Forethought examines the benefits and risks of having a "nightwatchman" – a superintelligent AI tasked with enforcing a universal code of behavior – aboard every probe that leaves the solar system during future galactic colonization.

Peter Salib and Simon Goldstein return to discuss their new paper "...

A tool for calculating how much automating AI R&D will speed up AI progress, even if there’s no software intelligence explosion.

A guest post by Bentham’s Bulldog, created while they were a visiting scholar at Forethought.

A podcast episode from Forethought

A podcast conversation with Wei Dai

How soon could AI data centers move to orbit? Forethought analyzes launch costs, cooling physics, and other engineering and governance factors needed to make space compute viable.

Several models for thinking about the value of moral diversity as the number of powerholders scales.

Forethought argues that AIs should (sometimes) take proactive actions to benefit society, not just follow instructions.

AI could help us to build stronger AI-powered systems to help people track what is true. This brings important opportunities and risks.

Eight concrete projects to help prepare for superintelligence, including AI character evaluation, automated macrostrategy, and tools for improving epistemics.

Forethought argues that AI character—e.g. how obedient, honest, or altruistic AI systems are—will shape power, conflict, and society far more than is recognized. Work to shape AI character could be hu...

Some mutually beneficial agreements, between major powers or individuals, depend on shared uncertainty about post-AGI outcomes. We consider which deals are worth enabling before an intelligence explosion.

Sam Hammond and Fin Moorhouse discuss discuss how AGI could reshape the nation-state, drawing on Sam's “AI and Leviathan” essay series.Read a transcript of t...

Are 2–10 year AGI timelines really highest leverage? We compare 2027/2035/2045 scenarios and explain when medium timelines can offer higher-impact.

This is a bonus episode to say that Forethought is hiring researchers. After an overview of the roles, we hear from Research Fellow Mia Taylor about working at Forethought. The application deadline has been extended to November 1st 2025. Apply here: fore

David Duvenaud is an associate professor at the University of Toronto. He recently organised the workshop on ‘Post-AGI Civilizational Equilibria’ , and he is a co-author of ‘Gradual Disempowerment’. He recently finished an extended sabbatical on the Alignm

Raymond Douglas is a researcher focused on the societal effects of AI. In this episode, we discuss Gradual Disempowerment. To see all our published research, visit forethought.org/research. To subscribe to our newsletter, visit forethought.org/subscribe.

Cullen O'Keefe is Director of Research at the Institute for Law & AI. In this episode, we discuss 'Law-Following AI: designing AI agents to obey human laws'. To see all our published research, visit forethought.org/research. To subscribe to our ne

Forethought outlines concrete actions for better futures: prevent post-AGI autocracy, improve AI governance.

Forethought argues against the "wash out" objection: AGI-enforced institutions enable persistent impact.

Peter Salib is an assistant professor of law at the University of Houston, and Simon Goldstein is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Hong Kong. We discuss their paper ‘AI Rights for Human Safety’. To see all our published research,

Toby Ord is a Senior Researcher at Oxford University. We discuss the ‘scaling paradox’, inference scaling and its implications, ways to interpret trends in the length of tasks AI agents can complete, and some unpublished thoughts on lessons from scientifi