An organizational incubator that launches new nonprofits and projects working to steer transformative technology away from extreme large-scale risks. FLF identifies gaps in the AI safety ecosystem, recruits founders, and provides seed funding and operational support to new ventures.
An organizational incubator that launches new nonprofits and projects working to steer transformative technology away from extreme large-scale risks. FLF identifies gaps in the AI safety ecosystem, recruits founders, and provides seed funding and operational support to new ventures.
People– no linked people
Updated 04/02/26Funding Details
Updated 04/02/26- Annual Budget
- -
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- -
- Funding Raised to Date
- $25,035,877
Org Details
Updated 04/02/26The Future of Life Foundation (FLF) is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 2022 and based in Campbell, California (San Jose metro area). It operates as a sister organization to the Future of Life Institute (FLI), sharing the same overarching mission — to steer transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks — but playing a distinct institutional role as an organizational incubator. While FLI conducts research, advocacy, outreach, storytelling, and direct grantmaking, FLF focuses exclusively on launching new organizations and major projects in the AI safety and existential risk space. Its four-step approach involves: (1) conducting research to identify critical gaps in efforts aligned with its mission; (2) determining which new organizations should be created to address those gaps; (3) headhunting and recruiting founders for selected ideas; and (4) providing comprehensive support to newly launched organizations, including seed funding, operational help, communications, media production, and collaborative partnerships. The foundation has a stated goal of launching three to five new organizations annually. FLF received approximately $25 million in initial contributions in its first year (2022), providing a substantial endowment to fund ongoing operations and grantmaking. Notable organizations launched or supported by FLF include CARMA, a technical AI policy organization led by Richard Mallah, and Wise Ancestors, a conservation genomics platform that received a grant of nearly $800,000 from FLF. In 2025, FLF also ran a Fellowship on AI for Human Reasoning, a 12-week program offering fellows $25,000–$50,000 stipends and optional workspace in the SF Bay Area to develop AI tools that enhance human reasoning. The organization is led by Anthony Aguirre (President), who also serves as Executive Director of FLI and is a physics professor at UC Santa Cruz. Other staff include Josh Jacobson (COO, previously at FAR AI and Anthropic), Oly Sourbut (Researcher, AI Specialist, formerly at the UK AI Safety Institute), Ben Goldhaber (Projects Lead), and Elizabeth Garrett (Headhunter and Recruitment Lead). The board includes Max Tegmark, Jaan Tallinn, and Meia Chita-Tegmark — co-founders of FLI. As of early 2025 the team was small but growing, described in interviews as recently having doubled from two staff members.
Theory of Change
Updated 04/02/26FLF believes the AI safety and existential risk ecosystem is critically underinstitutionalized — that there are important roles which no existing organization is filling. By systematically identifying these gaps, recruiting talented founders with the right skills and vision, providing seed capital, and offering hands-on operational and strategic support in the early stages, FLF aims to bring new high-impact organizations into existence that would not otherwise be created. Each new organization launched becomes a persistent node in the AI safety ecosystem, multiplying impact beyond what any single grant or research project could achieve. The foundation views institutional creation — not just funding or research — as a key lever for reducing large-scale risks from transformative technologies.
Grants Received– no grants recorded
Updated 04/02/26Projects– no linked projects
Updated 04/02/26Discussion
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.