Maiden is a research lab focused on emerging technologies and the public good. We deliver actionable risk and market intelligence to industry leaders, labor unions, and the public on the real-world risks of generative AI and digital financial systems.
We use applied research to develop customized tools that reduce uncertainty and prevent unintended harms for people at the frontier of technology.
Technology should help us solve the biggest challenges and capture the greatest opportunities for the most people, at the lowest possible risk.
— Leadership
Maiden’s team combines deep expertise in applied research, technology risk modeling, and cross-sector coordination with a focus on technologies shaping the future of money and work. Our research is led by Dr. Tim Marple, an expert in global technology governance and catastrophic risk management, and the creator of the first frontier AI risk assessment systems for both Google and OpenAI.
Dr. Tim Marple
Co-Director
​Dr. Tim Marple↗︎ is a leading researcher in emerging technology risk and governance. His work—spanning peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and policy reports—examines how powerful interests and institutions shape the development and deployment of transformative technologies. In his earlier roles at OpenAI and Google, Dr. Marple built and led risk analysis programs to identify, prioritize, and mitigate catastrophic risks of AI models and products.
After years confronting the limits of academic silos and short-term market incentives, he recognized a dire need for grounded, human-centered AI research. AI is already reshaping social institutions and redefining human relationships – with no promise that these changes will help most people. In 2024, Tim joined Maiden Labs to align AI development with human needs by launching a research center to understand and prevent risks of real-world AI deployments with interdisciplinary inquiry and cross-societal mobilization.
Shira Frank
Co-Director & Founder
For 20 years, Shira Frank↗︎ has worked at the intersection of money and power—first through philanthropy redirecting resources to those most in need, then as Deputy Director for J Street, where she partnered with the Obama Administration to transform US policy in the Middle East and advance the Iran Nuclear Agreement.
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The pattern was clear: working within existing systems achieved incremental change, but emerging technologies offered the chance to fundamentally redesign them. In 2017, she founded Maiden to ensure that digital currency and financial protocols centered people in their design, not as an afterthought.
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When AI began reshaping not just finance but every sector with similar stakes—who benefits, who decides, who bears the risk—the lab's focus naturally expanded. Today, Maiden Labs provides strategic intelligence across both domains, helping organizations navigate the profound governance challenges of technologies that will define the distribution of power and opportunity for generations.
— Collaborators
Recent research collaborators include Stanford University↗︎, the MIT Digital Currency Initiative↗︎, the Gates Foundation↗︎,the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH↗︎, the MIT Laboratory for Economic Analysis and Design↗︎, PayPal, Google, and Citi Ventures.
— Board members
Researcher, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, University of Cambridge and Bennett School of Public Policy; formerly at the World Economic Forum
UX Research Manager, Mastercard
Dayana Meza Tolles Giraldo↗︎
Senior Associate, NAXO; formerly at Chainalysis, Inc
Financial Sector Expert at the International Monetary Fund, and Associate Professor at Uppsala University
Sam Stuewe
Software Architect and Engineer, Emergent Software; formerly at the MIT Digital Currency Initiative
— Why work with us
Our non-profit lab provides data-driven insights to help identify emerging AI risks before they become liabilities.
We uniquely combine:
Quantitative risk modeling expertise at scale, creating the first frontier risk-assessment systems for the full family of products at both Google and OpenAI
International stakeholder management experience, including successful multi-year engagements with Fortune 100 banks and technology companies, global central bankers, and US congressional leaders
Rigorous academic training and research collaborations with top academic institutions, including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, INSEAD Business School, Oxford, and MIT
Interdisciplinary teams with diverse, applied research foci, including quantitative modeling, technology governance, catastrophic risk, political economy, geoeconomics, and user research
