GCRI Receives $200,000 for 2022 Work on AI

by | 8 December 2021

I am delighted to announce that GCRI has received a new $200,000 donation to fund work on AI in 2022 from Gordon Irlam. Irlam had previously made donations funding AI project work conducted in 20212020, and 2019.

All of us at GCRI are grateful for this donation. We are excited to continue our work addressing AI risk.

Our projects for 2022 cover the following topics:

Continuation of prior projects: We will continue work on select projects from previous years.

Further support for the AI and global catastrophic risk talent pools: This project extends our successful advising and collaboration programs of 2021,  2020, and 2019.

Research on the ethics of AGI: This project will evaluate ideas for the goals an advanced AGI system should pursue and the processes for determining these goals.

Research on military AGIThis project will study the likely roles of militaries in the development of AGI and opportunities for outreach to improve these roles.

Implementation of ideas for improving AI governance: This project will work to advance the implementation of programs for AI governance based on insights from select prior projects to translate research ideas into real-world action.

Research on AGI scenarios: This project will explore different AGI development scenarios and their governance implications, building on insights from our 2021 AGI policy awareness research.

Policy outreach: This project will conduct outreach to various policy institutions and promote ideas developed in GCRI’s AI research projects to improve AGI outcomes.

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.