Leopold Aschenbrenner

Leopold Aschenbrenner is a German artificial intelligence researcher and investor who currently serves as the founder and chief investment officer of Situational Awareness LP, an AI-focused hedge fund backed by investors including Patrick Collison, John Collison, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross. He previously worked on OpenAI's Superalignment team from 2023 until his dismissal in April 2024. He is best known for authoring the widely covered 2024 essay "Situational Awareness: The Decade Ahead," which discusses the emergence of artificial general intelligence and associated security risks. He graduated as valedictorian from Columbia University at age 19 with a BA in economics and mathematics-statistics and previously conducted research on long-run economic growth at Oxford's Global Priorities Institute.