The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), founded in 1918, is one of Israel's premier research universities and hosts the Governance of AI Lab (GOAL), led by Assistant Professor Noam Kolt. GOAL integrates methods from law, computer science, and the social sciences to develop institutional and technical infrastructure supporting safe and ethical AI. The lab's primary research areas are the governance of AI agents and legal alignment — an emerging field that explores how legal rules, principles, and interpretation methods can address AI alignment challenges and inform the design of reliably safe AI systems. In August 2025, Open Philanthropy awarded GOAL a $2,725,000 grant to support this work.
Funding Details
- Annual Budget
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- Monthly Burn Rate
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- Current Runway
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- Funding Goal
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- Funding Raised to Date
- $2,725,000
- Fiscal Sponsor
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Theory of Change
GOAL's theory of change holds that AI systems are increasingly operating as autonomous agents within legal and social systems, yet existing governance frameworks and AI alignment approaches have not adequately incorporated legal methods or institutional design. By developing legal alignment as a field — identifying the legal rules AI systems should follow, creating evaluations to test compliance, and designing governance frameworks — the lab aims to provide both the normative grounding and practical tools needed for AI developers, policymakers, and regulators to build and oversee safe AI. The research bridges academic publication with policy engagement, aiming to shape legal standards and regulatory approaches before advanced AI systems become harder to govern.
Grants Received
from Open Philanthropy
from Open Philanthropy
from Long-Term Future Fund
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Details
- Last Updated
- Apr 3, 2026, 1:15 AM UTC
- Created
- Mar 20, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC