Thomas Costello

• Program

  AI Safety Science

• Institution

  FAR.AI, American University

• Location

  USA

Dr. Thomas Costello is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at American University. He studies where political and social beliefs come from, how they differ from person to person–and, ultimately, why they change–using AI and the tools of personality, cognitive, clinical, and political science. During his doctoral training in clinical psychology at Emory University (2016-2022) and postdoctoral fellowship at MIT (2022-2024), he has published dozens of research papers in peer-reviewed outlets, including Science, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychological Bulletin, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences. He has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, CBC/Radio-Canada, and Scientific American, among many others, and his work has accumulated millions of views and comments on social media. Thomas has garnered extramural grant support (totaling > $500,000) from organizations including Effective Ventures, Reset, and Google. He was awarded the Heritage Dissertation Research Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the JS Tanaka Dissertation Award from the Association for Research in Personality, and the Klarman Fellowship from Cornell University.

FAR.AI will will assess the risks of AI-driven deception and disinformation, develop mitigations, and provide a platform for future action towards solving them.