Center for Applied Utilitarianism

The Center for Applied Utilitarianism is a UK-registered private limited company operating as an AI strategy think tank. It was incorporated on 21 August 2018 in London by Dr. Hauke Hillebrandt and Henry Stanley, with Stanley departing as director in July 2020. The organization is led by Dr. Hauke Hillebrandt, who serves as CEO. Hillebrandt holds a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from University College London and has an extensive background in effective altruism research and policy analysis. He previously served as Director of Research and Philanthropic Advisor at the Centre for Effective Altruism in Oxford, was a research associate at the Center for Global Development working on international trade policies, and held research and teaching fellowships at Harvard University. The think tank's research spans AI policy, AI governance, global priorities research, global catastrophic risks, and economics. Notable published work includes analyses of AI market concentration (such as whether regulators should review the Google-DeepMind acquisition), overviews of how AI might exacerbate long-running catastrophic risks including bioterrorism and nuclear war, examinations of AI scaling and diminishing returns, and proposals for international agreements to spend a percentage of GDP on global risk reduction. Hillebrandt is also the founder of Let's Fund, a platform that researches pressing global problems and crowdfunds for effective policy solutions, having evaluated over $1 million in grants. He has served as a mentor for the ERA (Existential Risk Alliance) Fellowship and previously helped run the AI Safety Fundamentals course. He publishes regularly on the EA Forum, LessWrong, and his Substack newsletter, which was formerly the Let's Fund newsletter.