Leah Pistorius
July 27, 2026
Emily Tseng, an assistant professor in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, leads one of 18 university research groups worldwide selected to participate in Microsoft's new External Red Team Alliance (EXTRA), a global initiative supporting independent AI safety research.
Emily Tseng is an assistant professor in the University of Washington's Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering, where she leads the Sociotechnical Safety Lab.
As part of the initiative, the University of Washington received an unrestricted $25,000 gift to support Tseng's research in AI safety, security, alignment, and other areas of responsible AI development. Microsoft said the gifts are intended to give researchers the flexibility to pursue independent work while strengthening collaboration between universities and industry.
Led by Microsoft's AI Red Team, EXTRA brings together university researchers and technical experts from six continents to address a growing challenge in AI safety: no single company or region has all the expertise needed to fully evaluate today's most advanced AI systems. As these systems become more capable, effective safety testing increasingly depends on specialists in areas such as cybersecurity, multilingual systems, AI alignment, and emerging misuse risks.
That perspective is central to Tseng's work at HCDE. Her research examines digital safety and how technologies become part of people's relationships and everyday lives, with a focus on designing systems that better anticipate misuse and support trust.
Microsoft says EXTRA is designed to support researchers who are already investigating difficult questions in AI safety rather than direct research toward specific products or outcomes. The initiative also creates opportunities for closer collaboration between university researchers and AI security practitioners, helping develop new approaches for evaluating AI systems and identifying emerging risks.
Tseng's Sociotechnical Safety Lab is one of 18 university research groups selected for the initiative, joining institutions across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Tseng joined the HCDE faculty in Spring 2026 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Microsoft Research, where she contributed to the company's AI safety efforts. Learn more about Professor Tseng and her research.
Read the announcement from Microsoft, Enhancing AI security through global AI red teaming.