Information for Ought

Table of contents

Basic information

Item Value
Country United States
Twitter username @oughtinc
Website https://ought.org/
Team page https://ought.org/team
Launch date 2019-01-01
Last recorded date when we made major data updates for this org 2023-11-02
Donations List Website (data still preliminary) donee
Agendas Factored cognition

Positions count by year

Hover over a name to see the position and date range. This table only includes positions where at least the start date is known. The positions count can count the same person multiple times if they held different positions; similarly, the list of staff may include the same person multiple times if they held more than one position during a single year. For each year, a person is included if they were at the organization for any part of the year; this means the actual staff count at any point during the year can be lower (or higher, if some staff held multiple positions in a single year).

Year Positions count Researchers General staff Associates Board members Advisors
2017 2 Andreas Stuhlmüller, Ryan Carey
2018 18 Andreas Stuhlmüller, Andrew Schreiber, Ben Goldhaber, Ben Rachbach, Ben Weinstein-Raun, Ben West, Chris Cundy, Girish Sastry, Milan Griffes, Neal Jean, Ozzie Gooen, Ryan Carey, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller Owain Evans, Paul Christiano Noah Goodman
2019 11 Andreas Stuhlmüller, Aparna Ashok, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, Jungwon Byun, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller Owain Evans, Paul Christiano Noah Goodman
2020 11 Eli Lifland Amanda Ngo, Andreas Stuhlmüller, Aparna Ashok, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, Jungwon Byun, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller Noah Goodman
2021 15 Eli Lifland, Justin Reppert Amanda Ngo, Andreas Stuhlmüller, Aparna Ashok, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, Ian McKenzie, Jungwon Byun, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller Noah Goodman, Owain Evans, Paul Christiano
2022 15 Justin Reppert Amanda Ngo, Andreas Stuhlmüller, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, Charlie George, James Brady, Jungwon Byun, Luke Stebbing, Maggie Appleton, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton Noah Goodman, Owain Evans, Paul Christiano
2023 17 Justin Reppert Adrian Smith, Amanda Ngo, Andreas Stuhlmüller, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, Charlie George, James Brady, Jungwon Byun, Luke Stebbing, Maggie Appleton, Owain Evans, Sarah Park, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton Owain Evans, Paul Christiano
2024 5 Ben West, Jungwon Byun, Owain Evans, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton

Number of full-time staff at the beginning each year

The following table lists some dates and people who were at the organization on the given date (namely, the start of the year). The table may not list every person who worked for the organization (e.g. they could have joined and left in the middle of a single year). This table excludes associates, interns, advisors, and board members.

Date Staff count Staff
2018-01-01 6 Andreas Stuhlmüller, Ben West, Ryan Carey, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller
2019-01-01 7 Andreas Stuhlmüller, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, Jungwon Byun, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller
2020-01-01 8 Andreas Stuhlmüller, Aparna Ashok, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, Jungwon Byun, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller
2021-01-01 10 Amanda Ngo, Andreas Stuhlmüller, Aparna Ashok, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, Eli Lifland, Jungwon Byun, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller
2022-01-01 9 Amanda Ngo, Andreas Stuhlmüller, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, James Brady, Jungwon Byun, Justin Reppert, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton
2023-01-01 11 Amanda Ngo, Andreas Stuhlmüller, Ben Rachbach, Ben West, James Brady, Jungwon Byun, Justin Reppert, Luke Stebbing, Maggie Appleton, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton
2024-01-01 5 Ben West, Jungwon Byun, Owain Evans, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton

Full history of additions and subtractions

This table shows the full change history of positions. Each row corresponds to at least one addition or removal of a position. Additions are in green and subtractions are in red. If a position name changed, it is listed simultaneously as an addition (of the new name) and removal (of the old name) and colored yellow. Additionally there are faded variants of each color for visited links.

