I chair the Francis Bacon Debate Society and write on frontier AI, with a strong interest in alignment. I am group chief executive of Brethil Investment, and chairman of Liberalia, the company I founded in Madrid in 2002, aged 18, and sold to the Anovo Group. I work with SquareTrade, an Allstate company based in London.
After racing alpine and ski cross, I first raced speed ski internationally in 2011, representing Great Britain. I retired in 2021, ranked 5th in the world, and returned to the World Cup circuit part time in the 2022/23 season, for Team GB. The fastest I have been on skis is 231.66 km/h, quicker than any Briton since 2005. My films on YouTube have 17 million views. The full record and press archive are here.
I am adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at IE Business School, sit on the advisory board of AIXI Labs, a London non-profit for AI safety research, and am a father of two: Olga and Vera.
Now
- 2026 The Francis Bacon Debate Society sits again in the autumn.
- 2026 The Francis Bacon Debate Society sat at the House of Lords on 22 January, Francis Bacon’s 465th birthday.
- 2025 27th at the FIS Speed Ski World Championships, Vars, eleven months after knee surgery.
Writing
- 2026 “The troubling vocabulary of machine consciousness”, letter, Financial Times, 22 August.
- 2025 “Yes, I’m scared.”, LinkedIn, March. On fear as information.
The Francis Bacon Debate Society
A private debate forum convening in London and Madrid. One motion, argued from both sides over dinner in the Oxford Union manner, then a recorded vote. Discussion is held under the Chatham House Rule. About the Society →
Questions I think about
- How long does the public keep access to frontier AI?
- Can a machine be governed in ten lines?
- What do we owe the question of machine consciousness?
- Should Britain build sovereign AI capability?
- Should we resist the end of jobs?
- What is fear for?
- How much protein is too much?
Briefly
Born in Lancaster in 1983 to a Czech mother and an English father. In Spain since the age of five, and between Madrid and London today. Married to Olga S. from 2016 to 2021. I answer email at jf {at} janfarrell.com.