Glen Weyl

Also known as E. Glen Weyl, Eric Glen Weyl

Glen Weyl is an economist who founded and leads Microsoft Research's Plural Technology Collaboratory, a project relaunched in March 2023 around the rise of generative foundation models such as GPT-4. Valedictorian of Princeton's class of 2007, he earned an economics PhD there in 2008, taught at the University of Chicago, and was a senior researcher at Microsoft by 2016. His 2018 book with Eric Posner, Radical Markets, called for data labor unions that pay people for the personal data powering the digital economy, and in 2018 he founded the RadicalxChange Foundation. With Audrey Tang, he published Plurality in 2024, a book written openly on GitHub that charts a path between techno-libertarianism and centralized AI governance. In November 2025, he and Ben Olsen received the International Religious Freedom Peacebuilder's Award for establishing Microsoft's Technology for Religious Empowerment initiative.

Now at: Microsoft Research and Plurality Institute
Born: 1985
Badges: Founder

Years link to their sources.

Timeline

1985–2008

Princeton valedictorian and PhD

Born in San Francisco in 1985 and raised in Palo Alto, he graduates from Choate Rosemary Hall in 2003. He is valedictorian of Princeton's class of 2007 and earns his PhD in economics in 2008 under the supervision of Jean Tirole, José Scheinkman, Hyun-Song Shin and Roland Bénabou.
2008–2016

Harvard, Chicago and Microsoft

After his 2008 PhD, he spends three years as a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and three years as an assistant professor in the University of Chicago's Economics Department and Law School, where he is named a Sloan Foundation Research Fellow for 2014–16. Quadratic voting, a new procedure for collective decisions, becomes his largest research project. In August 2016, as a senior researcher at Microsoft, he prepares Designing the Digital Economy, a new Yale course for economics and computer science students.
2018

Radical Markets with Eric Posner

In 2018, he and Eric Posner publish Radical Markets: Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just Society, with five proposals on property, voting, migrant labor, investment capital and personal data. The book calls for data labor unions that pay people for the personal data powering the digital economy, and it is named Economist Book of the Year in 2018. He also coauthors “Should We Treat Data as Labor? Moving beyond ‘Free’” with Jaron Lanier and three others in 2018.
2018–2019

Founding RadicalxChange

In 2018, he founds the RadicalxChange Foundation, a nonprofit that supports a movement testing new ways to vote, deliberate, manage property and protect data sovereignty. With Vitalik Buterin and Zoë Hitzig, he proposes quadratic funding, a method for democratically disbursing resources, in the paper “Liberal Radicalism”. In February 2019, he discusses RadicalxChange and the proposal on the 80,000 Hours podcast.
March 2023

The Plural Technology Collaboratory

In March 2023, he, Shrey Jain, Karen Easterbrook and Jason Entenmann introduce the Plural Technology Collaboratory, a multi-partner collaboration based in Microsoft Research Special Projects that he founds. Its relaunch is motivated by generative foundation models such as GPT-4, which the group expects to reshape the economy, politics and governance.
April 2024

Plurality with Audrey Tang

In April 2024, he and Audrey Tang, Taiwan's first Digital Minister, publish Plurality: The Future of Collaborative Technology and Democracy with the Plurality Community. Written openly on GitHub and released into the public domain, the book charts a path between techno-libertarianism and centralized AI governance.
November 2025

Peacebuilder's Award and a Harvard talk

In November 2025, he and Ben Olsen receive the 2025 International Religious Freedom Peacebuilder's Award in Prague for establishing Microsoft's Technology for Religious Empowerment initiative. Speaking at Harvard's Berkman Klein Center in November 2025, he argues that superintelligence already exists in corporations, democracies, religions and cultures, and that separating AI from people makes systems dangerous.
As of October 2026

Research lead at Microsoft Research

He is the founder and research lead of Microsoft Research's Plural Technology Collaboratory and chairs the Plurality Institute. In July 2026, he, James Evans and Chris White publish “What Humanity Needs To Flourish In The Next Decade” in Noema, an essay on preparing society to absorb increasingly capable AI systems.