Date Number of positions Number of positions added Number of positions removed Positions added Positions removed
2017-09-01 1 1 0 Andreas Stuhlmüller
2017-11-01 2 1 0 Ryan Carey
2018-01-01 7 5 0 Ben West, Noah Goodman, Tom McGrath, Zac Kenton, Zachary Miller
2018-04-01 8 1 0 Ben Rachbach
2018-07-01 7 0 -1 Ryan Carey
2018-10-17 9 10 -8 Andrew Schreiber, Ben Goldhaber, Ben Weinstein-Raun, Chris Cundy, Girish Sastry, Milan Griffes, Neal Jean, Owain Evans, Ozzie Gooen, Paul Christiano Andrew Schreiber, Ben Goldhaber, Ben Weinstein-Raun, Chris Cundy, Girish Sastry, Milan Griffes, Neal Jean, Ozzie Gooen
2019-01-01 10 1 0 Jungwon Byun
2019-02-02 8 0 -2 Owain Evans, Paul Christiano
2019-08-01 9 1 0 Aparna Ashok
2020-06-01 10 1 0 Amanda Ngo
2020-08-01 11 1 0 Eli Lifland
2021-05-14 13 2 0 Owain Evans, Paul Christiano
2021-06-01 14 1 0 Justin Reppert
2021-06-24 13 0 -1 Zachary Miller
2021-09-01 12 0 -1 Aparna Ashok
2021-10-01 13 1 0 Ian McKenzie
2022-01-01 12 1 -2 James Brady Eli Lifland, Ian McKenzie
2022-01-17 11 0 -1 Noah Goodman
2022-07-01 14 3 0 Charlie George, Luke Stebbing, Maggie Appleton
2023-04-01 13 0 -1 Amanda Ngo
2023-05-01 15 2 0 Adrian Smith, Sarah Park
2023-07-01 14 0 -1 Luke Stebbing
2023-08-01 12 0 -2 Andreas Stuhlmüller, James Brady
2023-09-01 4 0 -8 Adrian Smith, Ben Rachbach, Charlie George, Justin Reppert, Maggie Appleton, Owain Evans, Paul Christiano, Sarah Park
2023-10-18 5 1 0 Owain Evans

List of people (33 positions)

Person Title Start date End date Employment type Source Notes
Adrian Smith Software Engineer 2023-05-01 2023-09-01 [1], [2]
Amanda Ngo Business Operations Analyst 2020-06-01 2023-04-01 full-time [3], [4]
Andreas Stuhlmüller Chied Executive Officer 2017-09-01 2023-08-01 board member [5]
Andrew Schreiber Collaborator 2018-10-17 2018-10-17 [6], [7]
Aparna Ashok Independent Contractor 2019-08-01 2021-09-01 contractor [8]
Ben Goldhaber Collaborator 2018-10-17 2018-10-17 [6], [7]
Ben Rachbach Quality Iteration Program Manager 2018-04-01 2023-09-01 [3], [9]
Ben Weinstein-Raun Collaborator 2018-10-17 2018-10-17 [6], [7]
Ben West Collaborator 2018-01-01 [6], [7]
Charlie George Machine Learning Intern 2022-07-01 2023-09-01 intern [10], [11]
Chris Cundy Collaborator 2018-10-17 2018-10-17 [6], [7]
Eli Lifland Software and Research Engineer 2020-08-01 2022-01-01 full-time [3], [12]
Girish Sastry Collaborator 2018-10-17 2018-10-17 [6], [7]
Ian McKenzie Software Engineering Intern 2021-10-01 2022-01-01 intern [13]
James Brady Head Of Engineering 2022-01-01 2023-08-01 full-time [14], [11], [15]
Jungwon Byun Cofounder & COO 2019-01-01 [3], [16]
Justin Reppert Machine Learning Research Engineer 2021-06-01 2023-09-01 full-time [13]
Luke Stebbing Software Engineer 2022-07-01 2023-07-01 full-time [13], [17]
Maggie Appleton Product Designer 2022-07-01 2023-09-01 full-time [18]
Milan Griffes Collaborator 2018-10-17 2018-10-17 [6], [7]
Neal Jean Collaborator 2018-10-17 2018-10-17 [6], [7]
Noah Goodman Advisor 2018-01-01 2022-01-17 advisor [6], [7], [19]
Owain Evans Board member and collaborator 2018-10-17 2019-02-02 board member [7], [20]
Owain Evans Advisor 2021-05-14 2023-09-01 advisor [3], [21]
Owain Evans Director & CEO 2023-10-18 board member [11]
Ozzie Gooen Collaborator 2018-10-17 2018-10-17 [6], [7]
Paul Christiano Board member & collaborator 2018-10-17 2019-02-02 board member [22], [20]
Paul Christiano Advisor 2021-05-14 2023-09-01 advisor [21]
Ryan Carey Collaborator 2017-11-01 2018-07-01 [23], [6], [7] He served as a Research Intern at the University of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. During this time, he took on the role of Lead Engineer for the Predicting Human Deliberative Judgments project, conducted in collaboration with Ought
Sarah Park Head of Operations 2023-05-01 2023-09-01 full-time [24]
Tom McGrath Collaborator 2018-01-01 [6], [7]
Zac Kenton Collaborator 2018-01-01 [6], [7]
Zachary Miller Collaborator 2018-01-01 2021-06-24 [6], [25]

