Harvard Kennedy School Pilots Tech Policy Concentration for MPP Students

Harvard Kennedy School launched a pilot concentration in technology policy this semester, giving master’s in public policy students a more technically demanding path through the school’s growing slate of courses on artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.

The concentration is one of the first concrete steps in HKS 2036, the strategic plan Dean Jeremy M. Weinstein released earlier this year. The plan names “harnessing technology for the public good” as one of the school’s four strategic imperatives and calls for training both public-sector technologists and technologically minded public leaders over the next decade.

The pilot is built around what the school calls “triple fluency”: an understanding of technology itself, the systems that govern it, and the ethics and leadership needed to shape its future. Its curriculum pairs computational methods, including artificial intelligence, with the school’s traditional coursework in governance and policy analysis.

Unlike the school’s other policy concentrations, the technology track requires applicants to show experience with introductory statistics and a programming language.

Students in the pilot skip the school’s introductory statistics course and start in a more advanced sequence that folds in machine learning and AI. Those who earn at least a B-minus can skip a later required statistics course.

Beyond the core, students must complete 22 credits of technology coursework, including a class on using generative AI to solve public problems, a technology survey course still being developed, a short module on digital government, and two electives. They also take a seminar tied to their capstone project, the policy analysis every MPP student completes before graduating.

The electives are expected to cover technology policy, the opportunities and challenges posed by generative AI, and innovative uses of technology by governments.

The concentration draws on technology courses the school already offers. This year’s catalog includes classes on AI governance, generative AI, cybersecurity, the geopolitics of artificial intelligence, digital public services, Big Tech and competition policy, and emerging technology.

Ann-Katrin Reuel, an incoming assistant professor who helped develop the concentration, said the field demands more than technical knowledge alone.

“It’s an interesting field because of its interdisciplinary nature, where it’s not sufficient that you just understand AI or just understand law or just understand economics,” Reuel said. “You have to have a sufficient understanding in a lot of different fields and domains to make robust and good decisions, and that’s just not something you can teach in one class.”

Reuel said she hopes the concentration will teach a skill that many existing programs overlook.

“I hope that we are training them in actually translating and bridging both the technical and the policy world, which in itself is a skill set that I think many of the present day programs don’t teach as much if you receive within one domain,” Reuel said. “But it’s becoming such an important skill, especially as we’re seeing a lot more diffusion of AI in virtually every area of our lives.”

Sharad C. Goel, a professor of public policy who also helped develop the concentration, said a formal program could give a home to students whose interests span computer science, data, government, and public policy rather than fitting nearly into one policy area.

“I do think there is a sense of community that is built when you have a formal concentration,” Goel said.

Stephen “Cas” M. Casper ’21, a new assistant professor of public policy, said the concentration will have to keep pace with the technology it teaches.

“Right now I’m watching to see if HKS goes through a process that ends up doing something responsibly unambitious or standard, as opposed to trying to build a program that is able to be as current and adaptive as the ecosystem it is trying to teach about,” Casper said.

—Staff writer Jen L. Phan can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at jenphan.74. Follow her on X at @jenllphan.

—Staff writer Mirei S. Saneyoshi can be reached at [email protected] and Signal at mireisaneyoshi.09. Follow her on X at @mireisaneyoshi.