Team

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  Tristan Cook

  Managing Director

  Tristan leads CLR as Managing Director. After conducting research at CLR on s-risk macrostrategy, he led the organization's community building team before moving into his current leadership role. Previously, Tristan studied mathematics at the University of Warwick and the University of Cambridge.

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  Santeri Tani

  Research Community Manager

  Santeri is CLR's research community manager. He has studied Computer Science at University of Helsinki. Previously, he was the Operative Director of the Finnish Center for Safe AI Tutke, and has worked in robotics, machine vision, and the non-profit sector.

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  Sarah Tyers

  Operations Manager

  Sarah manages CLR’s organisational infrastructure, including HR, finance, payroll, legal compliance, and visa sponsorship. She has a background in people operations and business management across the nonprofit sector.

Conceptual research

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  Anthony DiGiovanni

  Researcher

  Anthony works on conceptual research at CLR. His research focuses on formal frameworks for possible cooperation failures between AI agents, such as open-source game theory and evolutionary game theory. He received an MA in statistics from the University of Michigan, and has written on suffering-focused ethics.

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  Paul Knott

  Researcher

  Paul’s research interests include AI risks in short and medium timelines, macrostrategy, and anything to do with parallel universes. He did a PhD in quantum physics at the University of Leeds, and has completed three postdocs researching at the interface of AI and quantum physics.

Empirical research

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  Niels Warncke

  Researcher

  Niels' research interests include alignment of LLM based systems. Previously, he worked as a machine learning engineer and studied Computer Science at Technische Universität Berlin.

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  Maxime Riché

  Researcher

  Maxime is part of CLR's empirical research team. He focuses on providing technical support on deep learning for Cooperative AI research and on quantitative modeling. He holds a master's degree in physics from INSA Toulouse, worked briefly in nanotechnology and then in computer vision for Airbus.

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  Vili Kohonen

  Researcher

  Vili conducts empirical research into LLM generalisation, propensities and motivational structure. He has completed a PhD in applied mathematics at Aalto University, Finland. Vili also holds a degree in economics and earlier in his career worked as an analyst for two major banks.

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  Anton Gonzalvez-Hawthorne

  Researcher

  Anton is a researcher on the empirical team, where he works on methods for detecting and reducing misalignment in large language models. He brings a background in experimental particle physics and several years of experience as a data scientist.

Research Affiliates

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  James Faville

  Research Affiliate

  James works on deconfusion research in acausal interactions and AI conflict. He previously did community building at CLR. James studied linguistics at Haverford College.

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  John Massey

  Research Affiliate

  John is a generalist conceptual researcher. He engages with a variety of topics, paying special attention to macrostrategy and challenging existing interventions. He studied Mathematics at the University of British Columbia.

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  Matthew Hampton

  Research Affiliate

  Matt does conceptual and macrostrategy research at CLR to reduce worst-case risks from advanced AI systems. He is a master's student at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

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  Niki Dupuis

  Research Affiliate

  Niki works on connecting CLR's theoretical work to concrete stories of how AI takeoff might play out, and the dynamics and variables relating to the transition to ASI. They hold an MSc in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Groningen, and have worked on a range of topics relating to long-term AI risk.

Board of trustees

Support staff and contractors

Summer Research Fellows

Advisors

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  Abraham Rowe

  Operations Advisor

  Abraham supports CLR's operations, having worked with us as a fractional COO throughout 2025. Abraham is COO at the Centre for the Governance of AI, and was previously the COO of Rethink Priorities. He also co-founded and was the first Executive Director of Wild Animal Initiative.

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  Amrit Sidhu-Brar

  Operations Advisor

  After four years in our operations team, Amrit stepped back to an advisory role as he transitions out of CLR and hands over to new leadership. Previously, he studied medieval languages at the University of Cambridge, and ran operations at a tech startup.

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  Brian Tomasik

  Brian is the author of over 100 pieces on his website, “Essays on Reducing Suffering," as well as several published papers. He has worked at Microsoft and FlyHomes as a data scientist and web developer. He studied computer science, mathematics, and statistics at Swarthmore College.

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  Caspar Oesterheld

  Caspar Oesterheld is a PhD student in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he is also the Assistant Director of the Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab (FOCAL). His work focuses on new foundational ideas at the intersection of AI/ML and game theory with a focus on achieving cooperation and avoiding conflict in general-sum strategic situations. He previously worked as a researcher at CLR from 2016 until 2018, and he also mentors CLR Summer Research Fellows.

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  Daniel Kokotajlo

  Daniel previously held the position of Lead Researcher at CLR. He mostly focuses on forecasting the future of artificial intelligence, so as to identify risks and prepare for them. He continues to collaborate with CLR colleagues on his research projects focusing on commitment races, cooperation between AIs, and surprising applications of decision theory. He also mentors CLR summer research fellows.

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  Jonas Vollmer

  Jonas co-founded CLR in 2013 and used to lead it as its Co-Executive Director. He later co-founded and co-led Macroscopic Ventures. He holds degrees in medicine and economics with a focus on public choice, health economics, and development economics.