs.princeton.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.
  9. Sayash Kapoor saya.sh. Checked 14 October 2026.
  10. Sayash Kapoor Joins UC Berkeley with Focus on Artificial Intelligence ischool.berkeley.edu. Checked 14 October 2026.