Princeton University is a leading Ivy League research institution that conducts significant AI safety and AI governance research through several interdisciplinary centers and initiatives.
Princeton University is a leading Ivy League research institution that conducts significant AI safety and AI governance research through several interdisciplinary centers and initiatives.
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Updated 05/18/26Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
- $3,287,204,000
- Current Runway
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- Funding Goal
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- Funding Raised to Date
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Org Details
Updated 05/18/26Princeton University, founded in 1746 and located in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the oldest and most prestigious research universities in the United States. With an endowment of approximately $34.1 billion and an annual operating budget of roughly $3.3 billion, it supports a wide range of AI safety-relevant research across multiple centers and initiatives. The Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) is Princeton's primary hub for technology policy research, housed within the School of Public and International Affairs. Under the direction of Prof. Arvind Narayanan (appointed director in 2023), CITP has become a significant contributor to global AI safety discourse. CITP experts including Narayanan, Alondra Nelson, and Sayash Kapoor contributed to both the first International AI Safety Report (January 2025) and its 2026 update. CITP research covers AI governance, biosafety risks in AI foundation models, and the evaluation of open foundation models. The center runs the Princeton AI Dialogues, which connects researchers with Congress and federal agencies including Commerce, Defense, and Homeland Security through briefings and roundtables. The Princeton Language and Intelligence (PLI) initiative, launched in September 2023 and led by Prof. Sanjeev Arora, focuses on developing fundamental understanding of large AI models, enabling their application across disciplines, and studying their societal and ethical implications. In its inaugural round of seed grants, PLI awarded $798,000 to 14 interdisciplinary research projects. PLI has access to a $10 million computing budget and infrastructure including 300 Nvidia H100 GPUs. Princeton AI Alignment (PAIA) is a campus-based community supporting Princeton students and researchers working on AI alignment. It runs an 8-week introductory seminar, an advanced fellowship covering state-of-the-art alignment research, mentored research opportunities, and hosts workshops. PAIA alumni have joined leading AI safety organizations including OpenAI and Anthropic. The Princeton Dialogues on AI and Ethics, a collaboration between CITP and the University Center for Human Values active since 2017-18, develops interdisciplinary reasoning tools for practitioners and policymakers on AI ethics and fairness. Princeton has received multiple Open Philanthropy grants for AI safety-relevant research: $100,000 for scalable oversight research (Prof. Jason Lee), $863,143 for an AI R&D capabilities benchmark (Prof. Arvind Narayanan), and over $1 million for a software engineering LLM benchmark (Prof. Karthik Narasimhan).
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26Princeton's AI safety impact operates through three channels. First, conducting rigorous technical and empirical research on AI capabilities, scalable oversight, and benchmarks that advances the scientific foundation for alignment — giving the broader field better tools to evaluate and manage AI risk. Second, shaping AI governance and policy by educating policymakers through the Princeton AI Dialogues, contributing to international safety reports, and producing research that informs legislative and regulatory decisions. Third, training and developing the next generation of AI safety researchers and policymakers through fellowships, seminars, graduate programs, and policy-focused coursework, with alumni entering top AI labs and safety organizations.
Grants Received
Updated 05/18/26Projects
Updated 05/18/26Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) is an interdisciplinary hub that studies how digital technologies, including AI, affect society, with core focus areas in AI, data science and society, privacy and security, and digital infrastructure and platforms.
Princeton AI Alignment is a university-based community group that fosters critical thinking about AI alignment and safety, currently running an AI safety fundamentals reading group.
The Princeton AI Dialogues is a series of events and activities, run by Princeton SPIA’s DC Center in collaboration with CITP, designed to help public policymakers confront critical questions around the development, adoption, and governance of AI.
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