Yale University

Yale University, founded in 1701 and located in New Haven, Connecticut, is one of the world's leading research universities. It is home to several programs directly relevant to AI safety and existential risk reduction. The Schmidt Program on Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Technologies, and National Power was established in 2021 at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs through a $15.3 million gift from Eric and Wendy Schmidt. Led by Edward Wittenstein, the program investigates how AI and other emerging technologies are reshaping world order. Research spans autonomous weaponry, AI-augmented cyberwarfare, disinformation, geopolitical instability from AI races, and semiconductor supply chains. The program takes an explicitly interdisciplinary approach across computer science, economics, law, philosophy, and international relations. The Center for Algorithms, Data, and Market Design at Yale (CADMY), launched in 2022, is a joint effort across Economics, Statistics and Data Science, Computer Science, the School of Management, the Cowles Foundation, and the Institute for Foundations of Data Science. In 2024-2025, CADMY professors — including director Dirk Bergemann and co-director Yang Cai — were among the first cohort awarded grants from the UK's AI Security Institute (AISI) for research building systematic frameworks to balance AI capability and safety, and to design institutions and rules for deployed AI systems. The Digital Ethics Center (DEC), founded in 2023 and led by founding director Luciano Floridi, is a multidisciplinary hub studying governance, ethical, legal, and social implications of digital innovation. It runs programs including the Digital Vulnerabilities in the Age of AI Summit (DIVAS), the Health AI Science, Technology, and Ethics workshop (HASTE), and a Summit on State AI Legislation (SSAIL). In August 2024, Yale's leadership announced a $150 million, five-year commitment to AI, aimed at building computational infrastructure, hiring faculty across disciplines — including legal scholars, ethicists, and public health experts — and producing research that questions and guides AI development in line with safe practices. This followed a 2024 Task Force on Artificial Intelligence that recommended Yale build capacity not only to develop AI but also to examine and govern it responsibly. Yale also hosts student-led organizations including Yale AI Alignment (YAIA), which runs an eight-week AI safety fellowship; the Yale AI Policy Initiative (YAIPI), focused on AI governance and regulation; and Yale Effective Altruism, which covers AI risk among other cause areas. Open Philanthropy has funded Yale researchers directly, including approximately $299,320 for work on the global politics of AI (led by then-professor Allan Dafoe) and approximately $596,200 for LLM persuasiveness evaluation research.