--- alias: - Rob Reich category: AI & Effective Altruism created: 2026-10-01 location: Stanford, California relations: - fn: 1 role: assistant professor from 1998; professor of political science from 2015; McGregor-Girand Professor of Social Ethics of Science and Technology from 2023 start: 1998 type: employed_by with: '[[Stanford University]]' - end: 2018 fn: 1 role: trustee, per his curriculum vitae start: 2013 type: director_of with: '[[GiveWell]]' - fn: 1 role: trustee start: 2019 type: director_of with: '[[Spencer Foundation]]' - fn: 1 role: co-founder and board member; founding board chair 2019 to 2024 start: 2012 type: director_of with: '[[GivingTuesday]]' - fn: 1 role: trustee start: 2012 type: director_of with: '[[Boston Review]]' - end: 2015 fn: 1 role: trustee; executive, audit and nominating committees start: 2008 type: director_of with: '[[Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching]]' - end: 2023 fn: 1 role: faculty director start: 2015 type: head_of with: '[[McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society]]' - end: 2025 fn: 1 role: faculty co-director start: 2008 type: head_of with: '[[Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society]]' - end: 2023 fn: 1 role: founding associate director; associate director again from 2026 start: 2018 type: employed_by with: '[[Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence]]' - end: 2025 fn: 1 role: senior advisor on public service leave from Stanford start: 2024 type: employed_by with: '[[U.S. AI Safety Institute]]' - fn: 9 reverse: true role: named senior advisor by the Commerce Secretary start: 2024-04-16 type: appointed with: '[[Gina Raimondo]]' - end: 2025 fn: 1 reverse: true role: Scholars in Service program funded his public service leave start: 2024 type: funded with: '[[Stanford Impact Labs]]' - fn: 1 role: non-resident fellow start: 2023 type: member_of with: '[[Carnegie Endowment for International Peace]]' summary: Stanford political scientist who sat on the GiveWell board from 2013, wrote in 2015 that effective altruists are technocrats, and was senior advisor to the U.S. AI Safety Institute in 2024 and 2025. tags: - Person - RobReich - Stanford - EffectiveAltruism - GiveWell - Philanthropy - AIGovernance - AISafetyInstitute - HumanCenteredAI - GivingTuesday updated: 2026-10-01 --- Rob Reich is a professor of political science at [Stanford University](/organizations/stanford-university/), holder since 2023 of the McGregor-Girand professorship of Social Ethics of Science and Technology, with courtesy appointments in philosophy, law and education and a senior fellowship at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. His curriculum vitae lists service as a trustee of [GiveWell](/organizations/givewell/) from 2013 to 2018 and as senior advisor to the [U.S. AI Safety Institute](/organizations/us-ai-safety-institute/) on public service leave in 2024 and 2025.[^1] ### Education and Early Career Reich holds a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University and, from the Stanford Graduate School of Education, a Ph.D. in education and an M.A. in philosophy. He taught sixth grade at Rusk Elementary School in [Houston](/places/houston/), Texas, from 1992 to 1994, was a senior research associate at the Aspen Institute from 1999 to 2005, and moderated Aspen Institute seminars from 2008 to 2018. At Stanford he was assistant professor of political science from 1998 to 2007, associate professor from 2008 to 2014, and professor from 2015. He was a visiting professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in 2009 and 2010 and held the Laurence S. Rockefeller visiting fellowship at the Center for Human Values at Princeton University in 2004 and 2005.[^1] ### Centers and Institutes at Stanford Reich was faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society from 2008 to 2025; the center publishes the [Stanford Social Innovation Review](/organizations/stanford-social-innovation-review/). He was faculty director of the Center for Ethics in Society from 2015 to 2023, now named the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, and founding associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence from 2018 to 2023. His curriculum vitae lists him as associate director of the institute again from 2026, as a faculty fellow of Knight-Hennessy Scholars from 2025 and as a member of the Stanford Advisory Board from 2025. He has been a non-resident fellow of the [Carnegie Endowment for International Peace](/organizations/carnegie-endowment-for-international-peace/) since 2023.[^1] The center's current biography page lists him as faculty advisor and former faculty codirector.[^2] [Alexander Berger](/people/alexander-berger/), a 2011 Stanford graduate who worked at GiveWell after graduating and then co-founded [Open Philanthropy](/organizations/open-philanthropy/), first met Reich as a freshman guest lecturer, took his courses over the next two years and completed the Honors Program in Ethics in Society with Reich, then the faculty director of the center, as his advisor, according to a 2021 article published by the center.[^3] The institute held its launch symposium in March 2019. Its 2019 to 2020 annual report gave Reich's title as "Marc and Laura Andreessen Faculty Co-Director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society" and faculty director of the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, and credited him with leading the creation of an embedded ethics initiative to insert ethics modules into core computer science courses and with leading the institute's April and June 2020 virtual conferences on COVID-19 and artificial intelligence.