Center on Long-Term Risk

The Center on Long-Term Risk (CLR) is a research organization whose mission is to reduce the risk of astronomical suffering from powerful AI, known as s-risks. Originally founded in July 2013 as the Foundational Research Institute (FRI), a project of the Swiss Effective Altruism Foundation, the organization adopted its current name in March 2020 and became an independent UK-registered charity at the end of 2021. CLR's research agenda centers on understanding and mitigating worst-case risks from advanced AI systems, with a particular focus on conflict scenarios and the technical and philosophical aspects of cooperation. Key research areas include AI model personas and emergent misalignment, Safe Pareto Improvements for AI systems, acausal safety frameworks, and strategic readiness for interventions. CLR researchers have collaborated with researchers at CMU, Oxford, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT, and Google DeepMind, and their work has generated follow-up research from OpenAI and Anthropic. Beyond its core research, CLR operates the CLR Fund, which has distributed approximately $1.9 million in grants since 2018 to support research on s-risk reduction, AI safety, cooperation, and related topics. The organization also runs a Summer Research Fellowship (now in its sixth year), a Fundamentals Program for introducing new researchers to the field, and provides one-on-one career coaching. CLR is led by Managing Director Tristan Cook, who took on the role in January 2025 after Jesse Clifton stepped down as Executive Director. The research team includes specialists in machine learning, game theory, decision theory, and AI alignment. The organization is headquartered in London and is registered as a charity in England and Wales (No. 1195079) under the legal name Foundational Research Institute.