William L. Anderson
Hi, I'm Will! I'm an AGI security researcher interested in multiagent security, national security, and generally making things go well. I'm a MATS Fellow with the Oxford Witt Lab, and was previously a Research Fellow at UChicago XLab and the Yiqiao Zhong Lab. During my undergrad at UW–Madison, I was the Director of the Wisconsin AI Safety Initiative. I have strong beliefs, weakly held, and update based on feedback.
Research
My technical work focuses on multiagent security and RL post-training. My policy interests include national security, compute governance, and international competition.
- I'm a MATS Fellow in the Multiagent Security stream with Dr. Christian Schroeder de Witt. I'm loving the Bay so far!
- I was a 2025 Summer Research Fellow at UChicago's Existential Risk Lab, where I worked on security in multi-agent systems, advised by Lewis Hammond.
- I've got a piece in the works on superintelligence deterrence (working with Morgan C. Plummer). Some friends and I wrote about managing US-ROK relations amidst expanding export controls.
- I spent a bit over a year working with Prof. Yiqiao Zhong to understand LLM reasoning and RL post-training. I'm now helping advise a team of undergrads to continue this line of work.
- I did research with Rheeya Uppaal (PhD Candidate) in Prof. Junjie Hu's lab on the emergence of generalization and compute-efficient fine-tuning.
- In summer 2024, I completed the Alignment Research Engineer Accelerator (ARENA) curriculum. I highly recommend others check it out, I've found no better way to quickly upskill in ML Safety.
- I've been told that I'm an excellent rubber duck.
Leadership & Involvement
During my undergrad, I was the Director of the Wisconsin AI Safety Initiative, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of technical and policy researchers dedicated to guiding the development of advanced AI towards a future that benefits everyone.
- We have 130+ members, including 80+ in our advanced reading groups across (at least) 12 different ML labs on campus. We also run rigorous technical and policy introductory programs for about 50 students each semester.
- We've hosted speaker events with staff from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, METR, CNAS, and more, as well as many professors. Last fall, we hosted an interdisciplinary panel on AI, featuring faculty from Education, Computer Sciences, and Philosophy. This spring, we're hosting the AI Meets Society Symposium, a 320 person conference bringing together AI researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders.
- I mentor AI Safety student organizers through Kairos's Pathfinder program.
Talks
- Multi-Agent Security Risks, International Conference on Information Systems, 2025
- Panelist, Wisconsin Technology Council Panel on AI Safety, 2025
- Diffuse Attacks on Multi-Agent AI Systems, UChicago XLab Research Seminar, 2025
- A Case for Responsible AI, IT Professionals Conference, 2025
- Sparse Models for Interpretability, Yiqiao Zhong Summer Reading Group, 2025
- Security Risks in Multi-Agent AI Systems, Advanced AI Congressional Exposition, 2025
Awards & Fellowships
- 2025 Summer Research Fellowship from UChicago XLab.
- 2025-2026 Sophomore Research Fellowship from UW-Madison.
- 2025 OpenPhil Action Fund University Organizer Fellowship.
Education
I graduated with a B.S. in Data Science and Computer Sciences from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in December 2025.
- GPA: 4.0
- I got the top score (110.45%) in Spring 2025 for CS 577: Introduction to Algorithms, one of the harder undergrad courses at UW.
- Relevant Coursework: Matrix Methods in Machine Learning, Big Data Systems, Algorithms, Machine Organization, Theory of Probability, Linear Algebra, Discrete Mathematics, Data Science Modeling I and II, Data Science Programming II, Programming II and III, Intro to Computer Engineering, Data Ethics and Policy, Public Policy Issues
Mentorship Acknowledgements
I've been lucky to have many incredible mentors throughout my life. A non-exhaustive list of thanks:
- Professor Yiqiao Zhong, Lewis Hammond, Dr. Christian Schroeder de Witt, and Morgan Plummer, for all of their mentorship and kindness.
- Ben Hayum, Jeremy Kintana, and everyone else at WAISI for their wisdom, guidance, and friendship.
- John Bradley, Dan Bielski, Sean Kern, Zachary Ludvigson, and the many other wonderful coaches and teachers I've had.
- My parents and grandparents, who taught me a love of learning and the value of truth.
Personal
I'm a proud Minnesotan, and love the lakes, outdoors, cold, and snow. I was a competitive swimmer, captained my high school team, and worked during summers as a lifeguard. I still love to swim, especially outdoors. I've been vegetarian for about 6 years. Some other things I like:
- Anki, Beli, Curius.
- Tolkien, Star Wars, GoT, Eragon, The Witcher, Monty Python, Tom Lehrer, Shakespeare, Henrik Karlsson (Looking for Alice), Scott Alexander, Ben Kuhn, and many others.
- History of (China, Egypt, English, Rome, Byzantium, England) Podcasts, Dwarkesh Patel, and the 80k Hours Podcast. I spent a lot of hours listening to podcasts on the beach.
- Civilization V, Subnautica, Portal, Horizon: Zero Dawn/Forbidden West, etc.
- Minnesota sports teams. Maybe this year we'll finally win something...