What Existential Risk Observatory does
Existential Risk Observatory (ERO) is a small Amsterdam-based nonprofit foundation that aims to reduce existential risk—especially from advanced AI—by influencing how the issue is communicated to the public and incorporated into policymaking. Its central strategy is “awareness-first”: instead of treating existential risk communication as secondary, ERO frames effective public communication and policy advocacy as mechanisms for increasing downstream attention, talent, and political prioritization for AI safety.
ERO’s work is organized around three linked activities: (1) producing public-facing communication (e.g., media articles and opinion pieces) designed to explain existential risk clearly and responsibly; (2) publishing applied research on how such communication performs and how it should be improved; and (3) developing concrete governance proposals that can be evaluated and adopted by governments or international actors. In particular, ERO is known for advocating the “Conditional AI Safety Treaty” concept—an approach that conditions a pause on AI development on an external determination that risks are unacceptable (rather than an unconditional stop). ERO also coordinates and publicizes threat-model framing efforts in AI safety, including the release of TakeOverBench.com, a benchmark intended to operationalize progress toward AI “takeover” threat-model-relevant capabilities.
Institutionally, ERO occupies a communications-and-policy niche within the broader AI safety ecosystem: many groups focus primarily on technical alignment or formal verification, while ERO focuses on the strategic communication channel and governance agenda-setting that precede (and can enable) those technical safety efforts.