Rishi Bommasani is an AI researcher who serves as Society Lead at the Stanford Center for Research on Foundation Models (CRFM) and is a Stanford PhD candidate or recent graduate in natural language processing. His work focuses on the empirical measurement of frontier-lab transparency and on translating foundation-model research into policy-usable products.
Background
Bommasani completed PhD work in natural language processing at Stanford University and holds the Society Lead role at Stanford CRFM. He is also affiliated with Stanford HAI.
Research and policy contributions
"On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models" (2021)
Bommasani co-authored, with roughly 100 Stanford researchers, the Stanford CRFM report "On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models," published in August 2021. The report introduced the term "foundation models" now used for frontier large language models, ahead of the increase in attention to the category that followed the release of ChatGPT.
Foundation Model Transparency Index (FMTI), 2023–
Bommasani is principal author of Stanford CRFM's annual Foundation Model Transparency Index, an empirical assessment across more than 100 transparency indicators for frontier labs, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Amazon. The index is used as a reference for empirical claims about the relative transparency of frontier labs.
California Policy Working Group on AI Frontier Models (2025)
Bommasani was lead writer, with Scott Singer at Carnegie, of the California Report on Frontier AI Policy, published in June 2025. The report's operational framework and eight policy principles emphasize transparency as the primary governance lever, consistent with the approach of his FMTI work.
Positions and influence
Bommasani is among the younger academics translating foundation-model research into empirical products intended for policy use, with a focus on transparency measurement. His work informs the transparency-requirement provisions of California SB 53 and the EU AI Act.
Relationships
- supports: The California Report on Frontier AI Policy — lead writer.
- related: Stanford Center for Research on Foundation Models (CRFM) (TBD entity) / Stanford HAI — affiliations.
- related: California SB 53 — Transparency in Frontier AI Act / EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) / EU General-Purpose AI Code of Practice (Final Version, 2025) — transparency-focused governance his work supports.
- related: Open Problems in Technical AI Governance — adjacent research-agenda paper.
- related: A Framework for AI Development Transparency (Anthropic) — transparency as a governance lever.
- related: Frontier Compliance Framework (February 2026) — his FMTI empirics inform this framework.