TIME100 AI 2026 · Shapers
Max Tegmark
Founder and Chair, Future of Life Institute
An MIT physicist whose nonprofit grades AI companies on safety; the top score on its index this summer was a C+.
- Born
- 1967-05-05, Stockholm, Sweden
- Now
- Co-founder and President, Future of Life Institute
- Studied
- UC Berkeley, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm School of Economics
Interesting facts
- Detour
Earned an economics degree from the Stockholm School of Economics before switching to physics.
physics.mit.edu - Before AI
Spent most of his career as a cosmologist mapping the universe before turning his MIT research to AI interpretability and provably safe AI.
physics.mit.edu - First
His institute's 2023 open letter asking labs to pause AI more powerful than GPT-4 drew a long list of high-profile signatories.
time.com - In their words
Says he saw more shift in U.S. AI policymaking in three months of 2026 than in the previous decade.
time.com - Side project
Wrote two New York Times bestsellers, Life 3.0 on AI and Our Mathematical Universe on physics.
cser.ac.uk
Career
- Future of Life InstituteCo-founder and President2014 to now
- MITProfessor of Physics2004 to now
- University of PennsylvaniaAssistant Professoruntil 2004
- Max Planck Institute for PhysicsResearch associate
Education
- PhD, Physics, UC Berkeley, 1994
- MA, Physics, UC Berkeley, 1992
- MSE, Engineering physics, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 1990
- BA, Economics, Stockholm School of Economics, 1989
Sources1physics.mit.edu