Dr Fırat Akova is a researcher and civil society professional with 10+ years of experience in each.

He is an incoming GovAI Summer Research Fellow. He is a Senior Research Fellow at Power for Democracies, where he works to identify the most effective democracy organisations worldwide for the allocation of multi-million dollar funding. He conducted research on AI sentience, AI consciousness and digital minds as a Research Fellow at the Future Impact Group. He was an Oxford Global Priorities Fellow at Oxford’s GPI and Forethought Foundation, where he worked on the political representation of future generations and the moral, political, and legal puzzles around AI sentience. He was a Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Koç University. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Warwick, with a thesis on effective altruism.

As the Founding Director of Effective Altruism Turkey and the Founder of Poedat, he played a central role in scaling both initiatives: Effective Altruism Turkey has grown from a handful to 300+ members, while Poedat has attracted more than 4,000 attendees across 50 social science events. He provides advisory support to AI Safety Turkey.

His work has been supported by major institutions including the Effective Ventures Foundation, Coefficient Giving, the Centre for Effective Altruism, and the Survival and Flourishing Projects.

You can subscribe to his newsletter: akovafirat.substack.com