Quick Assessment
| Dimension | Assessment |
|---|---|
| Primary Role | CEO and co-founder of Conjecture (2022–present) |
| Key Contributions | Co-founded EleutherAI, producing GPT-J and GPT-NeoX; founded Conjecture to pursue scalable AI alignment research; co-authored the MAGIC international governance proposal |
| Key Publications | "Cognitive Emulation: A Naive AI Safety Proposal" (2023); "Conjecture: A Retrospective After 8 Months of Work" (2022); MAGIC governance proposal on arXiv (2023) |
| Institutional Affiliation | Conjecture (London, UK) |
| Influence on AI Safety | Leahy holds a high subjective probability of catastrophic AI outcomes and AGI Timeline; he has publicly advocated for Interpretability and International Coordination, and has appeared on numerous podcasts and in press coverage on AI risk |
Overview
Connor Leahy is the CEO and co-founder of Conjecture, a for-profit AI alignment research company based in London, founded in March 2022. Before founding Conjecture, Leahy was a co-founder of EleutherAI, a grassroots open-source AI research collective he helped establish in July 2020 alongside Sid Black and Leo Gao. EleutherAI produced several large open-source language models, including GPT-J and GPT-NeoX, which were among the largest openly available models at the time of their release.
Leahy is one of the more publicly prominent voices in the AI safety community arguing for short AGI timelines and a high probability of catastrophic outcomes from advanced AI. He has described his P(doom) estimate as near the high end of the doomer range, characterizing himself in a 2022 interview as "not as pessimistic as Eliezer Yudkowsky but pretty close." His public advocacy spans podcasts, press interviews, and written posts on platforms such as LessWrong and the AI Alignment. He has also been active in UK AI policy outreach.
Conjecture's research has included mechanistic interpretability, a pivot to a framework called Cognitive Emulation (CoEm) in early 2023, and a governance proposal for a Multinational AGI Consortium (MAGIC). The company has attracted funding from a range of prominent technology investors and has been the subject of both positive and critical commentary in the effective altruism and AI safety communities.