Haydn was a Research Associate and Academic Project Manager at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk from January 2017 to March 2025. In that time the Centre tripled in size, and he advised the UK, US, and Singaporean governments; the EU, UN and OECD; and leading technology companies. He has over 30 publications, including on climate change, pandemics, and societal collapse, but most of his work is on the security implications of artificial intelligence (AI). Key publications include ‘The malicious use of AI: Forecasting, prevention, and mitigation‘ and ‘Toward trustworthy AI development: mechanisms for supporting verifiable claims‘.
Previously he worked in UK politics as the Senior Parliamentary Researcher to a Labour MP in the Shadow Cabinet, and was seconded to several general election and referendum campaigns.
He is also an Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (University of Cambridge). He was a Policy Associate at the Global Priorities Project (University of Oxford) and the first Development Director of the Centre for Effective Altruism.
He is a DPhil/PhD Candidate in International Relations, and has an MSc in Politics Research and a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE), all from the University of Oxford.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
- Haydn Belfield,(2023) Nathan Sears: “… in the midst of catastrophe”, Global Policy
- Shin-Shin Hua, Haydn Belfield,(2023) Effective Enforceability of EU Competition Law Under AI Development Scenarios
- William J. Sutherland, Nigel G. Taylor, David C. Aldridge, Philip Martin, Catherine Rhodes, Gorm Shackelford, Simon Beard, Haydn Belfield, Andrew J. Bladon, Cameron Brick, Alec P. Christie, Andrew P. Dobson, Harriet Downey, Amelia S.C. Hood, Fangyuan Hua, Alice C. Hughes, Rebecca M. Jarvis, Douglas MacFarlane, William H. Morgan, Anne-Christine Mupepele, Stefan J. Marciniak, Cassidy Nelson, Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh, Clarissa Rios Rojas, Katherine A. Sainsbury, Rebecca K. Smith, Lalitha S. Sundaram, Ann Thornton, John Watkins, Thomas B. White, Kate Willott, Silviu O. Petrovan,(2021) A solution scan of societal options to reduce transmission and spread of respiratory viruses: SARS-CoV-2 as a case study, Journal of Biosafety and Biosecurity
- (2020) Toward Trustworthy AI Development: Mechanisms for Supporting Verifiable Claims
- (2020) Activism by the AI Community: Analysing Recent Achievements and Future Prospects
- (2018) The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation
