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Safe AI Netherlands

SAIN Utrecht

A free AI safety course, two discussion groups, and a growing research track at Utrecht University. Run by volunteers, open to anyone in the city.

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The Dom tower rising over the houses of Utrecht city centre
Utrecht city centre, where the course meets

Show up this week

Everything on the calendar is free and open. You do not need to be a member, and you do not need to have taken the course. Details and registration are on the chapter’s Luma calendar below.

See the full calendar on Luma (opens in a new tab)

Questions about an event: eventsutr@safeainetherlands.org

Three free courses run in Utrecht

Applications for AI Governance and Technical AI Safety are open. Participants apply by 15 November 2026; facilitators by 1 November 2026.

Apply to the free course (opens in a new tab)

AI Safety Fundamentals has run three times in Utrecht, reaching more than 100 participants: BSc and MSc students, researchers, engineers, and public-sector staff. Four weeks, one hour of reading and a one-hour lecture a week, at Utrecht University in the city centre. In week four you choose a technical path, a governance path, or both. You get a certificate for attending all sessions; no previous background is needed.

Sessions, autumn 2026

  1. 1IntroductionWed 23 Sep · 18:00-19:00 · Janskerkhof 2-3, Room 0.19High-level overview of AI safety, why it matters now, capabilities and diffusion, types of risks, and solution strategies, technical and governance.
  2. 2Types of risks and incidentsWed 30 Sep · 18:00-19:00 · Janskerkhof 2-3, Room 0.19Social harms, frontier risks, misuse, loss of control; real-world cases and how research lags behind deployment.
  3. 3Why AI safety is difficultWed 7 Oct · 18:00-19:00 · Janskerkhof 15A, Room 101Industry incentives, funding gaps, expert disagreement, slow regulation against fast labs, geopolitical race dynamics.
  4. 4Path specialisationThe fourth week splits in two. Take one path, or both.Technical AI safetyWed 14 Oct · 18:00-19:00 · Janskerkhof 2-3, Room 0.19Jailbreaking, the scalable oversight problem, RLHF and reward signals.GovernanceThu 15 Oct · 18:00-19:00 · Drift 23, Room 103Overview of the EU AI Act, accountability in AI systems, international actors in AI safety.

These courses are independently run by SAIN Utrecht and are not affiliated with Utrecht University. Questions: eduutr@safeainetherlands.org.

Between cohorts, two discussion groups keep meeting: one on technical AI safety, currently a mechanistic interpretability reading group, and one on AI governance and policy.

Find the next discussion group on SAIN Utrecht’s Luma page (opens in a new tab)

The chapter is building a research track: red-teaming language models, safety evaluation, interpretability, and agent behaviour. The Project Hub launches in October 2026.

Visit the Project hub

Run by volunteers

The people you will meet

SAIN Utrecht is directed by Riccardo Campanella. The team is growing across four areas: education, events, communication, and research. The chapter's work is funded by BERI, with mentorship from Pathfinder.

The chapter is recruiting. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so apply whenever you are ready.

See open positions

This already happened in Utrecht

Over the past year the chapter ran the Win4AISafety open research summer challenge, a full technical course with a closing dinner, discussion groups including a Europe 2031 scenario session, and research talks, including an Anthropic researcher speaking to more than 60 people.

The AI Safety Fundamentals cohort together at their graduation
Programme graduation · SAIN Utrecht
The winning team of the Win4AISafety research challenge
Win4AISafety winners · SAIN Utrecht
A discussion group seated around a table in Utrecht
Europe 2031 scenario discussion
A lecture during week two of the technical AI safety course
Technical course, week 2

See the submissions on Devpost (opens in a new tab)

Recaps on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)

Members of SAIN Utrecht contributed to this research.

Everything SAIN runs in Utrecht is free. The only step is showing up.

Fill in the onboarding form and the chapter will find you a first session.

Join the community (opens in a new tab)Volunteer

Events: eventsutr@safeainetherlands.orgCourses: eduutr@safeainetherlands.orgEverything else: infoutr@safeainetherlands.orgAll Utrecht links (opens in a new tab)