GCRI Crowdfunding Campaign: International Treaties for Emerging Technologies

by | 4 December 2012

Grant Wilson and Seth Baum (myself) have just launched an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign Preventing Technological Disaster Through International Treaties. The campaign is raising funds to write a new paper extending Grant’s recent publication Minimizing global catastrophic and existential risks from emerging technologies through international law.

Crowdfunding is raising funds via large numbers of people. Websites like Indiegogo let people post projects for funding, and then anyone interested can contribute funds. Crowdfunding has been used to raise often quite large amounts of funding for a wide range of projects. Now we’re seeing if it can help raise funds for GCR research. We don’t know how well this will work – wish us luck! Or better yet, donate to the campaign, and share it with your friends!

In keeping with the crowdfunding spirit, we are offering several different rewards, from a customized limerick to a GCR career advising session with us to “immortality”. Check out the page for details.

We encourage everyone to make at least a small donation to the crowdfunding campaign to show interest in the project and help it build momentum. Even just visiting the campaign page helps to show interest in it and attract further attention. Meanwhile you can also donate to GCRI directly.

Author

Recent Publications

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Is climate change a global catastrophic risk? This paper, published in the journal Futures, addresses the question by examining the definition of global catastrophic risk and by comparing climate change to another severe global risk, nuclear winter. The paper concludes that yes, climate change is a global catastrophic risk, and potentially a significant one.

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

For over 50 years, experts have worried about the risk of AI taking over the world and killing everyone. The concern had always been about hypothetical future AI systems—until recent LLMs emerged. This paper, published in the journal Risk Analysis, assesses how close LLMs are to having the capabilities needed to cause takeover catastrophe.

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Diversity is a major ethics concept, but it is remarkably understudied. This paper, published in the journal Inquiry, presents a foundational study of the ethics of diversity. It adapts ideas about biodiversity and sociodiversity to the overall category of diversity. It also presents three new thought experiments, with implications for AI ethics.

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Climate Change, Uncertainty, and Global Catastrophic Risk

Is climate change a global catastrophic risk? This paper, published in the journal Futures, addresses the question by examining the definition of global catastrophic risk and by comparing climate change to another severe global risk, nuclear winter. The paper concludes that yes, climate change is a global catastrophic risk, and potentially a significant one.

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

Assessing the Risk of Takeover Catastrophe from Large Language Models

For over 50 years, experts have worried about the risk of AI taking over the world and killing everyone. The concern had always been about hypothetical future AI systems—until recent LLMs emerged. This paper, published in the journal Risk Analysis, assesses how close LLMs are to having the capabilities needed to cause takeover catastrophe.

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

On the Intrinsic Value of Diversity

Diversity is a major ethics concept, but it is remarkably understudied. This paper, published in the journal Inquiry, presents a foundational study of the ethics of diversity. It adapts ideas about biodiversity and sociodiversity to the overall category of diversity. It also presents three new thought experiments, with implications for AI ethics.