I am a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Law & AI; an Associate Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (University of Cambridge), and a non-residential research associate at King’s College, University of Cambridge.
I am the author of Architectures of Global AI Governance: From Technological Change to Human Choice (OUP 2025), available as an open access digital version and as a print book.
My work focuses on mapping theories of change for advanced AI governance, international institutional designs for AI, the effect of AI on international law, and arms control regimes for military uses of AI technology.
With José Jaime Villalobos and Christoph Winter, I am the author of International Catastrophe Law: From Nuclear Weapons to Advanced AI (Cambridge University Press, 2027 forthcoming); the introduction and first chapter are on SSRN.
I write the blog Critical Maas, on Substack.
Elsewhere: email, Google Scholar, X, LinkedIn, GitHub.
Selected work
Open Access · Print · Cite
Matthijs Maas (2025).
Architectures of Global AI Governance: From Technological Change to Human Choice.
Oxford University Press.
Open Access · Print
PDF · DOI · SSRN · LawAI · Cite José Jaime Villalobos, Matthijs Maas (2025). “Beyond a Piecemeal Approach: Prospects for a Framework Convention on AI.” In: P. Hacker et al. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Foundations and Regulation of Generative AI (Oxford University Press). PDF
PDF · DOI · SSRN · Institute for Law & AI · Cite Matthijs Maas (2023). “Advanced AI Governance: A literature review of problems, options, and proposals.” AI Foundations Report 4. PDF
PDF · DOI · SSRN · Institute for Law & AI · Cite Matthijs Maas, José Villalobos (2023). “International AI Institutions: A Literature Review of Models, Examples, and Proposals.” AI Foundations Report 1. PDF
PDF · DOI · Cite Peter Cihon, Matthijs Maas, Luke Kemp (2020). “Fragmentation and the Future: Investigating Architectures for International AI Governance.” Global Policy 11(5): 545–556. PDF
PDF · DOI · BBC · GCRI · Cite Seth D. Baum, Stuart Armstrong, Timoteus Ekenstedt, Olle Häggström, Robin Hanson, Karin Kuhlemann, Matthijs Maas, James D. Miller, Markus Salmela, Anders Sandberg, Kaj Sotala, Phil Torres, Alexey Turchin, Roman V. Yampolskiy (2019). “Long-term trajectories of human civilization.” Foresight 21(1): 53–83. PDF
Recent essays
24 June 2026 Is the Illusion of Technology Loss an Illusion? Oh the Humanities / Modern Memory Palaces? / Forgotten vs. Withered tech branches 24 June 2026
23 June 2026 Technically Lost. When and how were innovations lost to history? 23 June 2026
19 May 2026 No True Scotland. Rule Technological Civilizations In, Not Out 19 May 2026
Recent talks
19 February 2026. Book · Video “Architectures of Global AI Governance: From Technological Change to Human Choice.” Monthly Seminar Series, The Hague Program on International Cyber Security, Online. 19 February 2026. Book · Video
6–8 August 2025. Paper · Video “Treaty-Following AI.” Workshop on Law-Following AI 2025, University of Cambridge, UK. 6–8 August 2025. Paper · Video