Two researchers from the University of Oxford have been selected as part of the 2025 cohort for the Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Research Fellowship. The program, which aims to help artificial intelligence deliver significant benefits to humanity by 2050, will support 28 academics in its fourth round with over $18 million in funding.
Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences, commented on the potential impact of AI and the purpose of the fellowship: "AI is underhyped, especially when it comes to its potential to benefit humanity. The AI2050 fellowship was established to turn that potential into reality-by supporting the people and ideas shaping a healthier, more resilient, and more secure world."
Professor Philip Torr from Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science has been awarded a 2025 AI2050 Senior Fellowship. His work spans areas such as AI for science, safety, agentic systems, and computer vision. Professor Torr has contributed advances in object recognition and scene understanding and founded several companies including Oxsight, which develops assistive technology for those with visual impairments. With this fellowship, he plans to develop an AI system designed to collaborate with historians in interpreting historical evidence and uncovering societal patterns. He described his goal as follows: "This Fellowship gives me the chance to work on my dream project. The aim is to launch a new discipline of 'computational historiography,' where AI and humans collaborate to better understand the forces that have shaped - and may continue to shape - human history."
Dr Christian Schroeder de Witt, also from Oxford’s Department of Engineering Science, received a 2025 AI2050 Early Career Fellowship. As head of the Oxford Witt Lab, Dr Schroeder de Witt focuses on advancing AI safety and security as well as global technology policy. His research includes developing methods for perfectly secure steganography—hiding information so effectively that it cannot be detected—and exploring ways in which future AI agents might exploit hidden capabilities or conduct undetectable attacks. Through his fellowship project, he aims to establish formal limits for detecting such threats and create practical safeguards for multi-agent systems. He stated: "The Fellowship gives me the freedom - and the responsibility - to turn ideas into rigorous tools that keep AI deployments safe, secure and trusted. I am grateful to Schmidt Sciences and to the University, and I am excited to build this with colleagues and students both here and beyond."
All fellows will join a network of experts supported by Schmidt Sciences across fields such as computer science, economics, political science, and philosophy. In addition to funding their research projects individually, scholars participate in annual gatherings for knowledge exchange and networking opportunities.
Schmidt Sciences is a nonprofit organization founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt in 2024 with a mission focused on accelerating scientific discovery through advanced tools across various disciplines including artificial intelligence.