Centre for the Study of Existential Risk

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) is an interdisciplinary research centre within the Institute for Technology and Humanity at the University of Cambridge, dedicated to the study and mitigation of existential and global catastrophic risks. It was founded in 2012 by three prominent figures: Huw Price (then the Bertrand Russell Professor of Philosophy at Cambridge), Martin Rees (the Astronomer Royal and former President of the Royal Society), and Jaan Tallinn (co-founder of Skype). The founding was publicly announced in November 2012, with the centre initially hosted by Cambridge's Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH). Initial funding came primarily from a seed donation by Jaan Tallinn. CSER's research is organized around four main themes: risks from artificial intelligence, global catastrophic biological risks, extreme risks and the global environment, and managing extreme technological risk. The centre takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together researchers from fields including computer science, philosophy, biology, climate science, international relations, and policy. CSER has achieved several notable milestones. In 2015, CSER helped organise a landmark conference on the future directions of AI in Puerto Rico, which resulted in an Open Letter on Artificial Intelligence signed by research leaders worldwide, calling for research to ensure AI systems are safe and beneficial. In 2016, CSER launched its first spin-off, the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI). In 2018, CSER co-published The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation, a widely cited report on AI risks for physical and cybersecurity that received coverage from the New York Times, BBC, Reuters, and other major outlets. That same year, the paper An AI Race: Rhetoric and Risks won the inaugural Best Paper prize at the AAAI/ACM AI Ethics and Society conference. CSER has assembled a distinguished advisory board that has included Stephen Hawking, David Spiegelhalter, George Church, and David Chalmers, among others. The centre regularly advises international bodies including the UN High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation and the EU High-Level Expert Group on AI, as well as the UK government on policies related to catastrophic risk. In March 2025, Professor Sonja Amadae joined as Director from the University of Helsinki, bringing expertise in nuclear war and security, climate change, and AI-related social justice. Jess Bland serves as Deputy Director with oversight of operations, finance, HR, communications, and fundraising. In 2025, CSER launched its MPhil in Global Risk and Resilience, a one-year taught Master's programme designed to provide grounding in global catastrophic and existential risk. CSER's major research projects have been supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, the Hauser-Raspe Foundation, the Blavatnik Foundation, the Libra Foundation, the Musk Foundation, the Milner Foundation, the Survival and Flourishing Fund, and other philanthropic sources. As of 2026, CSER continues to expand, with recent developments including appointing Yuval Harari as a Research Fellow in the first Institute for Technology and Humanity Distinguished Fellowship programme, and convening workshops on governing catastrophic risks.