[^4] The report states that income for the 2020 fiscal year was $17,751,049: gifts of $14,920,001 (84 percent), endowment payouts of $831,048 (5 percent) and $2,000,000 in Amazon Web Services cloud credits counted as in-kind income (11 percent), against expenditures of $9,830,018. The Hoffman-Yee Research Grants, which awarded $500,000 to six teams in their first year, were made possible by a gift from [Reid Hoffman](/people/reid-hoffman/) and Michelle Yee. The volunteer Advisory Council was chaired by Hoffman, with Steve Denning and Srinija Srinivasan as vice chairs, and listed Jim Breyer, Kenneth Chenault, [Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar](/people/mariano-florentino-cuéllar/), John Hennessy, Mary Kay Henry, Mellody Hobson, Eric Horvitz, Bob King, Susan Liautaud, James Manyika, Marissa Mayer, Samuel J. Palmisano, Condoleezza Rice, Heidi Roizen, [Eric Schmidt](/people/eric-schmidt/), Mike Schroepfer, Stephen Schwarzman, Kevin Scott, Neil Shen, Ram Shriram, Vishal Sikka, Jerry Yang and Songyee Yoon. In June 2019 the institute's co-directors John Etchemendy and Fei-Fei Li met in Washington with the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the House AI Caucus, the Executive Office of the President, the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, [DARPA](/organizations/darpa/) and Senator Rob Portman, "whose participation would prove invaluable to garnering support for the National Research Cloud bill."[^4] His courses have included Computer Science 182, The Ethics of Technological Disruption, taught with Mehran Sahami and Jeremy Weinstein, and Computer Science 283, AI Governance, taught with Sanmi Koyejo, Anka Reuel and Nathaniel Persily.[^1] ### Philanthropy Boards Reich lists the following board service: trustee of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching from 2008 to 2015, including its executive, audit and nominating committees; trustee of GiveWell from 2013 to 2018; co-founder and board member of #GivingTuesday from 2012, and its founding board chair from 2019 to 2024; trustee of Boston Review from 2012; and trustee of the Spencer Foundation from 2019.[^1] The biography page of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society also lists him as a board member of Boston Review, Giving Tuesday and the Spencer Foundation.[^2] ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer data for The Clear Fund, the legal entity of GiveWell, show total revenue of $6,587,734 for 2013, $11,088,700 for 2014, $17,635,918 for 2015, $18,366,934 for 2016, $29,450,003 for 2017 and $36,024,182 for 2018. The same data show total assets of the Spencer Foundation of $667,415,167 at the end of 2024; revenue of Giving Tuesday Inc., recognized as exempt in 2020, of $3,527,479 for 2021 and $11,010,928 for 2023; and revenue of Boston Critic Inc., the publisher of Boston Review, of $986,327 for 2023.[^5] The MacArthur Foundation lists six grants to the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society totaling $975,000: $100,000 in 2013 (two years), $100,000 in 2016 (two years), $100,000 in 2018 (two years and four months), and $225,000 in each of 2020, 2023 and 2025 (three years each), described as general operating or flexible support.[^6] ### GiveWell and Effective Altruism GiveWell published notes of a conversation of January 9, 2014 between Reich, identified as "Associate Professor of Political Science, Stanford University; Board member, GiveWell," and [Elie Hassenfeld](/people/elie-hassenfeld/) on philanthropy and [United States](/places/united-states/) education. The notes record Reich describing large philanthropists' strategies for achieving scale and leveraging public spending, among them charter schools, "diminishing the influence of teachers unions" and Teach For America, and stating that he could think of no significant current philanthropic effort to improve career counseling or career-focused curricula.[^7] In July 2015 the *Boston Review* published a forum, "The Logic of [Effective Altruism](/concepts/effective-altruism/)," and Reich contributed a response to [Peter Singer](/people/peter-singer/) titled "Does Effective Altruism Have a Politics?" He wrote that effective altruism must have a politics if it aspires to be a social movement and if it endorses causes that aim at political or institutional change, adding "(Disclosure: I am a member of the GiveWell board.)" and, as an example of the second, "See, for example, the Open Philanthropy Project." He continued: "In my experience, effective altruists are unabashed technocrats." He wrote that effective altruists "see the best state of affairs, I think, as that in which good-maximizing technocrats are in charge," that this politics "is suspicious of, or rejects, the form of politics to which most people attach enormous value: democracy," and, asked whether effective altruists would choose democratic rather than technocratic rule from scratch, "I suspect the answer is no."[^8] ### Books and Writing According to his curriculum vitae, Reich's books are *Bridging Liberalism and Multiculturalism in Education* (University of Chicago Press, 2002); *Democracy at Risk* (Brookings Institution Press, 2005), the final report of the Standing Committee on Civic Education and Engagement of the American Political Science Association, on which he served from 2002 to 2005; *Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better* (Princeton University Press, 2018); and *System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot* (HarperCollins, 2021), written with Sahami and Weinstein. He co-edited *Education, Justice, and Democracy* (University of Chicago Press, 2013; PROSE Award for the best book in education), *Philanthropy in Democratic Societies* (University of Chicago Press, 2016, with Chiara Cordelli and Lucy Bernholz) and *Digital Technology and Democratic Theory* (University of Chicago Press, 2021, with Hélène Landemore and Bernholz). He is a co-author of the 2021 paper "On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models" (arXiv:2108.07258), with Rishi Bommasani, Percy Liang and others.