Alexander Matt Turner, Class of 2012, is the Bettendorf Community Schools Foundation 2026 Visiting Science Scholar. He will be presenting to Bettendorf High School students on March 6 and will also be at the Bett STEAM Expo on March 7.
Alex is a Research Scientist at Google DeepMind, based in San Francisco, California. His job is to reduce the risk that superintelligent AI systems kill tons of people or damage critical infrastructure. He works on DeepMind's scalable alignment team, where he leads a mentorship team through the ML Alignment Theory Scholars program, training the next generation of AI safety researchers.
Alex joined the Bettendorf School system during his elementary school years, attending Hoover and Neil Armstrong Elementary Schools. He continued through Bettendorf Middle School before graduating from Bettendorf High School in 2012. He went on to study Computer Science at Grinnell College in Iowa, earning his bachelor's degree. Alex then pursued his PhD in Computer Science at Oregon State University, where he proved 281 original mathematical theorems and published multiple papers at NeurIPS, one of the world's top machine learning conferences.
Alex's research spans several major contributions to AI safety. He developed Attainable Utility Preservation, a technique for training AI systems to avoid harmful accidents we didn’t intend. He created the first mathematical theory proving that some kinds of AI systems tend to seek power over their environments. He helped create "shard theory," a framework for understanding how AI systems develop goals. Most recently, he helped popularize the now-famous technique "steering vectors," a technique for controlling AI behavior which is basically a kind of “mind control.”
Upon completing his PhD in 2022, Alex secured a postdoctoral position at UC Berkeley before joining Google DeepMind in November 2023. He’s working on making Google’s AI more aligned and helpful and on teaching new researchers how to make a difference.
Outside of his research, Alex enjoys reading, playing video games, weightlifting, and salsa dancing. He designed his own personal website and has a history of creating illustrations to communicate complex research ideas. He is vegan and cares deeply about animal welfare. Alex still has family in the Quad Cities, which holds a place in his heart.