A Stanford University initiative that hosts and promotes academic scholarship on existential risks, running research fellowships, conferences, courses, and discussion groups focused on AI, nuclear war, pandemics, and climate change.
A Stanford University initiative that hosts and promotes academic scholarship on existential risks, running research fellowships, conferences, courses, and discussion groups focused on AI, nuclear war, pandemics, and climate change.
People
Updated 05/18/26Faculty Co-Director
Faculty Co-Director
SERI Student Fellow
Postdoctoral Fellow
Postdoctoral Fellow, SERI
SERI Student Fellow
Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
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- Current Runway
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- Funding Goal
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- Funding Raised to Date
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Org Details
Updated 05/18/26The Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) is a collaboration between faculty and students of Stanford University dedicated to mitigating global catastrophic risks. Launched on May 15, 2020, SERI is housed within the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. It is the product of an alliance between Stanford's Science, Technology & Society (STS) program, CISAC, Stanford Global Health, and the local effective altruism community. SERI was co-founded by Stephen Luby, a professor of medicine specializing in infectious diseases at Stanford, and Paul Edwards, a senior research scholar at CISAC and emeritus professor of information and history at the University of Michigan who also serves as a Lead Author for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The initiative grew from an interdisciplinary course the two co-teach called "THINK 65: Preventing Human Extinction," which enrolls approximately 100 students per year. SERI focuses on four primary existential risk areas: catastrophic accidents and misuse involving artificial intelligence, nuclear war, pandemics and threats from synthetic biology, and extreme climate change and environmental degradation. The initiative pursues its mission through four strategic pillars: high-impact research, student career development, longtermism and existential risk advocacy, and faculty engagement. Key programs include the SERI Summer Fellowship, a 10-week full-time research program that pairs students with faculty, postdoctoral, or industry mentors for projects dedicated to mitigating existential risks. The fellowship, currently open only to Stanford students, has run annually since 2020. SERI also hosts an annual symposium and conference series that brings together leading experts from across the Bay Area and beyond. The 2023 conference, titled "Intersections, Reinforcements, Cascades," and the 2025 symposium have been notable convenings in the field. Research programs include the Stanford Cascading Risk Study, which examines interconnected existential risks through projects like "Extinction Scenarios for 2075" and "Cascading Polycrisis Showdown 2040." SERI also runs Stanford AI Alignment (SAIA), a sub-initiative focused on building the AI safety community at Stanford, conducting AI safety research, and accelerating students into impactful AI safety careers. SERI's educational offerings include the flagship "Preventing Human Extinction" course and "Destroying The Iron House." The STS program now offers a special concentration in Catastrophic Risks and Solutions partly inspired by SERI's work. SERI has also partnered with international organizations including the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge and XLab at the University of Chicago. The initiative's current team includes the two faculty co-directors, two postdoctoral fellows, three student fellows, a research assistant, and several members and affiliates. SERI has been credited with inspiring similar initiatives at Cambridge and Harvard/MIT, and with introducing over 500 people to existential risk concepts through its programming.
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26SERI believes that academic research, education, and cross-disciplinary collaboration at a world-class university can meaningfully reduce existential risks. By embedding existential risk scholarship within Stanford's institutional infrastructure, SERI aims to train the next generation of researchers and policymakers who will work on these problems. Their approach operates through multiple channels: producing high-quality research on cascading and interconnected risks, developing students' careers toward high-impact existential risk work, building faculty engagement across departments, and advocating for longtermist and existential risk perspectives within academia. The summer fellowship program creates a pipeline of researchers with hands-on experience in existential risk mitigation, while courses and events normalize and mainstream the study of global catastrophic risks in university settings.
Grants Received
Updated 05/18/26Projects– no linked projects
Updated 05/18/26Discussion
Key risk: SERI’s broad 'cascading risk/polycrisis' agenda and placing AI third signal weak prioritization of AI x-risk, and—being restricted to Stanford students and operating in an expensive, well-funded university—its outputs may be diffuse and low-counterfactual versus funding more focused, external AI safety training programs.
Case for funding: By embedding SAIA and the SERI Summer Fellowship within Stanford’s infrastructure, SERI can recruit and accelerate exceptionally strong Stanford students into AI safety research and policy roles, leveraging Bay Area proximity and faculty connections to create a high-leverage talent pipeline that few orgs can match.