About us

Before starting Palisade, Jeffrey helped build out the information security program at Anthropic. Jeffrey’s research has included analyzing risks at the intersection of cybersecurity and AI, and he has helped advise the White House, Department of Defense, and congressional offices on risks from AI and emerging technologies. When not busy applying the security mindset to everything, Jeffrey loves to roller blade, ski and snowboard, and explore places rarely disturbed by a human presence.

Ben is a researcher and software engineer focused on AI and related fields. In addition to his work with Palisade, he is acting director of AI Impacts, and has been a member of the technical staff at SecureDNA, Redwood Research, MIRI, and Cruise Automation. He holds several patents related to autonomous vehicles, and has contributed to research in AI safety, information security, and forecasting.

Dave leads Palisade’s policy efforts. He previously worked with a UK-based AI policy nonprofit to develop their policy recommendations and proposals. Prior to pivoting into AI policy, he worked as a management consultant at McKinsey and Booz Allen for public sector agencies in the defense, regulatory, and national security worlds, and in corporate strategy at Activision Blizzard. When not thinking about AI policy, he spends his time learning how to cook overly-complicated recipes and going blues and swing dancing. He is based in Washington, DC.

Eli has been professionally focused on risks from advanced AI since 2015, including working for the Center for Applied Rationality as a curriculum developer and instructor, and doing contract work for Lightcone Infrastructure, the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative. In addition to his work at Palisade, Eli supports grantmaking at Jaan Tallinn’s Survival and Flourishing Fund.

John used to be a programmer, is good at Chess, and is Chief of Staff at Palisade.

Jeremy is a software engineer who has previously worked for the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, Google, and OpenAI, as well as other Silicon Valley tech companies. Some of the public projects he has contributed to include OpenAI’s Dota 2 bot and a debugger for the Go programming language. Jeremy holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis.

Gavan builds tools that help teams working on important problems move faster. His past work includes co-founding AltspaceVR (acquired by Microsoft), building pipelines for 3D-printing human tissues, and developing defenses against automated social engineering attacks. He was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for his work in VR. He’s been enthusiastically spreading the word on existential risk for a decade, including hosting the ReRoute podcast. Outside of work, you may find him riding an electric unicycle or projecting art onto buildings.

Mel has spent the last 8 years of her career supporting various tech and nonprofit organizations across marketing and operations. Most recently she led operations at the Responsible AI Institute, and before that she was VP of Marketing at an AI consultancy. She currently works part-time as Operations Manager at Palisade while pursuing her MS in Foresight at the University of Houston.

Kyle is the Operations Manager at Model Evaluation and Threat Research, which works to evaluate capabilities and develop alignment techniques for cutting-edge machine learning models. He has over a decade of experience in non profit administration and spends his spare time crawling around on the floor with the newest member of his family.