Karim is a clinical academic at the Imperial School of Public Health leading research on the population-scale health risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence (AI). His research investigates the implications that rapidly advancing AI may have for the factors that mediate health and the policy interventions that may consequently be required to prevent population-scale harm. He is a postdoctoral NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow and NHS Specialist Registrar in Public Health Medicine.

In the decade prior to joining Imperial, Karim conducted research at Cambridge and Stanford applying AI to fundamental problems in medical science. Combining machine learning with experimental biology, he found that a class of medicines might help control a mutational process implicated in driving many major cancers. His applied doctoral research was recognised as among the best across all disciplines at the University of Cambridge. His research has informed international policy, having been cited by the World Health Organisation, and been featured in major national and international news outlets.

Karim has advised the UK government on regulating AI to safeguard public health and co-authored the forthcoming Faculty of Public Health Position Statement on AI. As a public health physician, he develops public policy in governmental settings and manages infectious and non-infectious health threats at the UK Health Security Agency. He practised hospital medicine across London during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Karim holds MB, BChir, MA, MPhil and PhD degrees from Trinity College, Cambridge. He is a member of the Faculty of Public Health and the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI.