Thore GraepelBoard of Trustees (Trustee)
Research institute · Research orgs · Courtenay House, Pynes Hill · Est. 2021
The Cooperative AI Foundation (CAIF) is a UK-registered charitable entity that funds and supports research aimed at improving the “cooperative intelligence” of advanced AI systems for the benefit of all. CAIF’s stated focus is on cooperative capabilities and “differential progress” — supporting work on cooperative intelligence while trying to deprioritize progress on dual-use capabilities that might be used for deception, manipulation, or coercion — especially in the context of multi-agent and human–AI interactions over the coming 10–20 years.
CAIF pursues its mission through grantmaking, fellowships/scholarships for early-career researchers, workshops at major ML conferences, an online seminar series, and other community-building activities such as competitions and educational curriculum.
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Designers of multi-agent systems need to know which infrastructure choices can support mutually beneficial outcomes between AI agents. Cooperative AI PhD Fellow Emanuel Tewolde introduces CoopEval, a framework for comparing cooperation mechanisms in practice, and outlines a broad
Africa's First Cooperative AI Fellowship Draws to a Successful CloseThis April, the Cooperative AI Research Fellowship concluded in Cape Town. Run by AI Safety South Africa and supported by the Cooperative AI Foundation, the 3-month programme brought together 10 fellows to research some of the most pressing questions in cooperative AI. Fellows we
Announcing the 2026 Cooperative AI PhD FellowsWe're delighted to welcome 14 exceptional early careerists who'll be joining our next Cooperative AI PhD Fellowship cohort.
‘Cooperative AI Summer School 2026’ Event RecapThe Cooperative AI Foundation held its annual Cooperative AI Summer School in August. Our Communications Officer shares a recap from the 2026 edition.
Delegating Deliberation to AI RepresentativesDuring the 2026 Cooperative AI Research Fellowship led by AI Safety South Africa, fellows Joseph Low and Oscar Duys built Habermolt: the first public platform for AI-delegated deliberation. Here's what they learnt.
New Memo: Establishing Foundational Principles and Thresholds for Multi-Agent AI GovernanceOur memo, based on our 2026 IASEAI Paris workshop with the Brookings Institution, explores foundational principles and practical steps for governing multi-agent AI.
CAIF Appoints First CEOWe are pleased to announce the appointment of Brigit Goebelbecker as Chief Executive Officer, starting October 2026.
Agent Properties for Safe InteractionsWhy another round of Prisoner’s Dilemma is unlikely to be helpful, and a suggestion for what to do instead.
Lessons from Recent Multi-Agent Safety IncidentsFrom OpenAI and Hugging Face to the GTG-1002 Claude espionage campaign, recent safety incidents have been notably multi-agent. In today’s blogpost, our Research Strategist Will Anderson shares what these incidents imply for multi-agent safety and what challenges we will face movi
‘Supercooperation: The Future of AI for Democracy’ Workshop TakeawaysCAIF co-hosted an ICML satellite workshop in Seoul on 5 July 2026 alongside Foresight Institute and with support from the Future of Life Institute. AI researchers, democracy practitioners, and developers building AI tools for deliberation gathered to explore how AI could strength
Grants Awarded by the Cooperative AI FoundationThe Cooperative AI Foundation has provided a number of grants to support research on cooperative AI for the benefit of all. Summaries of these grants can be found below, and new grant applications are encouraged.
Updates to the CAIF Grant Program in 2025In 2024, we set up a new grant program and completed four rounds of applications. We have learned a lot during this first year, and while we have been able to make some adjustments along the way, we have now made some more fundamental changes to improve the program going forward.
CAIF published a blog post introducing CoopEval, a framework for comparing cooperation mechanisms, and outlining a research agenda for when and why they work.
CAIF Appoints First CEOCAIF announced the appointment of Brigit Goebelbecker as its Chief Executive Officer, starting October 2026.
‘Cooperative AI Summer School 2026’ Event RecapCAIF recapped its Summer School 2026 held 3–7 August 2026, including the event size and program elements.
Lessons from Recent Multi-Agent Safety IncidentsCAIF published a blog post reflecting on recent multi-agent safety incidents and drawing lessons for multi-agent safety research.
$10m Funding Call Launched with Schmidt Sciences, Google DeepMind, and ARIACAIF announced a new up-to-$10m technical research fund for researchers worldwide, with application deadline 8 August AoE and awards expected in Autumn 2026.
Announcing the 2026 Cooperative AI PhD FellowsCAIF announced its 2026 Cooperative AI PhD Fellows cohort (14 fellows selected).