Welcome

Hi, I’m Seb.

I am doing a DPhil at the University of Oxford as part of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber-security. I am interested in advances in machine learning including deep neural networks and reinforcement learning and the ways in which systems based on those advances can be made more reliable given both adversaries and natural processes.

I formerly led the Global Priorities Project at the Centre for Effective Altruism and the Future of Humanity Institute. Before that, I worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Co – where I served clients in a variety of public and social sector fields. Prior to that, I was on the team that set up 80,000 Hours – which advises promising young people on the best ways to do good in their careers.

On this site, you can find my professional details, and glance at personal writings from a variety of sources – including writing on my hobbies, philosophy, effective altruism, and book reviews.

Contact

You can reach me at sebastian.farquhar@balliol.ox.ac.uk

I like meeting people for coffee, when my schedule isn’t too hectic, especially to talk about safety and security in AI.

Professional

I am currently undertaking a DPhil at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber-security. You can find some machine learning projects at my github. Here, you can find a list of publications.

I led the Global Priorities Project – a joint project of the Centre for Effective Altruism and the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford – which connects research from the University with the realities that policy-makers face in order to offer evidence-based non-partisan policy proposals. GPP focused on technological risk management and frameworks that encourage evidence-based policy-making.

I was Acting Executive Director of the Centre for Effective Altruism in 2015 – which works in Oxford to use evidence and analysis to make the world a better place, and runs Giving What We Can, 80,000 Hours and the Global Priorities Project in addition to building a community of effective altruists.

At McKinsey, I developed strategy for leading European public sector providers of services in health and social care, and helped to implement large-scale change programmes in local areas serving more than 2 million people.

Before McKinsey, I was on the team that set up 80,000 Hours – a social enterprise which helps people have a meaningful ethical career which has since reached more than 100,000 people, raised half a million in funding, and been featured by the Washington Post, the BBC, TED, and NPR among others.

You can find my LinkedIn profile here.