“Ought is a product-driven research lab that develops mechanisms for delegating high-quality reasoning to advanced machine learning systems.”In its own words: ought.org
San Francisco non-profit research lab that worked on process-based supervision of machine-learning reasoning; in September 2023 it spun off its Elicit research assistant as a public benefit corporation, and expects minimal operations for the next few years.
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Received $9.3M from 5 funders
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’19
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’21
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’23
Led by Owen Cotton-Barratt (Director & CEO), Owain Evans (Director)Checked 25 Oct 2026
Money flows
Where its money came from and where it went. Pick years and what to show; hover a box or ribbon for details, click one to focus it, click the background to see everything.
Funded by
All grants
10 grants totalling $9.3M, newest first.
2023 1 grant · $358k
| Date | Funder | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Future of Life Institute | $358k | General support for research on delegating high-quality reasoning to ML systems — 2023 Grants source |
2022 1 grant · $5M
| Date | Funder | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2022 | FTX Future Fund | $5M | Regrant (recommended by an FTX regrantor): Building Elicit; research on scaling human supervision via process-based systems source |
2021 1 grant · $542k
| Date | Funder | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Survival and Flourishing Fund | $542k | SFF-2021-H2: General support source |
2020 1 grant · $1.6M
| Date | Funder | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2020 | Navigating Transformative AI | $1.6M | The grant page says: "Ought conducts research on factored cognition, which we consider relevant to AI alignment and to reducing potential risks from advanced artificial intelligence.". From Vipul Naik's donations database (via OpenBook) source |
2019 4 grants · $1.3M
| Date | Funder | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2019 | Navigating Transformative AI | $1M | The grant page says: "Ought conducts research on factored condition, which we consider relevant to AI alignment.". From Vipul Naik's donations database (via OpenBook) source |
| Mar 2019 | Long-Term Future Fund | $50k | April 2019 payout report (paid 21 Mar 2019): Unrestricted donation source |
| 2019 | Survival and Flourishing Fund | $150k | SFF-2019-Q4: General support source |
| 2019 | Survival and Flourishing Fund | $100k | SFF-2019-Q4: General support; funded by SFF itself through the S-Process source |
2018 2 grants · $535k
| Date | Funder | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2018 | Long-Term Future Fund | $10k | November 2018 payout report (paid 30 Nov 2018): Nonprofit implementing AI alignment concepts in real-world applications source |
| May 2018 | Navigating Transformative AI | $525k | The grant page says at https://www.openphilanthropy.org/focus/global-catastrophic-risks/potential-risks-advanced-artificial-intelligence/ought-general-support#Proposed_activities "Ought will conduct research on deliberation and.... From Vipul Naik's donations database (via OpenBo source |