Dr José Jaime Villalobos is a Research Affiliate at the Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative and at the Institute for Law & AI.

His current research focuses on the international law and governance of global catastrophic and existential risks, with an emphasis on risks from artificial intelligence. He is the lead author of a forthcoming book that compares multiple international legal regimes to draw general principles of law that can act as building blocks for the governance of artificial intelligence.

José has held roles in government, academia, private practice, and not-for-profit organisations, including as Co-Founder and Chief Editor of the Costa Rican Journal of International Law. Most recently, José was an International Law and Policy Fellow at the Institute for Law & AI (formerly the Legal Priorities Project), where he co-authored influential papers on the international governance of AI. He is a member of the consultative network of experts for in-depth engagement with the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence.

José holds a PhD in international law from Victoria University of Wellington and an LLM (international law) from the University of Cambridge, which he obtained as a Chevening Scholar.