Boston University (BU) is a leading private research institution founded in 1839 and located along the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts. As one of the largest private universities in the US and a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), BU conducts research across a wide range of fields through 17 schools and colleges. Its AI-relevant work includes the AI Safety & Alignment (AISA) student community, which runs technical and policy fellowships; the AI Safety & Policy Lab (AISAP), which pairs student teams with state legislators; the Hariri Institute's Artificial Intelligence Research (AIR) initiative; and the university-wide AIDA (Artificial Intelligence Development Accelerator) strategy. BU received an Open Philanthropy grant of $756,396 for a project benchmarking LLMs on academic machine learning research tasks, led by professors Najoung Kim and Sebastian Schuster.
Funding Details
- Annual Budget
- $2,800,000,000
- Monthly Burn Rate
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- Current Runway
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- Funding Goal
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- Funding Raised to Date
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- Fiscal Sponsor
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Theory of Change
As a major research university, BU contributes to AI safety through multiple pathways: training the next generation of AI safety researchers and policymakers via student programs like AISA and AISAP; producing empirical research on AI capabilities and safety (e.g., the OpenPhil-funded LLM benchmark project that helps evaluate how capable AI systems are at consequential tasks); and building institutional infrastructure for responsible AI adoption. The AISAP Lab specifically aims to bridge the gap between technical AI safety research and legislative action by equipping both students and legislators with the knowledge to craft sound AI policy.
Grants Received
from Open Philanthropy
Projects
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Details
- Last Updated
- Apr 2, 2026, 9:56 PM UTC
- Created
- Mar 20, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC