# Andreas Stuhlmüller

> Andreas Stuhlmüller is the cofounder and CEO of Elicit, an AI research assistant that automates evidence synthesis for scientists and analysts. A cognitive scientist by training (PhD, MIT), he built probabilistic programming languages before turning to a single question: can AI help people reason well about hard problems? His answer is process supervision, the idea that you get trustworthy machines by watching how they think, not just grading what they produce. Elicit, which spun out of his nonprofit Ought, raised a $22M Series A in 2025 and serves hundreds of thousands of researchers.

- **Role:** Cofounder & CEO at Elicit
- **Organizations:** Elicit, Ought, MIT, Stanford University, Google, University of Osnabrück
- **Nationality:** German
- **Education:** B.Sc. in Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, PhD in Cognitive Science (advisor: Josh Tenenbaum), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Postdoctoral research (with Noah Goodman), Stanford University
- **Known for:** Cofounded and leads Elicit, an AI research assistant used by hundreds of thousands of researchers each month., Founded Ought, a nonprofit that pioneered factored cognition and process supervision as approaches to scalable AI alignment., Created WebPPL, a widely used probabilistic programming language, and co-authored the online book 'The Design and Implementation of Probabilistic Programming Languages.'

## Career timeline

- **2009** — Earns B.Sc. in Cognitive Science from the University of Osnabrück, Germany.
- **2009-2015** — PhD in Cognitive Science at MIT with Josh Tenenbaum, working on probabilistic programming and models of reasoning.
- **2014** — Creates WebPPL, a probabilistic programming language that runs in the browser.
- **2016-2018** — Postdoctoral researcher at Stanford with Noah Goodman.
- **2018** — Founds Ought, a nonprofit research lab exploring factored cognition and process supervision for AI alignment.
- **2021** — Elicit launches as Ought's flagship product; RAFT few-shot benchmark published at NeurIPS.
- **2022** — Publishes 'Supervise Process, Not Outcomes,' articulating the philosophy behind Elicit.
- **2023** — Elicit spins out as an independent public benefit corporation; raises $9M.
- **2025** — Elicit raises a $22M Series A led by Spark Capital and Footwork at a reported $100M valuation.

## Achievements

- Cofounded and leads Elicit, an AI research assistant used by hundreds of thousands of researchers each month.
- Founded Ought, a nonprofit that pioneered factored cognition and process supervision as approaches to scalable AI alignment.
- Created WebPPL, a widely used probabilistic programming language, and co-authored the online book 'The Design and Implementation of Probabilistic Programming Languages.'
- Raised over $31M in total funding for Elicit, including a $22M Series A in 2025.
- Authored 50+ publications across probabilistic programming, cognitive science, language models, and AI safety.

## Latest updates

- **2025-02** — Elicit raised a $22M Series A led by Spark Capital and Footwork, at a reported $100M valuation, to build the most trusted AI platform for evidence-backed decisions.

## Links

- Website: https://stuhlmueller.org/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stuhlmueller/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/stuhlmueller
- GitHub: https://github.com/stuhlmueller

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/andreas-stuhlmueller
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-01