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    3. Ought

    Ought

    Ought is a research lab that develops mechanisms for delegating open-ended thinking to advanced machine learning systems, focusing on AI alignment and safety.

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    At a Glance

    1Tool Listed
    3Products
    27Tool Views
    4Capabilities
    Discussions
    San Francisco, CaliforniaHeadquarters
    2017Est.
    18Employees
    $20MRaised
    Focus Areas
    Research Assistants
    Content Analysis
    API Integration Platforms
    Connect
    Latest News
    Ought has spun off ElicitSep 25, 2023
    AI Safety Needs Great Product BuildersNov 2, 2022
    Markets
    • AI researchers
    • Academics
    • Effective Altruism community
    • Machine learning alignment scientists

    AI Tools by Ought

    (1)
    View Elicit
    Elicit tool icon

    Elicit

    AI Academic Research Assistant

    Research AssistantsContent AnalysisAPI Integrations

    Discussions

    No discussions yet

    Be the first to start a discussion about Ought

    Latest News

    09/25/2023

    Ought has spun off Elicit

    ought.org
    11/02/2022

    AI Safety Needs Great Product Builders

    ought.org
    10/06/2022

    A Library and Tutorial for Factored Cognition with Language Models

    ought.org
    04/25/2022

    How to use Elicit responsibly

    ought.org

    Products & Services

    3
    Elicit
    2021

    An AI research assistant that uses language models to help researchers find papers, extract data, and synthesize findings.

    Interactive Composition Explorer (ICE)
    2022

    An open-source library and visualizer for writing and inspecting programs that use language models to perform complex reasoning tasks via factored cognition.

    Factored Cognition Primer
    2022

    A research and educational resource explaining the decomposition of complex tasks into smaller, manageable sub-problems for AI supervision.

    Market Position

    Ought positions itself as a product-driven research lab, bridging the gap between theoretical AI safety and practical tool development.

    Leadership

    Founders

    AS

    Andreas Stuhlmüller

    PhD MIT in Computer Science (Probabilistic Programming). Postdoctoral researcher in Noah Goodman's Computational Cognitive Science lab at Stanford. Now CEO of Elicit.

    JB

    Jungwon Byun

    Graduate of Yale University. Previously Head of Growth at Upstart (fintech). Expert in product operations and strategy. Now COO of Elicit.

    Executive Team

    OE

    Owain Evans

    Director & CEO

    PhD from MIT in Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Leading an AI safety research group in Berkeley. Former research scientist at the Future of Humanity Institute (Oxford).

    Board of Directors

    OE
    Owain Evans
    Director & CEO
    LF
    Lukas Finnveden
    Director; Research Fellow at Open Philanthropy
    OC
    Owen Cotton-Barratt
    Director; Researcher focused on AI uncertainty; DPhil in Mathematics from Oxford

    Founding Story

    Ought was started to solve the problem of scaling human supervision of AI as systems become more capable. The initial vision was to use 'factored cognition' to break down complex reasoning into small, verifiable steps.

    Business Model

    Revenue
    Approximately $8.19M in FY 2025 revenue reported via 990 filings.

    Revenue Model

    Philanthropic grants and donations from organizations such as Open Philanthropy and the Survival and Flourishing Fund.

    Pricing Tiers

    Open Source / Free
    $0

    Research tools like ICE and Factored Cognition Primer are available for free.

    Nonprofit organization; no IPO planned.

    Target Markets

    Industries & Segments
    • AI researchers
    • Academics
    • Effective Altruism community
    • Machine learning alignment scientists
    Use Cases
    • AI alignment research
    • Systematic literature reviews
    • Automated reasoning for scientific research
    • High-quality deliberation
    Notable Customers
    • Individual researchers at universities
    • AI safety labs

    Quick Facts

    Headquarters
    San Francisco, California
    Founded
    2017
    Entity Type
    501
    Employees
    18
    Total Funding
    Over $20 million in cumulative grants and donations since 2017.
    Investors
    Open Philanthropy, Survival and Flourishing Fund
    Office Locations
    San Francisco
    Remote

    Funding History

    Philanthropic Grant$3,800,000
    2020-02-14
    Open Philanthropy
    Annual Revenue/Grants FY2023$5,063,386
    2023-02
    Open Philanthropy
    Survival and Flourishing Fund
    Annual Revenue/Grants FY2024$2,159,515
    2024-02

    History & Milestones

    2023-09-25

    Elicit is spun off as an independent Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) with $9M in funding. Owain Evans becomes CEO of Ought.

    2022-04-06

    Publication of 'Supervise Process, not Outcomes,' defining Ought's approach to AI alignment.

    2022-10-06

    Release of Interactive Composition Explorer (ICE) and the Factored Cognition Primer.

    2021

    Launch of Elicit, an AI research assistant designed to automate literature reviews and reasoning tasks.

    2020-02-14

    Ought raises $3.8 million in philanthropic donations from partners including Open Philanthropy.

    Key Capabilities

    4
    Factored cognition
    Process-based supervision
    Literature review automation (Elicit)
    Traceable AI reasoning

    Integrations & Partnerships

    Platform Integrations

    • Python (ICE library)
    • Web browser (Elicit)

    Key Partnerships

    University of Oxford (Future of Humanity Institute)
    Open Philanthropy
    Elicit (Spinoff)

    Connect

    Website
    ought.org
    GitHub
    oughtinc
    X / Twitter
    elicitorg

    AI Topics

    3

    Ought focuses on these topics:

    Research Assistants(1)
    Content Analysis(1)
    API Integration Platforms(1)
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