AI Pioneer Yoshua Bengio Launches $30M Nonprofit LawZero for Safer AI Systems

Yoshua Bengio, a leading AI scientist often called one of the 'godfathers' of artificial intelligence, has launched a nonprofit organization named LawZero focused on developing safer and more trustworthy AI systems. LawZero aims to prioritize AI safety over commercial interests by creating non-agentic AI that acts as an 'honest' scientist, designed to understand the world rather than independently acting in it, thereby reducing risks such as deception, self-preservation, and goal misalignment common in current AI agents. The nonprofit has received initial funding of $30 million from notable backers including the Future of Life Institute, Jaan Tallinn, and philanthropic organizations affiliated with Eric Schmidt. A central project of LawZero is Scientist AI, a system intended to serve as a guardrail by predicting and preventing harmful behavior from autonomous AI agents, flagging actions that could cause harm and blocking them if necessary. Bengio's initiative responds to growing concerns about AI systems developing dangerous capabilities and the difficulty of controlling advanced AI, emphasizing transparency, honesty, and safety in AI development. The organization is assembling a world-class research team to ensure these goals are met while insulating the work from market and government pressures.