PeopleofSuperintelligence

Public voice

Dylan Matthews

Dylan Matthews is a journalist and grantmaker whose work traces effective altruism’s debate about artificial intelligence. At 14, he started a politics blog; he graduated from Hanover High School in 2008 and studied social and political philosophy at Harvard. He moved from The Washington Post’s Wonkblog to Vox in 2014, where he led Future Perfect and reported on the movement’s debate about AI risk. He is an associate program officer for Abundance & Growth at Coefficient Giving, which he joined in December 2025. In 2026, he built an AI tool for grant calculations, reconsidered his view of AI risk, and wrote about AI companies’ corporate governance.

Links
Website

Timeline

  1. 2004

    A politics blog at 14

    At 14, he starts his first blog in February 2004 as an outlet for political writing beyond his middle-school friends.

  2. 2008

    Hanover High School and Harvard

    In 2008, he graduates from Hanover High School in New Hampshire. He studies social and political philosophy at Harvard University and writes for The Harvard Crimson.

  3. 2014

    From Wonkblog to Vox

    In January 2014, he leaves The Washington Post with Ezra Klein and Melissa Bell to join Klein’s new news venture; Vox.com launches in April 2014.

  4. 2015

    Reporting on AI risk

    At Effective Altruism Global in 2015, he is struck by the event’s focus on AI risk and worries the movement is prioritizing it over work on global poverty. He writes those concerns in a Vox article.

  5. October 2018

    Leading Future Perfect

    In October 2018, Vox launches Future Perfect, a section led by him that examines major world problems through an effective altruist lens.

  6. Since December 2025

    Associate program officer at Coefficient Giving

    In December 2025, he joins Coefficient Giving as an associate program officer for Abundance & Growth, working on grants across the fund’s topics. In April 2026, he writes that he underestimated AI risk; in May 2026, he builds an AI web app that generates back-of-the-envelope calculations for grant ideas. In July 2026, he writes that AI companies use corporate governance to help the political, social, and economic transitions they foresee go well.

  1. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.
  2. The United States employs an estimated 53% of people in our data with a known employment countryOur estimates of where AI careers are concentrated now and how countries’ shares of dated positions changed over time.
  3. 46% of living people in our data with known birth and employment countries work outside their birth countryOur estimate of cross-border careers in AI, from country of birth and the country of each current organization.
  4. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionOur estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Dylan Matthews yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. So It's Come to This: A Dylan Matthews Substack dylanmatthews.substack.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Dylan Matthews en.wikipedia.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Vox.com's Melissa Bell: 'This is a chance to do journalism differently' theguardian.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. The AI people have been right a lot dylanmatthews.substack.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Vox Launches New Section, Future Perfect voxmedia.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. What surprised our staff about working at Coefficient Giving coefficientgiving.substack.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. How we use AI to speed up our work coefficientgiving.substack.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Rust and Boll asteriskmag.com. Checked 19 October 2026.