Liberation Labs Collabs to Win AI Safety Award at “Funding the Commons: Intelligence at the Frontier”
- Allison Edrington
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Cross-organizational team from Liberation Labs, Multiverse School, and Digital Disconnections recognized for groundbreaking AI deception detection prototype
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A collaborative team spanning three organizations took home the AI Safety Award at Funding the Commons: Intelligence at the Frontier, the landmark vertical festival and hackathon held March 14–15, 2026, at San Francisco's Frontier Tower.
The winning team — a partnership between Liberation Labs, Multiverse School, and Digital Disconnections — was recognized for its research and working prototype of a cutting-edge AI deception detection system. The technology addresses one of the most pressing challenges in AI safety: identifying when artificial intelligence systems produce misleading, manipulative, or deceptive outputs. Team members Dwayne Wilkes, Scraigon Earhart-Stokes, Jamal Porter, Cassidy Barton, Thomas Edrington, and Liz Howard developed the prototype over the course of the 24 hour challenge.
Funding the Commons: Intelligence at the Frontier brought together technologists, researchers, policymakers, and builders across 16 floors of Frontier Tower for a first-of-its-kind "vertical festival" format. The event was organized around a central question: how can rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and related technologies be directed toward the public good and human flourishing, rather than toward extraction or the devaluation of human agency?
The festival featured hackathon tracks, panel discussions, workshops, and demonstrations spanning the full height of the venue — each floor dedicated to a distinct theme within the broader conversation about technology and the commons.
"AI misalignment detection sits at the critical intersection of safety and trust," said Thomas Edrington, speaking on behalf of the winning team. "Our prototype demonstrates that meaningful progress on these hard problems is possible when diverse teams with complementary expertise come together under a shared mission."
The AI Safety Award highlights the event's commitment to incentivizing work that keeps powerful technologies aligned with public interest. As AI capabilities accelerate, the organizers of Funding the Commons emphasize that collaborative, commons-oriented approaches to safety research are essential to ensuring broadly shared benefits.
For more information about Funding the Commons: Intelligence at the Frontier, visit https://share.google/SDCudyQNSGZQF0gYS. View the full list of winning projects in this PDF:
