Federation of American Scientists, Future of Life Institute Present Converging Risks Report, AI Impact Awards at Gala
FAS AI Impact Awards Presented to Advocates, Civil Society Entrepreneurs, Industry Experts, and Policymakers
Washington, D.C. – May 20, 2026 – Tonight at the International Spy Museum in downtown Washington, D.C., the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), a non-partisan, nonprofit science and technology policy organization, in partnership with the Future of Life Institute, the world’s oldest and largest AI think tank, conclude an 18 month project to investigate the implications of artificial intelligence on global risk.
FAS and FLI partnered to build a series of convenings and reports across the intersections of artificial intelligence (AI) with biosecurity, cybersecurity, nuclear command and control, military integration, and frontier AI governance. This project brought together leaders across these areas and created a space that was rigorous, transpartisan, and solutions-oriented to approach how we should think about how AI is rapidly changing global risks. Adapting to this reality will demand that policy entrepreneurs take action; scientific and technological expertise is a must for successful policymaking.
“FAS is dedicated to developing evidence-based policies to address national challenges, and the technical advances of artificial intelligence are already outpacing our expectations. We recognized an urgency in convening expertise across disciplines to better understand how we can reduce risk and increase societal rewards,” says FAS CEO Daniel Correa.
“AI is no longer a single-domain challenge. It is a force multiplier reshaping the risk landscape across nuclear, biological, cyber, and military systems simultaneously, and it is doing so faster than our institutions can adapt,” says Future of Life President and CEO, Anthony Aguirre. “That is precisely why this partnership with FAS has mattered so much. The report gives decision-makers a clear-eyed map of how these threats are compounding, and what we can do about it. The window to put sensible guardrails in place is open, but it is closing quickly. The leaders we are honoring show that rigorous, bipartisan action on the most consequential technology of our era is both necessary and possible.”
The AI x Global Risk Gala, moderated by Ashley Gold, Senior Technology Policy Reporter at Axios, will highlight a capstone report and present awards in recognition of AI policy leaders. Bloomberg‘s cyber and emerging tech reporter, Katrina Manson will host a discussion panel about the report. The panel will include FAS board member and former Acting Under Secretary for Science and Technology at the Department of Homeland Security, Dr. Daniel Gerstein.
‘Converging Risks’ Report
The primary report, Converging Risks: AI and the Future of Global Security, is the synthesis of sector-specific investigations into nuclear policy, cyber policy, biotechnology, defense, and critical infrastructure. Increasingly, AI cuts across all of them simultaneously.
The FAS team evaluated risks through the “Threat, Vulnerability, and Consequence” or “TVC” framework, a powerful acknowledgement of how stakes rise alongside introduction and interaction with multiple factors.
The report illustrates how AI is complicating the risk calculus, adding complexity to systems and events, changing the speed at which we need to respond, and often increasing the scale of the risk.
“Despite the very real risks artificial intelligence presents, our report is not fatalistic,” says Dr. Jedidah Isler, FAS’s Chief Science Officer. “We know that productive conversations and proactive policy cannot happen if we operate from a state of hype, fear or ignorance. As scientists, we must use all of the tools at our disposal to reckon with what is very likely to be one of the most consequential technologies of this era. It’s innately a sociotechnical problem: it’s not just the technology, but what we think about it and how we collaborate in the face of tremendous change. We must begin by building government capacity, coordination, and translation infrastructure now.”
FAS AI Impact Award Winners
FAS will also present four awards at the Gala: the AI Advocacy Award, AI Impact Award for Civil Society, AI Impact Award for Industry, and the AI Policy Award.
Joseph Gordon Levitt, AI Impact Award for Advocacy
Joseph Gordon Levitt, the UN’s first global advocate for “human-centric digital governance”, will receive the AI Impact Award for Advocacy for his work raising awareness of AI risks to non-technical audiences using his skills as a writer, director, communicator, and educator.
Mr. Levitt’s recent advocacy includes speaking out about Meta’s AI chatbots endangering children (September, 2025) and supporting an AI and child safety bill in Utah (January 2026).
Mr. Levitt and his organization, HITRECORD, explore the intersection of technology and society through both his creative work and advocacy around digital governance.
Sneha Revanur, AI Impact Award for Civil Society
Sneha Revanur will receive the AI Impact Award for Civil Society for her work founding a civil society organization, Encode, that works to influence federal AI policy that unifies pro-AI, pro-human perspectives.
Ms. Revanur began her activism work at age 15 when she learned that California was considering replacing its cash bail system with a risk-based algorithm and that the algorithm had serious racial bias baked into it. She organized a statewide coalition of high school students, fought the ballot measure, and helped defeat it by 13 percentage points.
Today, Ms. Revanur continues her activism work in AI regulation to ensure that trust and fairness are built into the often invisible systems that can have enormous impact on daily life.
Chris Meserole, AI Impact Award for Industry
Chris Meserole, Executive Director of the Frontier Model Forum, will receive the AI Impact Award for Industry for his work examining the security risks associated with artificial intelligence. He’s working to determine best practices to ensure strong interconnection between industry, research, and government.
Prior to the Frontier Model Forum, Chris served as Director of the AI and Emerging Technology Initiative at the Brookings Institution and a fellow in its Foreign Policy program.
