William L. Anderson

Hi, I’m Will! I work on making AI go well, because it seems like the best way to secure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I’m especially interested in the wicked, underrated problems in multi-agent safety and national security. I’m starting soon as a Research Lead at the Cooperative AI Foundation, where I'll try to be a general manager for multi-agent risks. Before this, I was a MATS Fellow with the Oxford Witt Lab and a Research Fellow at UChicago XLab. During my undergrad at UW–Madison, I was Director of the Wisconsin AI Safety Initiative and a Research Fellow with Prof. Yiqiao Zhong. I have strong beliefs, weakly held, and update based on feedback.

I like wearing many hats, connecting people/communities (professionally and otherwise), giving technical feedback on policy work, and being a rubber duck. If I can help (or be helped), please reach out!

I grew up in Chanhassen, Minnesota, went to university in Madison, Wisconsin, and worked in Chicago, Illinois, Berkeley, California, and now London, England. I’m a fan of memorizing sonnets, collecting, swimming, {Anki, Beli, Curius}, good vegetarian food, being with friends, hiking, deeply inspecting leaves, PRs (lifting and code), getting too excited, doubling, and trying to do good. Life is incredible. I’m glad I exist.