The University of Pavia (Università degli Studi di Pavia), founded in 1361, is a major Italian research university located in Pavia, Lombardy. Its connection to AI safety is anchored in CERNAI (Center for Reasoning, Normativity and AI), established in September 2025 and directed by Prof. Federico L.G. Faroldi, who also leads the Normative Risk Lab. Faroldi's work spans formal AI alignment, normative risk, existential risk operationalization within regulatory frameworks such as the EU AI Act, and integrating deontic reasoning into reinforcement learning. Open Philanthropy supported course development at Pavia on law, ethics, and AI alignment in 2024.
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Theory of Change
The University of Pavia's AI safety work, primarily through Prof. Faroldi and CERNAI, operates on two complementary tracks. On the technical side, integrating formal normative reasoning (deontic logic, reasons-based approaches) into AI training aims to produce more robustly aligned systems that generalize goals correctly and resist scheming behaviors. On the governance side, embedding precise definitions of existential and catastrophic risk into legal and regulatory frameworks—such as the EU AI Act and ISO risk management standards—creates institutional and legal structures that constrain dangerous AI development. Training future researchers and policymakers through courses on AI alignment and normative risk builds the human capital needed to sustain this work over time.
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- Last Updated
- Apr 2, 2026, 9:56 PM UTC
- Created
- Mar 20, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC