creators

Holden Karnofsky - GiveWell, Open Philanthropy, Anthropic

Holden Karnofsky co-founded GiveWell and Open Philanthropy, sat on OpenAI's board, and joined Anthropic in January 2025 to work on AI safety planning.

Holden Karnofsky graduated from Harvard in 2003 with a degree in social studies and worked at Bridgewater Associates, where he met Elie Hassenfeld. They co-founded the charity evaluator GiveWell in mid-2007, and he is listed among its former board members. In 2011 he co-founded the grantmaker Open Philanthropy, serving as chief executive and then co-chief executive until 2023; it renamed itself Coefficient Giving in November 2025. It became one of the largest funders of AI risk reduction and biosecurity. He sat on OpenAI's board from 2017 to 2021, succeeded by Helen Toner. In 2023 he stepped back to work on AI strategy, and was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace until early 2025. He writes the blog Cold Takes on transformative AI and the long-term future. He joined Anthropic in January 2025 as a member of technical staff, reporting to the chief science officer and working on its responsible scaling policy and threat modelling. He is married to Anthropic's president and co-founder, Daniela Amodei.

Specialization

AI safety policy, effective philanthropy, responsible scaling, AI governance

Country

United States