Mindstream Project

Mindstream Project Ltd is a UK-based organization that operates the Buddhism & AI Initiative, a collaborative effort to unite Buddhist communities, technologists, and contemplative researchers worldwide to help shape the future of artificial intelligence. The initiative was launched publicly in August 2025 on the EA Forum and LessWrong. The organization was founded by Chris Scammell, who previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Conjecture, an AI safety startup that emerged from the open-source collective EleutherAI. Scammell has studied Buddhism since 2016 and spent over four years living in monasteries in London, Canada, and India. While working at Conjecture, he lived at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in London, which deepened his conviction that Buddhist perspectives could meaningfully contribute to AI safety discourse. The core team includes Peter Hershock, director of the Asia Studies Program at the East-West Center and author of Buddhism and Intelligent Technology (2021); Alex Sarkissian, a startup founder turned Buddhist chaplain with a Master of Divinity in Buddhism from Columbia University's Union Theological Seminary; Ryan Stagg, a former digital strategist for the Dalai Lama's Mind and Life Institute; and Austin Pick, a longtime administrator at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. The initiative operates on a two-directional framework. On one side, it examines how Buddhism's insights into mind, wisdom, and ethics can inform new technical research directions in AI alignment and offer alternatives for evaluating the promises and perils of AI. On the other, it explores how AI is transforming Buddhist practice, from translation software for rare Buddhist languages like Pali and Tibetan to AI-powered meditation tools. The team has developed a Field Framework organizing the intersections of Buddhism and AI into six domains, and has conducted conversations with over 100 Buddhist-informed voices including teachers, technologists, researchers, monastics, and community organizers across North America, Europe, and parts of Asia. The initiative follows a three-stage work plan: field assessment and mapping, envisioning positive human-AI futures, and catalyzing funding and support for impactful projects. The Future of Life Institute provided initial funding for the initiative. In 2025, the Survival and Flourishing Fund recommended $100,000 in funding from Jaan Tallinn for general support, in addition to a prior $30,000 speculation grant. Co-founder Chris Scammell attended the 39th Mind and Life Dialogue in Dharamsala, India in October 2025, focused on Minds, Artificial Intelligence, and Ethics. As of early 2026, the initiative is planning a major coalition conference and considering its strategic direction for the year ahead.