Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI), UC Berkeley
- Type
- Academic institution
- Place
- United States — United States (Berkeley, California)
- Last checked
- 2026-09-22
- Next check due
- 2027-03-21
Ways to reach them
- General administrative contact
- Opportunities — internships and roles
- People directory
- Homepage
What it does
Technical research lab founded by Stuart Russell, devoted to the theory, practice and policy of provably beneficial AI. Core research programme is assistance games / cooperative inverse reinforcement learning — designing AI that is uncertain about human objectives and defers to humans, rather than optimising a fixed specified objective. Interdisciplinary across CS, social science, law, philosophy, economics and governance. Runs an annual workshop and an internship programme.
Honest assessment
Publishes a real administrative inbox, which most academic labs do not. The internship route is genuinely open to outsiders. Russell himself is extremely over-subscribed; do not expect a personal reply.
Concerns it covers
Misspecified objectives and loss of control — Russell's thesis that 'optimisation alone won't get us to humane AI' and that the standard model of AI (maximise a given objective) is structurally unsafe.
Government channel
Strong by proxy — Stuart Russell sits on the FLI AI Safety Index panel, advises the UN and numerous governments, and was a lead author on the International AI Safety Report.