Skip to content
Longterm Wiki

Alignment Research Center (ARC)

Safety Organization
Founded Oct 2021 (4 years old)HQ: Berkeley, CAalignment.org

Also known as: ARC, ARC Alignment

All Facts

Financial

Annual Expenses$6.3M20233 pts
As OfValueLink
2023$6.3Mview →
2022$1.4Mview →
2021$153Kview →
Net Assets$7.1M20233 pts
As OfValueLink
2023$7.1Mview →
2022$3.4Mview →
2021$322Kview →
Revenue$10M20233 pts
As OfValueLink
2023$10Mview →
2022$4.5Mview →
2021$476Kview →

Organization

Needs attentionFounded DateOct 20212 pts
As OfValueLink
Oct 2021view →Needs attention
Apr 2021view →
Needs attentionHeadquartersBerkeley, CA2 pts
As OfValueLink
Berkeley, CAview →Needs attention
Berkeleyview →

People

Founder (text)Paul Christianoview →

Background

Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_Research_Centerview →

General

Websitehttp://alignment.org/view →

Divisions

2
NameDivisionTypeStatusSourceNotesSource check
ARC Theoryteamactivealignment.orgTheoretical alignment research led by Paul Christiano. Focuses on ELK (Eliciting Latent Knowledge) and foundational alignment theory.Not checked
ARC Evalsteamactiveevals.alignment.orgEvaluates frontier AI models for dangerous capabilities (e.g., autonomous replication). Spun out as METR in 2024 but ARC continues related eval work.Not checked

Entity Events

7
TitleDateEventTypeDescriptionSignificanceSource check
Christiano appointed Head of AI Safety at US AISI2024-04leadership-changePersonal appointment at NIST rather than an institutional contract with ARC.majorNot checked
ARC Evals formally renamed METR2023-12-04pivotModel Evaluation & Threat Research; independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit led by Beth Barnes.majorNot checked
ARC Evals spin-out announced2023-09-19pivotGrowth in ARC Evals' size prompted formalization of separation.majorNot checked
ARC Evals incubated; Beth Barnes hired to lead it2022launchBegan incubating ARC Evals — exploratory work on independent evaluations of frontier AI models. Completed evaluations of GPT-4 (with OpenAI) and Claude (with Anthropic).majorNot checked
Open Philanthropy grant ($265K)2022fundingDocumented grant from Coefficient Giving (then Open Philanthropy).moderateNot checked
Returned $1.25M FTX Foundation grant after FTX bankruptcy2022fundingmajorNot checked
Founded by Paul Christiano2021foundingFounded by Paul Christiano after his departure from OpenAI; nonprofit AI safety research organization focused on theoretical alignment.majorNot checked
Internal Metadata
ID: sid_QsXVXtQ0zE
Stable ID: sid_QsXVXtQ0zE
Wiki ID: E25
Type: organization
YAML Source: packages/factbase/data/fb-entities/arc.yaml
Facts: 18 structured
Records: 9 in 2 collections