ABOUT PAX MACHINA
Society will need new institutions for a world with powerful AI. Currently, there are very few concrete proposals. Pax Machina is a publication aiming to put concrete proposals for such institutions on the table, along with critique and concerns from other researchers.
This publication is written by a network of researchers in mechanism design, political philosophy, law, and AI alignment. We also solicit thoughtful responses from the wider community. To submit a draft or respond to a proposal, email editors@paxmachinamag.com.
About the name: we are both for and against a Pax Machina. For a stable order in a world of powerful AI, against one imposed from above or stumbled into by accident. We want to steer clear from utopian thinking, and believe the path to a good future is through public debate, trial and error.
EDITORIAL BOARD
-
Dean W. Ball Dean W. Ball HEAD OF STRATEGIC FUTURES, OPENAI Leads the Strategic Futures team at OpenAI, working on frontier AI policy. He was previously Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he was principal author of America's AI Action Plan, and writes the newsletter Hyperdimensional. AI GOVERNANCE & POLICY Leads the Strategic Futures team at OpenAI, working on frontier AI policy. He was previously Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he was principal author of America's AI Action Plan, and writes the newsletter Hyperdimensional.
-
Samuel Hammond Samuel Hammond CHIEF ECONOMIST & AI POLICY DIRECTOR, FAI AI Policy Director and Chief Economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, working on the institutional impact of emerging technologies on governance and democracy. He was previously Director of Social Policy at the Niskanen Center, and writes the newsletter Second Best. AI & INNOVATION POLICY AI Policy Director and Chief Economist at the Foundation for American Innovation, working on the institutional impact of emerging technologies on governance and democracy. He was previously Director of Social Policy at the Niskanen Center, and writes the newsletter Second Best.
-
Peter Railton Peter Railton PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY EMERITUS, UNIV. OF MICHIGAN Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Michigan and a leading figure in metaethics known for his naturalistic moral realism. He increasingly writes on the ethics of artificial intelligence and moral learning in AI systems. MORAL PHILOSOPHY & AI ETHICS Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Michigan and a leading figure in metaethics known for his naturalistic moral realism. He increasingly writes on the ethics of artificial intelligence and moral learning in AI systems.
-
Saffron Huang Saffron Huang RESEARCH SCIENTIST, ANTHROPIC Research scientist on the Societal Impacts team at Anthropic, studying how AI development can better reflect collective values. She co-founded the Collective Intelligence Project and was named to TIME's 2024 list of the 100 Most Influential People in AI. AI & COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE Research scientist on the Societal Impacts team at Anthropic, studying how AI development can better reflect collective values. She co-founded the Collective Intelligence Project and was named to TIME's 2024 list of the 100 Most Influential People in AI.
-
Iason Gabriel Iason Gabriel RESEARCH SCIENTIST, GOOGLE DEEPMIND Philosopher and Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, working on the ethics of AI, value alignment, and the political philosophy of advanced AI systems. He previously taught moral and political philosophy at Oxford. POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF AI Philosopher and Senior Staff Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, working on the ethics of AI, value alignment, and the political philosophy of advanced AI systems. He previously taught moral and political philosophy at Oxford.
-
Seth Lazar Seth Lazar PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY, ANU Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University and founder of the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory (MINT) Lab. Works on the moral and political philosophy of AI, and on the legitimacy of algorithmic power. MORAL & POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF AI Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University and founder of the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory (MINT) Lab. Works on the moral and political philosophy of AI, and on the legitimacy of algorithmic power.
-
Nora Ammann Nora Ammann PROGRAMME DIRECTOR, SAFEGUARDED AI, ARIA Programme Director of the Safeguarded AI programme at ARIA, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency, building a mathematical assurance toolkit for verifiable claims about AI systems. She co-founded PIBBSS and was previously a Research Manager at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. AI SAFETY & ASSURANCE Programme Director of the Safeguarded AI programme at ARIA, the UK's Advanced Research and Invention Agency, building a mathematical assurance toolkit for verifiable claims about AI systems. She co-founded PIBBSS and was previously a Research Manager at Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute.
-
Tan Zhi-Xuan Tan Zhi-Xuan PRESIDENTIAL YOUNG PROFESSOR, NUS Presidential Young Professor of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore, where they lead the Cooperative Systems & Intelligence (CoSI) Lab. Their research reverse-engineers the computational foundations of human cooperation, values, and norms to build AI that is genuinely cooperative and aligned. AI ALIGNMENT & COGNITIVE SCIENCE Presidential Young Professor of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore, where they lead the Cooperative Systems & Intelligence (CoSI) Lab. Their research reverse-engineers the computational foundations of human cooperation, values, and norms to build AI that is genuinely cooperative and aligned.
EDITORS
-
Séb Krier Séb Krier AI POLICY, GOOGLE DEEPMIND Leads frontier policy development at Google DeepMind, focusing on the governance of advanced AI systems. Previously Head of Regulation at the UK Government's Office for AI and a tech policy researcher at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center. AI GOVERNANCE
Leads frontier policy development at Google DeepMind, focusing on the governance of advanced AI systems. Previously Head of Regulation at the UK Government's Office for AI and a tech policy researcher at Stanford's Cyber Policy Center.
