LawZero Receives Grant to Develop Safe-by-Design AI Systems That Can Improve Scientific Discovery
MONTREAL, QC – August 25, 2025 – LawZero today announced it has received a grant from the Gates Foundation to advance its work in developing AI safety benchmarks and algorithms.
This grant will support the development of “Scientist AI”, LawZero’s new approach to ensuring robust, trustworthy AI systems. This innovative technical solution is designed to move beyond human imitation, focusing on data understanding and explanation to generate trustworthy hypotheses. In addition to enabling the creation of novel AI safety guardrails, it would be helpful in a variety of fields including scientific research and drug discovery.
"This work will be instrumental in supporting the creation of our technical solution to address critical AI safety challenges and propel scientific discovery,” said Yoshua Bengio, Co-President and Scientific Director of LawZero.
“Our aim is to ensure that advanced AI systems are both safe by design and capable of improving scientific research,” said Sam Ramadori, Co-President and Executive Director of LawZero. "We are honored and grateful for the support of the Gates Foundation as we work towards that goal."
This latest grant brings the total amount raised by LawZero to over $35M USD. To see a list of donors and funders, visit the LawZero website.
About LawZero
LawZero is a nonprofit organization committed to advancing research and creating technical solutions that enable safe-by-design AI systems. Its scientific direction is based on new research and methods led by Professor Yoshua Bengio, the most cited AI researcher in the world. Based in Montréal, LawZero's research aims to build non-agentic AI that could be used to accelerate scientific discovery, to provide oversight for agentic AI systems, and to advance the understanding of AI risks and how to avoid them. LawZero believes that AI should be cultivated as a global public good—developed and used safely towards human flourishing. LawZero was incubated at Mila - Quebec AI Institute, a non-profit founded by Professor Bengio. Mila now serves as LawZero's operating partner.
Media contact
Marc-Antoine Guérard, media@lawzero.org