The University of Southern California (USC) is a private research university founded in 1880 in Los Angeles, California. In the AI safety and existential risk space, USC received $512,000 through the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2024 flexHEGs round for research on hardware-enabled guarantee mechanisms for AI governance oversight. USC hosts several AI safety-relevant research groups including the SCIP Lab (hardware security and private machine learning), the SAIDS Lab (safe autonomy), the Lira Lab (human-robot alignment, with a trial BERI collaboration), the FORTIS Lab (AI auditing and safety), and the Information Sciences Institute, which participates in the US AI Safety Institute Consortium. The university also has active AI Safety and Effective Altruism student organizations.
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Theory of Change
USC contributes to AI safety through multiple channels. Its hardware security research (funded through the SFF flexHEGs program) aims to develop physical and cryptographic mechanisms that can enforce compliance with AI governance agreements at the hardware level, providing trustworthy verification that AI developers are adhering to safety standards. Its various research labs contribute to technical AI safety through work on human-robot alignment, safe autonomy, AI auditing, and trustworthy AI systems. By participating in the US AI Safety Institute Consortium and training the next generation of AI safety researchers through student organizations and curricula, USC helps build the institutional and human capital infrastructure needed for effective AI governance.
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from Open Philanthropy
from Survival and Flourishing Fund
from Open Philanthropy
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- Last Updated
- Apr 2, 2026, 9:50 PM UTC
- Created
- Mar 18, 2026, 11:18 PM UTC