PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Gillian Hadfield

Also known as Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian Hadfield is a legal scholar and AI researcher whose work connects human social norms with AI alignment and governance. She earned an economics degree at Queen’s University, law and economics degrees at Stanford, taught at Berkeley, Toronto, and USC, and wrote Rules for a Flat World. From 2018 to 2023, she advised OpenAI; her research studied how agents learn social norms and proposed market-based oversight for AI. She led the Schwartz Reisman Institute, received the 2019 Mundell Medal and the 2024 Carolyn Tuohy policy award, and is now the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of AI Alignment and Governance at Johns Hopkins.

Timeline

  1. 1983–1990

    Queen's and Stanford degrees

    She earns an economics BA from Queen's University in 1983, a JD with distinction from Stanford Law School in 1988, and a Stanford economics PhD in 1990.

  2. 1990–2001

    Berkeley and Toronto faculty roles

    At Berkeley, she joins the School of Law as an assistant law professor in 1990. She serves on the University of Toronto Faculty of Law from 1995 to 2001.

  3. 2001–2018

    USC law and economics

    She moves to USC Gould in 2001 as the Richard L. and Antoinette Schamoi Kirtland Professor of Law and Professor of Economics, serving through 2018. Her 2016 book Rules for a Flat World presents a systematic account of legal norms.

  4. 2018–2023

    OpenAI and social norm research

    From 2018 to 2023, she serves as Senior Policy Advisor for OpenAI. In 2022, she coauthors a PNAS study that uses a computational model to examine how agents learn rule enforcement and compliance. With Jack Clark, she proposes regulatory markets for AI oversight in a 2023 paper.

  5. 2019

    The Mundell Medal

    In 2019, she receives the Mundell Medal for Excellence in Legal Writing.

  6. 2019–2024

    Leading the Schwartz Reisman Institute

    In 2019, she becomes the Schwartz Reisman Institute’s inaugural director and Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society. In January 2024, she retains the chair when Kelly Lyons takes over as interim director.

  7. 2024

    A public policy award

    U of T awards her the Carolyn Tuohy Impact on Public Policy Award in 2024.

  8. Since 2025

    AI alignment at Johns Hopkins

    In 2025, she joins Johns Hopkins as the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of AI Alignment and Governance. As of October 2026, she holds this role. With Jack Clark, she publishes the 2026 Jurimetrics article Regulatory Markets: The Future of AI Governance.

  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

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  1. Gillian Hadfield - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Gillian Hadfield appointed inaugural director of U of T’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and Schwartz Reisman Chair in Technology and Society utoronto.ca. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Professor Gillian Hadfield awarded Mundell Medal for great legal writing utoronto.ca. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. About Gillian K. Hadfield gillianhadfield.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Spurious normativity enhances learning of compliance and enforcement behavior in artificial agents ideas.repec.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Regulatory Markets: The Future of AI Governance arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. Gillian Hadfield - Department of Computer Science cs.jhu.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Kelly Lyons appointed Schwartz Reisman Institute interim director; Gillian Hadfield to remain as chair srinstitute.utoronto.ca. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. New faculty Q&A: Gillian Hadfield cs.jhu.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  10. Complete Publications - Gillian K. Hadfield gillianhadfield.org. Checked 19 October 2026.