Cooperative AI Foundation

The Cooperative AI Foundation (CAIF) was incorporated in England and Wales on 30 June 2021 (company number 13485176, charity number 1201294) and is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. It was established with a $15 million philanthropic commitment from Macroscopic Ventures (formerly the Center for Emerging Risk Research, or CERR), which made the commitment in May 2021.

CAIF's mission is to support research that will improve the cooperative intelligence of advanced AI for the benefit of all. Cooperative intelligence refers to the skills and properties required for promoting cooperation between humans, AI systems, and organizations. The foundation focuses on research that is important, tractable, and neglected, and is particularly interested in differential progress — research that advances cooperative capabilities without simultaneously advancing capabilities for deception, manipulation, or coercion.

The foundation's primary activity is academic grantmaking. Grants typically range from GBP 10,000 to GBP 385,000 with a median near GBP 150,000. Notable funded projects include the Foundations of Cooperative AI Lab (FOCAL) at Carnegie Mellon University led by Vincent Conitzer, multi-agent ML research at Oxford, cooperative AI contests using the Melting Pot environment, and studies on AI coercive capabilities, cooperative negotiation, and emergent norms. In 2024, CAIF funded three proposals totaling approximately GBP 660,000.

Beyond grantmaking, CAIF runs a PhD Fellowship program, an annual Cooperative AI Summer School (held in Marlow, England in July 2025 with 65+ participants), an ongoing seminar series, and workshops at major conferences including NeurIPS, IJCAI, AAAI, and AAMAS. In 2025, CAIF introduced an early-career track for postdoctoral researchers with grants up to GBP 100,000.

According to official charity filings for the year ending 31 December 2024, total income was GBP 2,368,177 (primarily donations and legacies) and total expenditure was GBP 1,731,887. The organization had 6 employees. Key leadership includes Research Director Lewis Hammond and Associate Director (Research and Grants) Cecilia Elena Tilli. The Board of Trustees includes Allan Dafoe (DeepMind), Thore Graepel (Google DeepMind), Audrey Tang (Taiwan's cyber ambassador and former digital minister), Gillian Hadfield (Johns Hopkins University), and Jesse Clifton (Macroscopic Ventures).