Deeksha Vaidyanathan

Deeksha Vaidyanathan is a Computer Science and Data Science student at UC Berkeley and an AI policy/safety UC focused on equitable access to AI infrastructure. She has been actively involved in the CalCompute initiative and SB 53 since its early stages, contributing to advocacy and policy efforts around its precursor legislation, SB 1047. As part of a youth-led coalition with Encode, Design It For Us, and Common Sense Media, Deeksha lobbied at the California State Capitol to support the passage of SB 53, helping advance efforts to democratize access to AI development.

Beyond her work with CalCompute, Deeksha’s background spans AI engineering, governance research, and fairness in machine learning. She has conducted research on bias in predictive policing systems, developed evaluation frameworks for large language model applications, and worked on AI governance capacity-building initiatives with international regulators. Through both technical and policy work, she is committed to ensuring that the benefits of AI are accessible, accountable, and aligned with the public interest.