Alignment Ecosystem Development

Alignment Ecosystem Development (AED) is an AI safety field-building nonprofit focused on building and maintaining valuable digital infrastructure. Its overarching objective is to grow and improve the AI safety ecosystem by making it easier for people to find the resources they need to work effectively on reducing existential risk from AI. AED has built, taken ownership of, closely partnered with, or maintained approximately 15 different projects serving the AI safety community. Its flagship project is AISafety.com, which serves as both a landing page for newcomers to AI safety and a central hub for resources across the ecosystem, including comprehensive lists of communities, upcoming events, courses, and jobs. Other major projects include AISafety.info (an interactive FAQ and chatbot serving as a single point of access to AI safety information, originally created by Rob Miles), the AI Existential Safety Map at aisafety.world (a visual map of organizations, projects, and programs in the AI safety space), AI Safety Training at aisafety.training (a directory of training programs, courses, conferences, and events), AI Safety Communities at aisafety.community (a comprehensive directory of local and online AI safety communities), Grantmakers for AI Alignment at grantmaking.ai, and AI Safety Quest at aisafety.quest (which helps newcomers navigate the AI safety space with personalized guidance and collaborative study groups). The organization traces its origins to early 2021 when founder Soren Elverlin launched AISafety.com as a startup attempting to address AI alignment challenges. After the startup pivot in 2023, the focus shifted to ecosystem infrastructure and field-building. The Alignment Ecosystem Development initiative consolidated around 2022, with the Coda documentation hub established in October 2022. Bryce Robertson, initially a volunteer, was given leadership of the organization and its day-to-day operations. AED was primarily self-funded and volunteer-driven for most of its history, with Elverlin personally investing approximately $55,000 USD. The organization received a $99,330 grant from the Long-Term Future Fund in the 2023-2024 round to support 1.25 full-time equivalents, and was recommended $91,000 from the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2025 S-Process. AED operates under the fiscal sponsorship of Ashgro Inc, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Wilmington, Delaware. The team works with software engineers, communicators, generalists, and many other volunteers to build, maintain, and improve online infrastructure serving those working on AI safety.