Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI)

The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) is a highly interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Cambridge that explores the nature, ethics and impact of artificial intelligence (AI). Announced in 2015 and formally launched on 19 October 2016 following a £10 million Leverhulme Trust award, the Centre is based at 16 Mill Lane in Cambridge and works with partners at the Oxford Martin School (University of Oxford), Imperial College London and the University of California, Berkeley. CFI’s mission is to build a new interdisciplinary community of researchers, with strong links to technologists and the policy world, and a clear practical goal: to ensure that humans make the best of the opportunities of AI as it develops over coming decades. Its work brings together computer scientists, philosophers, social scientists and others to study both near‑term and long‑term impacts of AI on society, democracy, security and the environment. Research at CFI is organised into programmes such as Kinds of Intelligence, AI Narratives and Justice, Trust and Society, and Policy and Responsible Innovation, which host projects on topics including algorithmic transparency, autonomous weapons, value alignment, AI narratives, and the social and political implications of AI. The Centre has led major international collaborations such as "Desirable Digitalisation: Rethinking AI for Just and Sustainable Futures", a Cambridge–Bonn programme funded by Stiftung Mercator, and has contributed to global debates on compute governance and AI safety, as well as co‑developing the HEAT High‑risk EU AI Act Toolkit in partnership with industry. In November 2023 CFI became one of three founding research centres within the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Technology and Humanity (ITH), alongside the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) and the Centre for Human‑Inspired AI (CHIA). Within ITH, CFI continues to combine fundamental research, policy engagement and public outreach on the governance and societal impacts of advanced AI. The Centre’s founding director was Huw Price, with early leadership including Deputy Director Zoubin Ghahramani and long‑time Executive Director and Academic Director Stephen Cave. In early 2026 Dr Rachel Adams was appointed Executive Director and Research Professor, while Stephen Cave now serves as Academic Director of CFI and co‑Director of the Institute for Technology and Humanity. CFI also hosts a wide network of associate fellows and partners across academia, civil society, industry and government, and delivers graduate programmes such as the MPhil in Ethics of AI, Data and Algorithms and the MSt in AI Ethics and Society.