The Future of Life Institute (FLI)

Jaan Tallinn

Jaan Tallinn is a founding engineer of Skype and Kazaa. He is a founder of the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and philanthropically supports other existential risk research organizations such as the Future of Humanity Institute, the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute and the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He has also served on the Estonian President’s Academic Advisory Board.

Meia Chita-Tegmark

With a background in psychology and social sciences, Meia Chita-Tegmark has strong interests in the future of humanity and big picture questions. She conducts research in the Human Robot Interaction Lab at Tufts University. She is interested in a variety of topics at the intersection of technology and psychology, such as using artificial social agents in healthcare, and the impact of emerging technologies on human social interactions and emotional well-being.

Max Tegmark

Known as “Mad Max” for his unorthodox ideas and passion for adventure, his scientific interests range from precision cosmology to the ultimate nature of reality, all explored in his new popular book “Our Mathematical Universe”. He is an MIT physics professor with more than two hundred technical papers and has featured in dozens of science documentaries. His work with the SDSS collaboration on galaxy clustering shared the first prize in Science magazine’s “Breakthrough of the Year: 2003.” He is founder (with Anthony Aguirre) of the Foundational Questions Institute.

Victoria Krakovna

Victoria Krakovna is a research scientist in AI safety at DeepMind, investigating how to set good incentives for advanced AI systems. Her PhD thesis in statistics and machine learning at Harvard University focused on building interpretable models. Victoria gained numerous distinctions for her accomplishments in math competitions, including a silver medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad and the Elizabeth Lowell Putnam prize.

Anthony Aguirre

Aguirre is the Faggin Presidential Professor for the Physics of Information at UC Santa Cruz, and has done research in an array of topics in theoretical cosmology, gravitation, statistical mechanics, and other fields of physics. He also has strong interest in science outreach, and has appeared in numerous science documentaries. He is a creator of the science and technology prediction platform Metaculus.com, and is founder (with Max Tegmark) of the Foundational Questions Institute.

Jared Brown

Jared is the Senior Advisor for Government Affairs at FLI and is working to improve the safe governance of emerging technologies both in the U.S. and globally. To this end, he is primarily focused on influencing near-term policymaking for the betterment of improving the long-term trajectories of increasingly powerful technologies. He is also a Special Advisor for Government Affairs at the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute. He has spent his career working at the intersection of public policy and risk management, having previously served as an Analyst in Emergency Management and Homeland Security Policy at the U.S. Congressional Research Service and in homeland security at the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Mark Brakel

Mark Brakel is FLI’s Director of European Policy, leading our advocacy and policy efforts with the EU institutions in Brussels and in European capitals. He works to limit the risks from artificial intelligence to society, and to expand European support for a treaty on lethal autonomous weapons.

Before joining FLI, Mark worked as a diplomat at the Netherlands’ Embassy in Iraq and on Middle East policy from The Hague. He has studied Arabic in Beirut, Damascus and Tunis, holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford, and master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

Emilia Javorsky MD, MPH

Emilia is a physician-scientist who leads FLI’s lethal autonomous weapons policy and advocacy efforts. Outside of FLI, Emilia works on the development of energy-based medical devices, including a novel method of therapeutic hypothermia she co-invented while a researcher at Harvard Medical School. Previously she co-founded skin health and photoprotection company, Sundaily, which was acquired in 2020. She also directs the non-profit Scientists Against Inhumane Weapons. She has authored over a dozen peer-reviewed publications and multiple patent applications. Emilia cares deeply about harnessing technology to forge a brighter, equitable, and vibrant future for humanity.

Richard Mallah

Richard Mallah is Director of AI Projects at the Future of Life Institute, where he works to support the robust, safe, beneficent development of advanced artificial intelligence via meta-research, analysis, research organization, and advocacy. Mr. Mallah also serves on the Executive Committee of IEEE’s initiative on autonomous systems ethics, co-chairs that IEEE initiative’s AGI committee, serves on the safety-critical AI and the labor & economy working groups at Partnership on AI, and serves as a senior advisor to the AI initiative of The Future Society. Richard also heads AI R&D at talent acquisition automation firm Avrio AI, where he leads innovation in machine learning, knowledge representation, and conversational agents. He is also an advisor to other startups and NGOs where he advises on AI, metaknowledge, and sustainability.

Risto Uuk

Risto Uuk is a Policy Researcher at FLI and is focused primarily on researching policy-making on AI to maximize the societal benefits of increasingly powerful AI systems. Previously, Risto worked for the World Economic Forum on a project about positive AI economic futures, did research for the European Commission on trustworthy AI, and provided research support at Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative on European AI policy. He completed a master’s degree in Philosophy and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

David E. Nicholson

Lucas Perry

Lucas is passionate about the role that science and technology will play in the evolution of all sentient life. He has studied at a Buddhist monastery in Nepal and while there he engaged in meditative retreats and practices. He is now working to challenge and erode our sense of self and our subject-object frame of reference. His current project explores how mereological nihilism and the illusion of self may contribute to forming a radically post-human consequentialist ethics. His other work seeks to resolve the conflicts between bio-conservatism and transhumanism.

