Universities are excellent places to introduce people to AI safety. University groups are oriented towards students, but many universities also allow non-students to attend or help organize groups.

Most university groups are official university clubs or societies. Being recognized as a student organization usually gives you certain privileges, which may include having a stall at the clubs fair, funding, booking rooms for free, and appearing in the university’s directory of clubs/societies. Bear in mind that these groups have to manage some additional admin to remain chartered by their university, such as:

• Paperwork to register the club or to renew/re-affiliate a dormant club
• Handling receipts and other financial matters
• Understanding and complying with university policies

Some universities make it difficult for new groups to get registered, and several successful university groups are not registered. Be careful not to violate any university regulations when advertising your group's events. This can happen, for example, if you use the name of the university as part of your group’s name or don’t clarify that the group is run by students instead of being an official initiative by the university.

Most university groups are named “AI Safety University of X” or “AI Safety Initiative at University of X.” Other names could include words like “club,” “group,” “initiative,” “alignment,” “team,” “technical safety,” and “governance.” There could also be other words that don’t translate into English or make sense in the context of your language/university.

Choosing a completely new name can also be beneficial. For example, Georgetown’s group is called the Responsable AI Network (RAIN), and the group at Berkeley uses the backronym BASIS. The right name can help substantially with branding, but it’s a double-edged sword, as it might make it more difficult for people to know what your group is about.