Adam Russell is the chief vision officer for the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute. In this role, he will shape and help implement the vision and strategy for the AISI, while also communicating that vision externally.
Russell is the director of the Information Sciences Institute’s AI Division at the University of Southern California. Russell previously worked at University of Maryland’s Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, where he focused on human-AI teaming, forecasting and collective intelligence. While at UMD, he also helped stand up the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
Prior to UMD and ARPA-H, Russell served in government for over a decade, both as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — launching programs focused on the social sciences and AI — and as a program manager at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) — launching programs on enhancing intelligence and measuring trust and trustworthiness.
He received a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and holds a B.A. in cultural anthropology from Duke University.