Anna Yelizarova

Anna supports outreach efforts at FLI through design work and asset creation, web development and video production. She manages multiple projects within FLI and helps with operations and growth. She completed a Bachelors of Computer Science at Stanford University and a Masters in Communication. She focused her graduate research on the study of people’s behaviour in virtual simulations at the Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) where she helped program and 3D model the virtual worlds for the studies.

Georgiana Gilgallon

Georgiana (Gigi) is the Director of Communications at the Future of Life Institute. Her responsibilities include developing evidence-based strategies for effectively communicating about global catastrophic and existential risk and driving community coordination around messaging. Gigi graduated with First Class Honours in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge and previously held a Summer Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute.

Andrea Berman

Andrea is the Grants Manager at FLI and is responsible for planning, administering and implementing philanthropic grants programs aimed at reducing global catastrophic risk. Andrea’s expertise is in nonprofit management and she has led organizations and taught others best practices. Andrea has spent most of her career working in philanthropy, leading grantmaking at family, community and private foundations. Andrea received a bachelor’s degree from Swarthmore College and a master’s from the University of Pennsylvania.

Taylor Jones

Taylor is the Website Manager at FLI and is responsible for updating, maintaining and improving all FLI websites.

Before joining FLI, Taylor worked as a freelance graphic designer for Effective Altruism organisations, including CEA, Giving What We Can, the EA Hub, Longview Philanthropy, WANBAM, GiEffektivt.no, Charity Entrepreneurship and more. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design from Falmouth University.

Carlos Ignacio

Carlos Ignacio is an artificial intelligence (AI) policy researcher at the Future of Life Institute. His work on AI governance focuses on two areas. First, the impact of this technology’s methods and application on hard law. In this regard, he published a systematic review documenting regulatory gaps generated by AI in the United States. Second, he examines AI’s management through the design of effective and credible soft law programs. His most recent contribution in this area is the publication of a global database of AI soft law programs. It compiles and analyzes trends from over 600 efforts to govern AI created by governments, non-profits, and the private sector.

Claire Boine

Claire Boine is a Senior Policy Research Fellow at FLI where she focuses on policies to mitigate existential risks. Her project portfolio centers around two main goals: 1) producing a series of policy recommendations to address the risks associated with disruptive technologies in artificial intelligence and biotechnology in the U.S., the E.U., and Canada; and 2) proposing and testing an innovative policy analysis method applicable to long-term problems.

Claire also serves in the OECD expert group on Policies for AI (ONE PAI) and is also a Research Associate at the Artificial and Natural Intelligence Toulouse Institute and in the Accountable AI in a Global Context Research Chair at UOttawa. She is equipped with interdisciplinary credentials including a JD from Université de Nantes and a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University. Claire has 8 years of work experience in policy and law research, teaching, and advocacy on issues as varied as human rights, public health, and violence prevention.

Alan Alda

Alan Alda has earned international recognition as an actor, writer and director. He has the distinction of being nominated for an Oscar, a Tony, and an EMMY – and publishing a bestselling book – all in the same year (2005). For over 20 years he has worked to help broaden the public’s understanding of science. He helped found the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University where he is a Visiting Professor. He originated The Flame Challenge, a yearly international competition for scientists in which they compete to explain complex scientific concepts so that 11-year-olds can understand them. Since 2008, he has worked with physicist Brian Greene in presenting the annual World Science Festival in New York City, attended since its inception by over a million people. He has also hosted award winning science series like Scientific American Frontiers, The Human Spark, Brains on Trial on PBS, interviewing leading scientists from around the world.

Nick Bostrom

Nick Bostrom is a Professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford University and founding Director of the Future of Humanity Institute and the Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology within the Oxford Martin School. He is the author of some 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias, Global Catastrophic Risks, Human Enhancement, and, most recently, the book Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies (OUP, 2014). He is known for his pioneering work on existential risk, the simulation argument, anthropics, AI safety, and global consequentialism. He has received the Eugene R. Gannon Award for the Continued Pursuit of Human Advancement and been named One of the Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy Magazine.

Erik Brynjolfsson

Erik Brynjolfsson is a Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, Chair of the MIT Sloan Management Review, and the Editor of the Information Systems Network. His research and teaching focuses on how businesses can effectively use information technology in general and the Internet in particular. His books include Race Against the Machine: How the Digital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity, and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy and The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies, both co-authored with Andrew McAfee.

George Church

George Church is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a professor of health sciences and technology at Harvard and MIT. With Walter Gilbert, he developed the first direct genomic sequencing method and helped initiate the Human Genome Project. Church is responsible for inventing the concepts of molecular multiplexing and tags, homologous recombination methods, and DNA array synthesizers. He initiated the Personal Genome Project in 2005 as well as research into synthetic biology. He is director of the U.S. Department of Energy Center on Bioenergy at Harvard and MIT and director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence in Genomic Science at Harvard, MIT and Washington University. He is a senior editor for Nature EMBO Molecular Systems Biology.

