The Vista Institute for AI Policy is a Washington, DC-based organization with a dual mission: fostering the growth of AI policy as a robust field of study within U.S. academic institutions, and helping students and professionals build the skills, knowledge, and networks needed to pursue careers in AI law and policy. The institute runs virtual courses on topics such as national security law and AI and AI agents and the law, hosts in-person workshops in Washington DC, and operates a fellowship program that sponsors independent research for students and recent graduates. It is a fiscally sponsored project of Rethink Priorities and has received major funding from Open Philanthropy.
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
- $846,265
- Fiscal Sponsor
- Rethink Priorities
Theory of Change
Vista's theory of change holds that a critical bottleneck to good AI governance outcomes is the shortage of lawyers, legal scholars, and policy professionals with deep expertise in AI. Without a robust pipeline of trained experts, policymakers lack the capacity to design and implement effective, risk-mitigating regulation. By building AI law and policy as an established academic field and directly training the next generation of practitioners, Vista aims to increase the quantity and quality of expertise available to government, academia, and civil society—ultimately enabling better-informed U.S. policy that reduces risks from advanced AI systems.
Grants Received
from Open Philanthropy
Projects
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People
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Details
- Last Updated
- Apr 3, 2026, 1:16 AM UTC
- Created
- Mar 20, 2026, 2:34 AM UTC