About us

Our goal is to address worst-case risks from the development and deployment of advanced AI: as these systems come to shape the world in increasingly profound ways, they could cause harm on an unprecedented scale. We are currently focused on harmful propensities in AI systems and cooperation failures between such systems.

To this end, we do interdisciplinary research, make and recommend grants, and build a community of researchers and professionals around our priorities.

Our primary ethical focus is the reduction of involuntary suffering. This includes human suffering, but also the suffering in non-human animals and potential artificial minds of the future. In accordance with a diverse range of moral views, we believe that suffering, especially extreme suffering, cannot be easily outweighed by large amounts of happiness.

While this leads us to prioritize reducing suffering, we do so within a framework of commonsensical value pluralism and with a strong focus on cooperation. Together with others in the effective altruism community, we want careful ethical reflection to guide the future of our civilization to the greatest extent possible.

CLR is a charity registered in England and Wales (no. 1195079). We were founded as a project of the Effective Altruism Foundation and became an independent UK charity at the end of 2021.

Our funding comes from individual donors and from institutional donors including Macroscopic Ventures, Open Philanthropy (now Coefficient Giving), the Survival and Flourishing Fund, and Community Foundation Ireland. Our budgets, plans and annual reviews going back to 2013 are on the transparency page.

Email us at info@longtermrisk.org.