person
MacKenzie Scott
Philanthropist; early AI safety funder via donations
Billionaire philanthropist whose large unrestricted grants have included AI governance and ethics organisations. Unusual among large donors in operating without strings attached.
Profile
expertise
Policy / meta
Specialises in AI policy, regulation, governance, philanthropy, or movement strategy. Reads the technical literature but does not produce it.
Yield Giving founder. Major philanthropist; AI-related donations are part of broader giving. Not a technical contributor.
recognition
Household name
Name recognition outside the AI/CS community. Featured by mainstream press, a Wikipedia page in many languages, a published bestseller, or holds a position the lay public knows.
Mainstream press regular for unrestricted-giving philanthropy.
vintage
Post-ChatGPT
Entered the AI strategy debate in or after 2023. ChatGPT was already public when their voice became influential. Often shaped by Pause letter, AISIs, AI 2027.
Yield Giving 2022. AI-related giving post-ChatGPT.
Hand-classified. See the board for the criteria and the full grid.
Strategy positions
Governance firstmixed
Lead with regulation, treaties, liability regimesFunds AI ethics and governance orgs as part of broader systemic philanthropy.
Unrestricted gifts to organisations already doing the work.
Closest strategy neighbours
by jaccard overlapOther people whose strategy tags overlap with MacKenzie Scott's. Overlap is on tag identity, not stance; opposites can show up if they reference the same tags.
Record last updated 2026-04-24.