[^1] His curriculum vitae also lists four 2013 white papers on philanthropy, technology and policy written with Bernholz and Cordelli, the March and April 2013 *Boston Review* cover article "What are Foundations For?", the 2013 *[New York Times](/organizations/new-york-times/)* opinion piece "Not Very Giving," and a 2013 essay with Ray D. Madoff, "Now or Forever: Rethinking Foundation Life Spans," in the *Chronicle of Philanthropy*.[^1] ### U.S. AI Safety Institute On April 16, 2024, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo announced that Reich would be senior advisor to the U.S. AI Safety Institute, which is housed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in a group of additions to the leadership team that included [Paul Christiano](/people/paul-christiano/) as head of AI safety, Adam Russell as chief vision officer, Mara Campbell as acting chief operating officer and chief of staff, and Mark Latonero as head of international engagement. They joined the director, Elizabeth Kelly, and the chief technology officer, Elham Tabassi. Raimondo said: "we need the top talent our nation has to offer."[^9] Stanford Impact Labs wrote that Reich's leave in service was made possible in part by the Scholars in Service program, run jointly by Stanford Impact Labs and the Haas Center for Public Service, and his curriculum vitae describes the 2024 to 2025 service as a full-time public service leave from Stanford funded by that program. In an interview published by Stanford Impact Labs on April 30, 2024, he described his role as to "advise the AISI and lead engagement with civil society organizations," said that the institute "is not a regulatory body," and said that "This may be the first time in U.S. history that a frontier technology or scientific discovery has been funded, designed, and developed entirely outside the purview of government." He continued that "These AI models are funded by venture capital and created by industry actors." He said the institute already had a consortium of "more than 200 companies, universities, and civil society organizations," that his own task would be coordinating the input of civil society organizations, and, of the appointment, "I've always wanted the opportunity to play a role in the federal government and this will be my first chance to do so."[^1][^10] [^1]: Rob Reich, curriculum vitae, Department of Political Science, Stanford University (last revised May 2026), sections Academic Positions, Program and Center Leadership, Other Leadership, Education, Publications, Teaching, Board Service and Other. https://robreich.people.stanford.edu/files/reich-cv.pdf [^2]: Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, "Rob Reich" (biography page, "Faculty Advisor & Former Faculty Codirector"). https://pacscenter.stanford.edu/people/rob-reich [^3]: Diana Aguilera, "Accomplishing as Much Good as Possible: Honors Alum Alexander Berger Paves the Way for More Effective Giving," McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society, Stanford University, Nov. 12, 2021. https://ethicsinsociety.stanford.edu/news/accomplishing-much-good-possible-honors-alum-alexander-berger-paves-way-more-effective-giving [^4]: Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, 2019-2020 Annual Report (Stanford HAI, Cordura Hall), sections Faculty (Rob Reich), Policy (Visit to Washington, D.C.), Hoffman-Yee Research Program, Advisory Council, Philanthropic Support and Financials. https://hai-production.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2021-02/hai-2020-annual-report_1.pdf [^5]: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer API, organization records for The Clear Fund (EIN 20-8625442), Spencer Foundation (EIN 36-6078558), Giving Tuesday Inc (EIN 84-2929872) and Boston Critic Inc (EIN 04-2619695), fields totrevenue and totassetsend by tax year, retrieved Oct. 1, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/api/v2/organizations/208625442.json [^6]: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, grantee page for the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (6 grants, $975,000, 2013 to 2025). https://www.macfound.org/grantee/stanford-center-on-philanthropy-and-civil-society-45770/ [^7]: GiveWell, notes of a conversation with Rob Reich on January 9, 2014 (participants Rob Reich and Elie Hassenfeld), published by Open Philanthropy (now Coefficient Giving). https://coefficientgiving.org/wp-content/uploads/Reich-1-9-14-public-.pdf [^8]: Rob Reich, "Response to Effective Altruism," forum "The Logic of Effective Altruism," Boston Review, July 2015 (published under the title "Does Effective Altruism Have a Politics?" in Reich's CV). https://www.bostonreview.net/forum_response/response-rob-reich/ [^9]: National Institute of Standards and Technology, "U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Announces Expansion of U.S. AI Safety Institute Leadership Team," Apr. 16, 2024. https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2024/04/us-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-announces-expansion-us-ai-safety [^10]: Kate Green Tripp, "Stanford's Rob Reich to Serve as Senior Advisor to the U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI)" (interview with Rob Reich), Stanford Impact Labs, Apr. 30, 2024. https://impact.stanford.edu/article/stanfords-rob-reich-serve-senior-advisor-us-ai-safety-institute-aisi