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Anca Dragan

Heads AI Safety and Alignment (on leave from UC Berkeley), Google DeepMind

Anca Dragan is an Associate Professor in the EECS Department at UC Berkeley, currently on leave to head AI Safety and Alignment at Google DeepMind, where Dragan leads teams responsible for the safety of Gemini models. At Berkeley, Dragan runs the InterACT Lab, which works on algorithms for human-AI and human-robot interaction, including learning reward functions from human feedback. Dragan is a co-author of Google DeepMind's 2025 paper "An Approach to Technical AGI Safety and Security", which sets out technical approaches to misuse and misalignment risks.12

At a glance

Current roles
Heads AI Safety and Alignment (on leave from UC Berkeley) +1 more
Sector
Company
Education
UC Berkeley
Work listed
2
Honors
8
Sources cited
3
Profile reviewed

Career

Anca Dragan is an Associate Professor in UC Berkeley's EECS Department and is on leave to head AI Safety and Alignment at Google DeepMind. There Dragan leads teams responsible for the safety of current Gemini models and for preparing safety work as Gemini capabilities advance, covering alignment with human goals, informed oversight and robustness to adversarial attacks.1

Dragan helped found the Berkeley AI Research (BAIR) Lab and served on its steering committee, and is a co-PI of the Center for Human-Compatible AI. Dragan's homepage also notes six years of consulting for Waymo on deploying an increasingly learning-based, safety-critical system.13

Research

Dragan's Berkeley research aims to let AI agents, from robots and cars to language models and recommender systems, work with and in support of people. A core problem for the InterACT Lab since its start has been AI alignment, approached through learning reward functions interactively from diverse forms of human feedback while maintaining uncertainty. The lab has also worked on human-AI collaboration and coordination, including assistance in brain-machine interfaces and autonomous cars sharing the road with human drivers.1

Dragan's papers have been recognized at robotics and human-robot interaction venues, including a best paper award at HRI 2020 for "LESS is More: Rethinking Probabilistic Models of Human Behavior." In 2025 Dragan co-authored Google DeepMind's paper on an approach to technical AGI safety and security, which focuses on misuse and misalignment.32

Service

Dragan was Program Co-Chair of the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL) in 2018, chaired the Bay Area Robotics Symposium in 2016 and 2017, and served as a Senior Area Chair for ICLR 2024. Dragan has also been an area chair or associate editor for venues including ICRA, IROS and HRI.3

Work and contributions

  • An Approach to Technical AGI Safety and Security Published research

    Co-author of the 2025 paper, which identifies four areas of risk (misuse, misalignment, mistakes and structural risks) and focuses on technical approaches to misuse and misalignment.2

  • InterACT Lab Published research

    Runs the UC Berkeley lab, whose work covers learning reward functions interactively from diverse human feedback and algorithms for human-AI collaboration and coordination.1

Timeline

  1. "Generating Legible Motion" was a best paper finalist at RSS 2013.3
  2. Chaired the Bay Area Robotics Symposium, a role repeated in 2017.3
  3. Received an NSF CAREER award for work on robot behavior for coordination with humans.3
  4. Served as Program Co-Chair of the Conference on Robot Learning (CoRL).3
  5. Won the HRI 2020 best paper award for "LESS is More."3
  6. Served as a Senior Area Chair for the International Conference on Learning Representations.3
  7. Co-authored "An Approach to Technical AGI Safety and Security" with Google DeepMind colleagues.2

Honors and recognition

  • IEEE RAS Early Academic Career Award in Robotics and Automation · IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, 20213
  • ONR Young Investigator Award · Office of Naval Research, 20203
  • HRI 2020 Best Paper Award · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 20203
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) · President of the United States, 201931
  • Sloan Research Fellowship · Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 201831
  • NSF CAREER Award · National Science Foundation, 201731
  • Okawa Foundation Award · Okawa Foundation, 20173
  • 35 Innovators Under 35 · MIT Technology Review, 201731

Where they work

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References

3 sources · profile reviewed Oct 21, 2026 · data updated Oct 21, 2026

  1. Anca Dragan — homepageAnca Dragan (UC Berkeley EECS) · Official page · accessed Oct 21, 2026
  2. An Approach to Technical AGI Safety and Security (arXiv 2504.01849)arXiv · Paper · published Apr 2, 2025 · accessed Oct 21, 2026
  3. Anca Dragan — CV highlights (honors, awards and professional activities)Anca Dragan (UC Berkeley EECS) · Official page · accessed Oct 21, 2026