Touro is a large private Jewish university system headquartered in New York City, operating over 38 schools across the US and internationally. It received an Open Philanthropy grant to support Professor Gabriel Weil's legal research on using tort liability to mitigate catastrophic AI risks.
Touro is a large private Jewish university system headquartered in New York City, operating over 38 schools across the US and internationally. It received an Open Philanthropy grant to support Professor Gabriel Weil's legal research on using tort liability to mitigate catastrophic AI risks.
People
Updated 05/18/26Law professor at Touro University Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center (Touro Law Center)
Funding Details
Updated 05/18/26- Annual Budget
- $826,603,000
- Current Runway
- -
- Funding Goal
- -
- Funding Raised to Date
- -
Org Details
Updated 05/18/26Touro College & University System is a private Jewish university system headquartered in New York City. It was chartered in 1970 and enrolled its first class in September 1971, founded by Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander with the mission of promoting Jewish heritage while serving the broader community through high-quality education. Today it operates more than 38 schools across New York, California, Illinois, Nevada, and Montana, with international campuses in Jerusalem, Berlin, and Moscow. The system serves approximately 20,500 students and has over 130,000 alumni, with particular strength in health sciences, law, business, and Jewish studies. Touro's connection to AI safety and existential risk reduction is narrow but substantive. The Touro Law Center is home to Professor Gabriel Weil, an Assistant Professor of Law who joined the faculty in 2022 and teaches courses on torts and law and artificial intelligence. His central research program examines the role that tort law can play in mitigating catastrophic risks from artificial intelligence. His January 2024 paper 'Tort Law as a Tool for Mitigating Catastrophic Risk from Artificial Intelligence' argues that the existing U.S. tort liability system is ill-equipped to deter AI harms in truly catastrophic scenarios where compensation would not be feasible, and proposes reforms including novel punitive damages structures, strict liability for training and deploying advanced AI systems, mandatory liability insurance, and an AI safety fund funded by diverted punitive damages. In May 2024, Open Philanthropy awarded Touro College & University System a grant of $19,783 to support Professor Weil's ongoing legal research on AI governance. This grant falls within Open Philanthropy's 'Potential Risks from Advanced Artificial Intelligence' focus area. Weil is also affiliated with the Institute for Law & AI and has published on AI insurance and liability at AI Frontiers. He regularly consults with legislators and policymakers on AI policy matters. Beyond Weil's work, Touro has also developed system-wide AI literacy and governance initiatives for its faculty and students, launched a Faculty Innovation Grant Program focused on integrating AI into teaching, and established AI use policies rooted in ethical, transparent, and responsible AI deployment.
Theory of Change
Updated 05/18/26Touro's AI safety theory of change, as embodied in Professor Gabriel Weil's research, is that improving legal liability frameworks can create strong financial incentives for AI developers to invest in safety and risk reduction. The causal chain is: legal scholarship identifies reforms to tort law (strict liability, novel punitive damages, mandatory insurance) that make AI companies financially responsible for catastrophic harms even before those harms occur; this scholarship influences legislators, regulators, and courts; improved liability rules force AI developers to internalize the expected costs of catastrophic outcomes; and this in turn shifts incentives toward safer development practices, reducing the probability of AI-caused mass harm or extinction-level events.
Grants Received
Updated 05/18/26Projects– no linked projects
Updated 05/18/26Discussion
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts.