Alignment Research Center

The Alignment Research Center (ARC) is a nonprofit research institute based in Berkeley, California, dedicated to the alignment of advanced artificial intelligence with human values and priorities. Founded by former OpenAI researcher Paul Christiano, ARC established an evaluation team to study the potentially harmful capabilities of present-day AI models. This team became the independent nonprofit METR in December 2023. ARC's mission is to ensure that powerful machine learning systems of the future are designed and developed safely and for the benefit of humanity. It was founded in April 2021 by Paul Christiano and other researchers focused on the theoretical challenges of AI alignment. ARC aims to develop scalable methods for training AI systems to behave honestly and helpfully. A key part of its methodology is considering how proposed alignment techniques might break down or be circumvented as systems become more advanced. ARC expanded from theoretical work into empirical research, industry collaborations, and policy. In March 2022, ARC received $265,000 from Open Philanthropy. After the bankruptcy of FTX, ARC said it would return a $1.25 million grant from cryptocurrency financier Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX Foundation, stating that the money "morally (if not legally) belongs to FTX customers or creditors."