Organisation
Forethought
Macrostrategy research on preparing for advanced AI — power concentration, the intelligence explosion, and steering the transition rather than only avoiding catastrophe.
Forethought is a small UK research non-profit that studies how to prepare, now, for a world with very advanced AI — the strategic and governance questions that arise if AI begins to accelerate scientific and economic progress faster than institutions can adapt. Growing out of the earlier Forethought Foundation and relaunched as a research group in 2025, it works on problems it argues cannot simply be deferred to future AI systems: the risk of an AI-enabled concentration of power or "coup", a software-driven intelligence explosion, and how to steer toward good outcomes rather than merely avoid catastrophe. Its output is essays and reports rather than models, and its influence — like that of several macrostrategy shops in this space — rests on shaping how researchers and policymakers frame the transition. Its senior fellows include the philosopher William MacAskill, a prominent figure in effective altruism, and the researcher Tom Davidson, known for work modelling explosive AI-driven growth.
- Category
- Policy, governance & think tanks
- Founded
- 2025
- HQ
- London, UK
- Key people
- William MacAskill, Tom Davidson