Opinion

Team Shard: Alignment Mentorship from TurnTrout and Alex Cloud

​Published on December 26, 2025 5:20 PM GMTThrough the MATS program, we (Alex Turner and Alex Cloud[1]) help alignment researchers grow from seeds into majestic trees. We have fun, consistently make real alignment progress, and help scholars tap into their latent abilities.MATS summer ’26 applications are open until January 18th!Team Shard in MATS 6.0 during the summer of ’24. From left: Evžen Wyitbul, Jacob Goldman-Wetzler, Alex Turner, Alex Cloud, and Joseph Miller.Many mentees now fill impactful roles.Lisa Thiergart (MATS 3.0) moved on to being a research lead at MIRI and is now a senior director at the SL5 task force.Alex Cloud (MATS 6.0) went from mentee to co-mentor in one round and also secured a job at Anthropic. Lead author on the Subliminal Learning paper.Jacob Goldman-Wetzler (MATS 6.0) also accepted an offer from Anthropic!Luke Marks accepted work with Redwood Research after MATS 8.0.And several mentees have gone on to the Anthropic Fellows program.We likewise have a strong track record in research outputs, includingPioneering steering vectors for use in LLMs (Steering GPT-2-XL by Adding an Activation Vector, Steering LLAMA-2 With Contrastive Activation Additions),Masking Gradients to Localize Computation in Neural Networks,Distillation Robustifies Unlearning (NeurIPS 2025 spotlight!), andOutput Supervision Can Obfuscate the Chain of Thought.Former scholar from Team Shard I really appreciate the calmness Alex [Turner] brings. He creates a stress-free environment where it feels easy and low-risk to have lots of ideas, pivot frequently, and generally be mentally nimble.Compared to other MATS streams, Team Shard has some of the best team culture and the highest mentor investment. With us, you aren’t looking at a half-hour call with a remote mentor once a week. TurnTrout and Cloud each hold a ~45 minute weekly meeting with each scholar, in addition to a weekly in-person team lunch. Our team culture is tight-knit and fun, extending beyond the research itself. For example, in the summer of 2025, MATS 8.0 lifted together every Wednesday and Thursday.TestimonialsLisa Thiergart MATS 3.0, Steering GPT-2-XL by Adding an Activation Vector Team Shard helped me break into the AI safety world, building my connections but also my understanding of the research process and valuable areas to focus on. Alex [Turner] encouraged me to take my ideas seriously and to develop them further. I quite enjoyed working with him! [Working with Team Shard] has made a life-changing difference.Jacob Goldman-Wetzler MATS 6.0, Gradient RoutingBeing a member of Team Shard helped me grow tremendously as a researcher. It gave me the necessary skills and confidence to work in AI Safety full-time. Bruce Lee MATS 7.0, Distillation Robustifies UnlearningI learned how to make progress when everyone in the room is uncertain. If you’re interested in learning what making progress on a hard problem actually feels like, Team Shard is where you want to be. Ariana Azarbal MATS 8.0, Recontextualization Mitigates Specification Gaming without Modifying the SpecificationOn Team Shard, I learned how to form my own opinions about alignment, develop concrete hypotheses based on these, and address my hypotheses empirically. Alex Turner and Alex Cloud provided consistently thoughtful guidance and inspiration that enabled my progress. I also had a ton of fun with the team. :)P.S. Team Shard made me realize potential I did not know I had as a weightlifter.Apply todayTeam Shard in the summer of ’25. From left: Luke Marks, Jacob Drori, Victor Gillioz, Alex Turner, and Ariana Azarbal.MATS only runs a few times per year. First, check when applications next open. Then apply and indicate you want to work with Team Shard. MATS summer ’26 applications are open until January 18th!^Alex Cloud became a co-mentor at the start of MATS 7.0.Discuss ​Read More

​Published on December 26, 2025 5:20 PM GMTThrough the MATS program, we (Alex Turner and Alex Cloud[1]) help alignment researchers grow from seeds into majestic trees. We have fun, consistently make real alignment progress, and help scholars tap into their latent abilities.MATS summer ’26 applications are open until January 18th!Team Shard in MATS 6.0 during the summer of ’24. From left: Evžen Wyitbul, Jacob Goldman-Wetzler, Alex Turner, Alex Cloud, and Joseph Miller.Many mentees now fill impactful roles.Lisa Thiergart (MATS 3.0) moved on to being a research lead at MIRI and is now a senior director at the SL5 task force.Alex Cloud (MATS 6.0) went from mentee to co-mentor in one round and also secured a job at Anthropic. Lead author on the Subliminal Learning paper.Jacob Goldman-Wetzler (MATS 6.0) also accepted an offer from Anthropic!Luke Marks accepted work with Redwood Research after MATS 8.0.And several mentees have gone on to the Anthropic Fellows program.We likewise have a strong track record in research outputs, includingPioneering steering vectors for use in LLMs (Steering GPT-2-XL by Adding an Activation Vector, Steering LLAMA-2 With Contrastive Activation Additions),Masking Gradients to Localize Computation in Neural Networks,Distillation Robustifies Unlearning (NeurIPS 2025 spotlight!), andOutput Supervision Can Obfuscate the Chain of Thought.Former scholar from Team Shard I really appreciate the calmness Alex [Turner] brings. He creates a stress-free environment where it feels easy and low-risk to have lots of ideas, pivot frequently, and generally be mentally nimble.Compared to other MATS streams, Team Shard has some of the best team culture and the highest mentor investment. With us, you aren’t looking at a half-hour call with a remote mentor once a week. TurnTrout and Cloud each hold a ~45 minute weekly meeting with each scholar, in addition to a weekly in-person team lunch. Our team culture is tight-knit and fun, extending beyond the research itself. For example, in the summer of 2025, MATS 8.0 lifted together every Wednesday and Thursday.TestimonialsLisa Thiergart MATS 3.0, Steering GPT-2-XL by Adding an Activation Vector Team Shard helped me break into the AI safety world, building my connections but also my understanding of the research process and valuable areas to focus on. Alex [Turner] encouraged me to take my ideas seriously and to develop them further. I quite enjoyed working with him! [Working with Team Shard] has made a life-changing difference.Jacob Goldman-Wetzler MATS 6.0, Gradient RoutingBeing a member of Team Shard helped me grow tremendously as a researcher. It gave me the necessary skills and confidence to work in AI Safety full-time. Bruce Lee MATS 7.0, Distillation Robustifies UnlearningI learned how to make progress when everyone in the room is uncertain. If you’re interested in learning what making progress on a hard problem actually feels like, Team Shard is where you want to be. Ariana Azarbal MATS 8.0, Recontextualization Mitigates Specification Gaming without Modifying the SpecificationOn Team Shard, I learned how to form my own opinions about alignment, develop concrete hypotheses based on these, and address my hypotheses empirically. Alex Turner and Alex Cloud provided consistently thoughtful guidance and inspiration that enabled my progress. I also had a ton of fun with the team. :)P.S. Team Shard made me realize potential I did not know I had as a weightlifter.Apply todayTeam Shard in the summer of ’25. From left: Luke Marks, Jacob Drori, Victor Gillioz, Alex Turner, and Ariana Azarbal.MATS only runs a few times per year. First, check when applications next open. Then apply and indicate you want to work with Team Shard. MATS summer ’26 applications are open until January 18th!^Alex Cloud became a co-mentor at the start of MATS 7.0.Discuss ​Read More

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