Do AI safety talent programmes work? Nobody has run the study that would tell us.

Published on September 7, 2026 9:12 AM GMTHeadline finding: I audited 17 AI Safety Talent programmes. Zero of 17 have published any comparison group, rejected-applicant follow-up, matched control or randomisation. Not one. Every programme that mentions a counterfactual does it by asking participants to self-report. BackgroundAt least $70 million[1] has gone into AI safety talent programmes so far, but we still can’t really say much about their impact. Notably, Kairos has just raised $50M on a se...