-
Maximilian Kroner Dale Maximilian Kroner Dale RESEARCHER, OXFORD INTERNET INSTITUTE Studies the governance of emerging technologies at the Oxford Internet Institute. Prior to his MSc, he was a Senior Advisor at the Behavioural Insights Team, where he applied behavioural economics to design prosocial initiatives, including deliberative assemblies on generative AI in partnership with Meta. He holds a BA in Economics from Willamette University. EMERGING TECHNOLOGY GOVERNANCE
Studies the governance of emerging technologies at the Oxford Internet Institute. Prior to his MSc, he was a Senior Advisor at the Behavioural Insights Team, where he applied behavioural economics to design prosocial initiatives, including deliberative assemblies on generative AI in partnership with Meta. He holds a BA in Economics from Willamette University.
-
Rachel Calcott Rachel Calcott PHD RESEARCHER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PhD researcher in psychology at Harvard University, advised by Fiery Cushman, studying moral cognition and how minds develop, update, and culturally evolve moral values — including how people learn from AI. Her recent work bridges moral cognition and AI safety, co-authoring papers such as 'Wide Reflective Equilibrium in LLM Alignment: Bridging Moral Epistemology and AI Safety' and 'MoReBench: Evaluating Procedural and Pluralistic Moral Reasoning in Language Models'. AI ALIGNMENT & MORAL COGNITION
PhD researcher in psychology at Harvard University, advised by Fiery Cushman, studying moral cognition and how minds develop, update, and culturally evolve moral values — including how people learn from AI. Her recent work bridges moral cognition and AI safety, co-authoring papers such as 'Wide Reflective Equilibrium in LLM Alignment: Bridging Moral Epistemology and AI Safety' and 'MoReBench: Evaluating Procedural and Pluralistic Moral Reasoning in Language Models'.
-
Noemi Dreksler Noemi Dreksler SENIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, GOVAI Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Governance of AI, where she leads survey research on public and expert views of AI and studies risk management practices at frontier AI companies. She holds a DPhil in Experimental Psychology from Oxford. AI GOVERNANCE
Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Governance of AI, where she leads survey research on public and expert views of AI and studies risk management practices at frontier AI companies. She holds a DPhil in Experimental Psychology from Oxford.
-
Joe Edelman Joe Edelman CO-FOUNDER, MEANING ALIGNMENT INSTITUTE Philosopher and co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute, working on aligning AI, markets, and democracies with what people value. Previously co-founded the Center for Humane Technology and invented the meaning-based metrics used at CouchSurfing, Facebook, and Apple. INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN
Philosopher and co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute, working on aligning AI, markets, and democracies with what people value. Previously co-founded the Center for Humane Technology and invented the meaning-based metrics used at CouchSurfing, Facebook, and Apple.
-
Ryan Lowe Ryan Lowe RESEARCHER, MEANING ALIGNMENT INSTITUTE Researcher at the Meaning Alignment Institute working on full-stack alignment. Previously an alignment researcher at OpenAI, where he co-led the InstructGPT work that pioneered RLHF for large language models. ALIGNMENT BEYOND PREFERENCES
Researcher at the Meaning Alignment Institute working on full-stack alignment. Previously an alignment researcher at OpenAI, where he co-led the InstructGPT work that pioneered RLHF for large language models.
1 ARTICLE -
Oliver Klingefjord Oliver Klingefjord CO-FOUNDER, MEANING ALIGNMENT INSTITUTE Researcher and co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute, working on full-stack alignment of AI and institutions with human values. Previously co-founded Potential.app and was technical lead at the AI Objectives Institute. MARKETS & COORDINATION
Researcher and co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute, working on full-stack alignment of AI and institutions with human values. Previously co-founded Potential.app and was technical lead at the AI Objectives Institute.
1 ARTICLE
CONTRIBUTORS
- Joe Edelman Joe Edelman CO-FOUNDER, MEANING ALIGNMENT INSTITUTE Philosopher and co-founder of the Meaning Alignment Institute, working on aligning AI, markets, and democracies with what people value. Previously co-founded the Center for Humane Technology and invented the meaning-based metrics used at CouchSurfing, Facebook, and Apple. INSTITUTIONAL DESIGN
- Tan Zhi-Xuan Tan Zhi-Xuan PRESIDENTIAL YOUNG PROFESSOR, NUS Presidential Young Professor of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore, where they lead the Cooperative Systems & Intelligence (CoSI) Lab. Their research reverse-engineers the computational foundations of human cooperation, values, and norms to build AI that is genuinely cooperative and aligned. AI ALIGNMENT & COGNITIVE SCIENCE
-
Nicholas A. Caputo Nicholas A. Caputo ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF FRONTIER AI GOVERNANCE, JHU Studies how law can regulate AI and how AI might reshape legal institutions, with a focus on keeping powerful AI systems accountable to democratic authority. He is Assistant Professor of Frontier AI Governance at the Johns Hopkins School of Government and Policy and Law & AI Lead at the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative. A graduate of Harvard Law School, his legal scholarship has appeared in venues including the Yale Journal of Law & Technology and the Stanford Technology Law Review. AI GOVERNANCE & LAW