Hilary Greaves

Hilary Greaves is a philosopher at the University of Oxford whose work on longtermism, cluelessness and moral uncertainty now reaches into the risks of advanced AI. Trained in philosophy and physics at Oxford and Rutgers, she won the Cushing Memorial Prize in History and Philosophy of Physics for work on the CPT theorem before moving into ethics. She was the founding director of Oxford's Global Priorities Institute from 2017 to 2022, and Vox named her to its Future Perfect 50 in 2022. In 2024, she coauthored a paper on how society can adapt to advanced AI, and in 2026 she joined Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio and others on a paper asking whether automating AI research could trigger an intelligence explosion. She is Professor of Philosophy at Oxford and a supernumerary fellow of Merton College, with AI ethics among her specialisations.

Timeline

1978–2008

Physics, philosophy and a Rutgers PhD

Born in Cardiff in 1978, she earns a BA in philosophy and physics from the University of Oxford in 2003. She completes a PhD in philosophy at Rutgers University in 2008 with a thesis on spacetime symmetries and the CPT theorem, supervised by Frank Arntzenius.
2010–2012

A Cushing Prize for CPT work

Her 2010 paper “Towards a Geometrical Understanding of the CPT Theorem” wins the 2012 James T. Cushing Memorial Prize in History and Philosophy of Physics. She later moves from the philosophy of physics and quantum mechanics into ethics, where she works on cluelessness and moral uncertainty.
2016–2022

Founding the Global Priorities Institute

She becomes a professor of philosophy at Oxford in 2016 and serves as founding director of the university's Global Priorities Institute from 2017 to 2022. The institute opens in April 2018 within the Faculty of Philosophy, funded by Luke Ding, Shamil Chandaria and the Open Philanthropy Project, to research how to do the most good.
2019–2025

Books on altruism and longtermism

She co-edits Effective Altruism: Philosophical Issues with Theron Pummer, published by Oxford University Press in 2019. In 2025, the same press publishes Essays on Longtermism: Present Action for the Distant Future, which she co-edits with Jacob Barrett and David Thorstad.
October 2022

A Future Perfect 50 profile

In October 2022, Vox names her to its 2022 Future Perfect 50 for her work on longtermism, which includes “The Case for Strong Longtermism,” written with Will MacAskill.
May 2024

Societal Adaptation to Advanced AI

Turning her research toward artificial intelligence, she coauthors “Societal Adaptation to Advanced AI” in May 2024 with Jamie Bernardi, Gabriel Mukobi, Lennart Heim and Markus Anderljung. The paper offers a framework for interventions that avoid, defend against and remedy harmful uses of AI, with examples in election manipulation, cyberterrorism and loss of control to AI decision-makers.
2026

Papers on automating AI research

In March 2026, she coauthors “Measuring AI R&D Automation” with Alan Chan, Ranay Padarath, Joe Kwon and Markus Anderljung, proposing metrics to track how far AI automates its own research. In September 2026, she joins Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio, Jack Clark and others on “What if automating AI R&D triggers an intelligence explosion?”, which urges policymakers to prepare for that possibility.
As of October 2026

Professor of philosophy at Oxford

She is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford and a supernumerary fellow of Merton College, with AI ethics, epistemology and practical ethics among her specialisations.