THE INSTITUTE
About the Institute
Founded in 2017, the Institute is coordinated by its founder. Network members join and contribute for a time.
We are an independent research institute with a mission to ensure that frontier AI is safe, aligned and open for people and society.
01 — METHODS AND IMPLEMENTATION
Methods and implementation
The Institute develops methods for testing whether AI systems meet safety and alignment requirements. Engineers, organisations, standards bodies and public institutions can use these methods to test, govern and improve AI systems.
02 — THE WORK
The work
The Institute publishes its software and frameworks under open licences. Current projects include KAOS, Kompute, the XAI framework and maintained reference lists for production machine learning. The work also includes The Nine Principles for AI Alignment & Safety, procurement criteria through AI-RFX, and security guidance in the MLSecOps Top 10.
03 — PRACTITIONER NETWORK
Practitioner network
Practitioners contribute to projects and review them from technical, legal, policy and social perspectives. The Institute publishes reusable artefacts and seeks evidence from deployments. It revises guidance when assumptions no longer hold.
The Institute is founder-coordinated and does not present a permanent roster.
The Institute contributes to international discussions through work with the United Nations, UN CSTD, European Commission, ACM, Linux Foundation, OWASP, IEEE and ISO/IEC communities. This participation informs the research. The Institute retains independent judgement.
04 — PEOPLE
People
The Institute is founder-coordinated. Its two founders remain accountable for the research direction and for the positions the Institute takes in public.
Alejandro Saucedo
Alejandro Saucedo is co-founder and Scientific Advisor at the Institute for Ethical AI Alignment & Safety, where he has led contributions to European policy including the AI Act, the Data Act and the Digital Services Act. He is Director of AI, Data & Platform at Zalando SE, an appointed AI Expert at the United Nations, Board Member at the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and visiting lecturer at the Technische Universität München.
Lucy Yu
Lucy Yu is co-founder and Strategic Advisor at the Institute for Ethical AI Alignment & Safety. She is CEO of the Centre for Net Zero, Octopus Energy Group's not-for-profit AI and data research institute, and a Non-Executive Director at Connected Places Catapult and E3G. A technology executive, former policymaker and regulator with twenty years' experience, she has developed technology policy for the UK Cabinet Office, the Department for Transport, the European Commission and the United Nations, following executive roles at SwiftKey (acquired by Microsoft), Cucumber (acquired by SmartBear) and Five. She was named a Financial Times Top 100 Leader in Tech in 2019.