Kai Yao

Education

University of Edinburgh

Ph.D. in Informatics (expected graduation: Nov. 2026).

Johns Hopkins University

M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering; research focus on AI for bioscience.

Fudan University

B.Sc. in Theoretical Mechanics.

News

• Dec 2025
  Smudged Fingerprints accepted to the 4th IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning (SaTML 2026). Introduces the first systematic adversarial attack framework against model fingerprints in AI-generated images. Preprint available on arXiv.
• Sep 2025
  Released AuthPrint, a black-box ML approach for detecting silent model swapping by malicious image-generation API providers. This is the first work to formally address this threat model.
• Apr 2025
  Presented SoK: What Makes Private Learning Unfair? at SaTML 2025 (Copenhagen).
• Dec 2024
  SoK: What Makes Private Learning Unfair? accepted to the 3rd IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning (SaTML 2025). Provides the first causal analysis of fairness degradation induced by differential privacy in machine learning. Preprint available on arXiv.

Publications

1. Smudged Fingerprints: A Systematic Evaluation of the Robustness of AI Image Fingerprints
   Yao K, Juarez M.
   arXiv preprint, 2025. To appear in 2026 IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning (SaTML).
2. AuthPrint: Fingerprinting Generative Models Against Malicious Model Providers
   Yao K, Juarez M.
   arXiv preprint, 2025.
3. SoK: What Makes Private Learning Unfair?
   Yao K, Juarez M.
   2025 IEEE Conference on Secure and Trustworthy Machine Learning (SaTML).
4. Single-Cell Volume Measurement Utilizing the Fluorescence Exclusion Method (FXm)
   Rochman ND^*, Yao K^*, Perez-Gonzalez NA^*, Wirtz D, Sun SX.
   Bio-protocol, 2020.
5. CTRL: A Label-Free Artificial Intelligence Method for Dynamic Measurement of Single-Cell Volume
   Yao K^*, Rochman ND^*, Sun SX.
   Journal of Cell Science, 2020.
6. YAP and TAZ Regulate Cell Volume
   Perez-Gonzalez NA^*, Rochman ND^*, Yao K^* et al.
   Journal of Cell Biology, 2019.
7. Cell Type Classification and Unsupervised Morphological Phenotyping from Low-Resolution Images Using Deep Learning
   Yao K^*, Rochman ND^*, Sun SX.
   Scientific Reports, Nature Publishing Group, 2019.
8. Phantom-Based Experimental Validation of Fast Virtual Deployment of Self-Expandable Stents for Cerebral Aneurysms
   Zhang Q, Meng Z, Zhang Y, Yao K et al.
   BioMedical Engineering OnLine, 2016.

Note: ^* denotes equal contribution (co-first author).

Teaching and Tutoring

• Teaching Assistant
  Privacy and Security with Machine Learning — University of Edinburgh (2023–2025)
• Teaching Assistant
  Mathematical Image Analysis — Johns Hopkins University (2019–2020)
• Research Tutoring
  Felipe Takaesu (JHU), Eliana Crentsil (JHU), Lucia Sablich (JHU), Shannon Flanary (JHU), Chunhan Fang (UoE).