Sandra Faber

Dr. Sandra Faber is Professor Emerita of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she was the first woman to join the Lick Observatory. She received the National Medal of Science from President Obama, and she is the namesake for a minor planet. She co-authored the first comprehensive review of the evidence for the existence of dark matter — widely considered a turning point in the field — and she was also a co-author (along with FLI Advisory Board Member Martin Rees) of a paper that laid out a theory explaining dark matter’s role in galaxy structure and behavior. Prof. Faber is the co-discoverer of the Faber-Jackson relation, a law linking galaxy brightness to the speed of the stars within them. She was instrumental in the development of both the Keck and Hubble telescopes. In recent years Prof. Faber has turned her attention to the long-term future of humanity and life on Earth.

Morgan Freeman

Morgan Freeman is an actor, film director, narrator and science communicator. He won a Golden Globe Award in 1989, an Academy Award in 2004 and an Oscar in 2005. He has been narrating and hosting the science documentary television series Through the Wormhole since 2010.

Alan Guth

Alan Guth was awarded the Gruber prize and the Fundamental Physics Prize for developing the theory of cosmological inflation, which has emerged as the most broadly accepted theory of our cosmic origins. By showing how a tiny subatomic speck of matter can rapidly and repeatedly double its size, it provides a mechanism for causing our Big Bang, and many of its predictions have now been experimentally confirmed. Most of his research has centered on the application of theoretical particle physics to the early universe: what can particle physics tell us about the history of the universe, and what can cosmology tell us about the fundamental laws of nature?

Christof Koch

Christof Koch has done pioneering work on the neural basis of consciousness, and spent 25 years as a professor at the California Institute of Technology. His interdisciplinary interests integrate theoretical, computational and experimental neuroscience, and he has published both popular books (Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist and The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach) and technical books (Biophysics of Computation: Information Processing in Single Neurons and Methods in Neuronal Modeling: From Ions to Networks).

Elon Musk

Elon Musk is the founder, CEO and CTO of SpaceX and co-founder and CEO of Tesla Motors. In recent years, Musk has focused on developing competitive renewable energy and technologies (Tesla, Solar City), and on taking steps towards making affordable space flight and colonization a future reality (SpaceX). He has spoken about the responsibility of technology leaders to solve global problems and tackle global risks, and has also highlighted the potential risks from advanced AI.

Saul Perlmutter

Professor Perlmutter, who led one of two teams that simultaneously discovered the accelerating expansion of the universe, was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, which he shares with two members of the rival team. He is a physics professor at UC Berkeley and an astrophysicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Research aside, he also has a strong interest in science education and outreach. He has written numerous popular articles and has appeared in many TV documentaries on astronomy and cosmology.

Martin Rees

Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow and Astronomer Royal, is Emeritus Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. He is the author or co-author of more than 500 research papers, mainly on astrophysics and cosmology, as well as eight books (six for general readership), and numerous magazine and newspaper articles on scientific and general subjects. In 2005 he was appointed to the House of Lords, and he has been Master of Trinity College as well as President of many organizations, including the Royal Society, the Royal Astronomical Society and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. His many awards include the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Balzan International Prize, the Cosmology Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation, the Einstein Award of the World Cultural Council and the Crafoord Prize (Royal Swedish Academy).

Francesca Rossi

Francesca Rossi is a research scientist at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, currently on leave from the University of Padova, Italy. Her research interests are within artificial intelligence, and include constraint reasoning, preferences, multi-agent systems, and computational social choice. She has published over 170 papers on these and other topics related to AI. She has been president of the International Association for Constraint Programming (ACP) and of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI). She currently is the associate editor in chief for the Journal of AI Research (JAIR), and she is both an AAAI and ECCAI fellow.

Stuart Russell

Stuart Russell is a computer science professor at Berkeley and the director of the Center for Intelligent Systems. He has published over 100 papers on a wide range of topics in artificial intelligence, the standard textbook Artificial Intelligence: a Modern Approach and the books The Use of Knowledge in Analogy and Induction and Do the Right Thing: Studies in Limited Rationality. He has received the Presidential Young Investigator Award of the National Science Foundation and the Computers and Thought Award and is a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. He is also a Fellow and former Executive Council member of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.

Frank Wilczek

Frank Wilczek is a physics professor at MIT and a 2004 Nobel laureate for his work on the strong nuclear force. He is known, among other things, for the discovery of asymptotic freedom, the development of quantum chromodynamics, the invention of axions, and the discovery and exploitation of new forms of quantum statistics (anyons). When only 21 years old and a graduate student at Princeton University, in work with David Gross, he defined the properties of color gluons, which hold quarks together in protons and neutrons.