Products (0 products)

Name Creation date Description

Organization documents (3 documents)

Title Publication date Author Publisher Affected organizations Affected people Document scope Cause area Notes
Comment on After one year of applying for EA jobs: It is really, really hard to get hired by an EA organisation 2019-02-27 Aaron Gertler Effective Altruism Forum Centre for Effective Altruism, Open Philanthropy, Machine Intelligence Research Institute, Ought, Vox, AI Impacts, Center for Human-Compatible AI, Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative Job application experience Various Gertler describes his experience applying to various effective altruism-related organizations.
After one year of applying for EA jobs: It is really, really hard to get hired by an EA organisation 2019-02-25 EA applicant Effective Altruism Forum Open Philanthropy, Centre for Effective Altruism, Future of Humanity Institute, Effective Giving UK, Rethink Charity, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Nuclear Threat Initiative, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Global Priorities Institute, Ought, Veddis, Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative A pseudonymous effective altruist gives their experience applying to various effective altruist (and related) organizations.
MIRI’s newest recruit: Edward Kmett! 2018-12-01 yiavin Reddit Machine Intelligence Research Institute, Ought Edward Kmett, Nate Soares AI safety A post on r/haskell about Edward Kmett joining MIRI, with comments from Kmett. In comments, Kmett says that “Nate Soares came out to Boston personally, and made a very compelling argument for me going off and doing the work I’d been trying to complete solely in my evening hours full time”. Kmett also says he has “helped ought.org find at least one developer”.

Documents (0 documents)

Title Publication date Author Publisher Affected organizations Affected people Affected agendas Notes

Similar organizations

Organization Number of people in common List of people in common
Elicit 9 Adrian Smith, Andreas Stuhlmüller, Ben Rachbach, Charlie George, James Brady, Jungwon Byun, Justin Reppert, Luke Stebbing, Sarah Park
Future of Humanity Institute 6 Girish Sastry, Neal Jean, Owain Evans, Paul Christiano, Ryan Carey, Tom McGrath
Machine Intelligence Research Institute 3 Ben Weinstein-Raun, Paul Christiano, Ryan Carey
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Redwood Research 2 Ben Weinstein-Raun, Paul Christiano
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Center for Applied Rationality 1 Ben Goldhaber
New Incentives 1 Ben Rachbach
Fund for Alignment Research 1 Ian McKenzie
University of Oxford 1 Owain Evans
Convergence Analysis 1 Ozzie Gooen
Rethink Charity 1 Ozzie Gooen
Rethink Priorities 1 Ozzie Gooen
University of California, Berkeley 1 Paul Christiano
80,000 Hours 1 Paul Christiano
AI Impacts 1 Paul Christiano
Alignment Research Center 1 Paul Christiano
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Centre for the Study of Existential Risk 1 Ryan Carey
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