Thanks.
Jacob Tsimerman gave Iliad a shoutout on https://mathforaisafety.org/organizations. Maybe another useful resource / webpage.
Aron Mill
Karma: 17
a) Thank you for creating this overview. I see a lot of mathematicians who were previously not following the AI (safety) space suddenly being very interested due to recent events. Hope they stumble across this post in their search.
b) Can you please include our Iliad programs to the list as they are a perfect fit? We are primarily looking for mathematicians.
The Iliad Intensive: A four-week, full-time taught course on foundational alignment research for researchers with backgrounds in math, theoretical physics, computer science, or related disciplines.The Iliad Fellowship: A 3-month mentored research fellowship in applied mathematics for AI alignment.
Both programs are in person and cohorts run multiple times a year both in the UK (London, LISA) and in the US (Berkeley, Lighthaven).
We notify people about their application outcome within 2 weeks of the deadline (for deadline see our website). The November Intensive deadline is the 28 September.
There was a bug with out email confirmation triggering. This should now be fixed. If you have any questions about your application please email admissions@iliad.ac
In the past we have created Letters of Invitation that can help with border controls. But these are not guarantees.
Unfortunately, we can not offer visas or legal advice at this point.
We inform people about their Intensive application within 2 weeks after the deadline.
A decision on one Intensive does not determine the decision for future Iliad programs (other Intensives) if you applied to multiple.
Re Alumni:
For our first Fellowship/Residency cohort (January), we can track that two-thirds are now in alignment research roles. People doing the Intensive often go on to continuing roles within AI safety as well. Destinations include Iliad’s own internal research teams, XOR Labs, Stormglass, Principia, ACS, the Alignment Journal, CHAI, Simplex, Resolution, and other fellowships like PIBBSS, Astra etc.
Public examples: Dan MacKinlay co-founding the Alignment Journal and Augustin Lafay joining Simplex.
We have internally followed up with our alumni on what they have been up to since attending our programs. I need to check how much of that I can share. Probably best that we create a public report on that anyhow so we will do that.
I think the Iliad programs are important for this post that is aimed at mathematicians (directly in the title) because the Iliad programs are the only ones that address mathematicians as mathematicians. Whereas other programs you are recommending, such as BlueDot, are aimed at gov/policy people. Also important work but less of a fit in my opinion.
Re “weeks to months”:
Iliad is a good deal older than that. Providing some context:
Iliad the organisation grew out of ILIAD the conference. ILIAD is the biggest annual conference for mathematical and theoretical alignment, running since 2024: ILIAD III ran this August, drawing some two hundred researchers in theoretical and mathematical alignment including Geoffrey Irving, Eliezer Yudkowsky, and Jacob Tsimerman. The Proceedings of ILIAD came out in 2025, and that grew into the Alignment Journal, a peer-reviewed venue for foundational alignment research that launched this summer.
Since April we ran The Iliad Intensive: cohorts in April (London), June (London) and August (Berkeley, 38 participants), a fourth running in London right now, and October (SF) and November (London). The full course materials are public: singular learning theory, computational mechanics, agent foundations, training dynamics, learning theory, interpretability, RL theory, debate. About 20 people contributed to them.
Our 3rd Iliad Fellowship (& Residency) just started with 3 more to launch this year. A standard AI safety fellowship of three months of mentored research.
Iliad is also responsible for the Incubation of several AI safety organisations (AIXI Labs, Principia, Stormglass, XOR Labs, the Alignment Journal).
Iliad’s founder was also involved in co-founding or launching Timaeus (now Resolution) and Simplex.