Dr Shahar Avin is a postdoctoral research associate at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER). His research examines challenges and opportunities in the implementation of risk mitigation strategies, particularly in areas involving high uncertainty and heterogeneous or conflicting interests and incentives. Mixing anthropological methods and agent-based modeling, Shahar works with other CSER researchers and others in the X-risk community to identify and design opportunities for impact. Recently he has been studying how developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning affect security risks, environmental risks and systemic risks.

Shahar has also worked as a software engineer, both in a large corporation and at early stage startups in Israel and in Cambridge. He’s a games and sci-fi geek, and a philosophy and science nerd.