Arkose was a field-building nonprofit dedicated to improving the safety of advanced AI systems by accelerating the involvement of experienced machine learning professionals in AI safety research. Founded by Vael Gates in 2022, the organization primarily offered personalized one-on-one advisory calls to mid-career ML researchers and engineers, along with curated public resources including AI safety papers, funding opportunities, job listings, and a database of AI safety researchers. Between December 2023 and June 2025, Arkose conducted 311 calls with ML professionals, with 78% reporting that their call accelerated their involvement in AI safety. The organization closed in June 2025 due to insufficient funding.
Funding Details
- Annual Budget
- $300,000
- Monthly Burn Rate
- $25,000
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- -
- Funding Raised to Date
- $683,000
- Fiscal Sponsor
- Players Philanthropy Fund
Theory of Change
Arkose believed that many experienced ML researchers and engineers could contribute meaningfully to AI safety work but lacked information about the field, relevant opportunities, and connections to the existing research community. By identifying talented researchers through outreach to authors published at top AI conferences (NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR), engaging them through personalized one-on-one advisory calls, and supporting their immediate next steps through expert introductions, resource curation, and guidance on funding and job opportunities, Arkose aimed to accelerate these professionals' transition into AI safety research. This would increase the overall talent pool working on reducing large-scale risks from advanced AI systems, ultimately contributing to safer AI development.
Grants Received
from Survival and Flourishing Fund
Projects
No linked projects.
People
No linked people.
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Details
- Last Updated
- Apr 2, 2026, 10:09 PM UTC
- Created
- Mar 18, 2026, 11:18 PM UTC