Today, Mr. Meserole works extensively on safeguarding large-scale AI systems against the risks of accidental or malicious use.
Senator Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Blumenthal (D-CT),
AI Impact Awards for Policy Leadership
How we govern AI’s impact on society is of utmost importance. Decisions made today will drive outcomes for years, and potentially decades, to come. FAS is presenting two AI Impact Award for Policy Leadership to honor work that anticipates and addresses future risks presented by artificial intelligence.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) will be presented with the AI Impact Awards for Policy Leadership for their respective leadership navigating fast-moving technology and its implications.
Senator Blackburn of Tennessee has been a bold and consequential leader on AI policy. Last summer she successfully fought to remove a provision from federal legislation that would have blocked states from protecting their own citizens from AI harms for a decade. In December, she put forward a comprehensive national framework for AI governance that requires companies to conduct real risk assessments and establishes concrete rules on training data and deepfakes. Senator Blackburn also leads the Transparency and Responsibility for Artificial Intelligence Networks (TRAIN) Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at helping musicians, artists, writers, and other copyright holders determine whether their work has been used to train generative artificial intelligence models.
Senator Blackburn’s forward thinking on AI has driven leadership on quantum computing development. She is advancing bipartisan legislation like the National Quantum Initiative Reauthorization Act to provide necessary infrastructure for future AI capabilities.
Senator Blackburn serves on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, of which she is Chairman of the Consumer Protection, Technology, and Data Privacy Subcommittee, as well as on the Senate Judiciary Committee, of which she is Chairman of the Privacy, Technology, and the Law Subcommittee.
Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut has been one of the earliest and most consistent voices on Capitol Hill regarding technology and its implications for society. He has been using his voice to demand that Congress show up for this moment. He brought Sam Altman to Congress for the first time back in 2023 to help educate lawmakers and urge them to act. He has since pushed for his AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act, bipartisan legislation to hold AI companies accountable for how they use copyrighted material to train their models. He also introduced the bipartisan AI Risk Evaluation Act which would create a dedicated AI risk-evaluation program within the Department of Energy focused specifically on national security, civil liberties, and labor protections. Senator Blumenthal co-leads the bipartisan Guidelines for User Age-verification and Responsible Dialogue (GUARD) Act to protect children against harms from AI bots, and this legislation is advancing in the Senate.
Senator Blumenthal serves on Senate Committees on Armed Services, Judiciary, and Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
Two senators. Different parties. Different states. Different politics. Same conclusion: Congress cannot afford to sit this one out.
Policymakers in Attendance
Additional policymakers invited to the Gala have demonstrated leadership in advancing evidence-based artificial intelligence legislation, including:
Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT) serves as Ranking Member on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has deep experience and unique insights into how U.S. intelligence agencies and the national security apparatus integrate artificial intelligence models, including how models could be used for hacking and cyberdefense. He will be a panelist at the gala.
Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee as Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, and introduced the AI Guardrails Act to address AI use around lethal force, spying on Americans and nuclear weapons. The bill seeks to codify two existing Defense Department guidelines into law: that AI cannot autonomously decide to kill a target and that the technology cannot be used to conduct mass surveillance on Americans. It would also ban the use of artificial intelligence for launching or detonating a nuclear weapon.
Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE) serves on the House Armed Services Committee as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technology and Innovation. Congressman Bacon has championed and overseen the passage of numerous provisions pertaining to AI and risk in the FY26 NDAA. Bacon joined the Congressional probe into Elon Musk’s Grok AI over allegations of antisemitism and ‘deeply alarming messages’ (July 2025).
Congressman Bill Foster (D-IL), Congress’s only member holding a PhD in physics, introduced the bipartisan Responsible and Ethical AI Labeling (REAL) Act, which would mandate a “clear, conspicuous, and prominently displayed” disclaimer notifying readers or viewers that content was created with or manipulated by AI.
Congressman Rich McCormick (R-GA) serves on the House Armed Services Committee and as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He also serves on the Armed Services Committee, Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and is a former member of the bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence.
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About the Federation of American Scientists (FAS)
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) works to advance progress on a broad suite of contemporary issues where science, technology, and innovation policy can deliver transformative impact, and seeks to ensure that scientific and technical expertise have a seat at the policymaking table. Established in 1945 by scientists in response to the atomic bomb, FAS continues to bring scientific rigor and analysis to address national challenges. More information about FAS’s work at fas.org.
About the Future of Life Institute
The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is the world’s oldest and largest AI think tank, with a team of 35+ full-time staff operating across the US and Europe. FLI has been working to steer the development of transformative technologies towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks since its founding in 2014. Find out more at futureoflife.org.
RESOURCES
AI x Global Risk Nexus Project
Converging Risks: AI and the Future of Global Security (and briefing booklet)
- AI and Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications
- AI and Military Integration
- AI and Biological Risks
- AGI and Global Risk
- AI, Cyber, and Global Risk
- AI and Nuclear Risks
FAS AI Impact Award Winners
More on AI Advocacy Award winner Joseph Gordon Levitt
More on AI Impact Award for Civil Society winner Sneha Revanur and Encode
More on AI Impact Award winner Chris Meserole and Frontier Model Forum
More on AI Impact Awards for Policy winners Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT)