November Newsletter: A Year of Growth

Post Date November 26, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category newsletter

Dear friends,

2019 has been a year of growth for GCRI. One year ago, we described a turning point for the organization and announced our goal of scaling up to increase our impact on global catastrophic risk. Over the past year, we have made considerable progress toward this goal. We have expanded our team, published work in top journals such as Science and Risk Analysis, and hosted a tremendously successful advising and collaboration program in support of talented people around the world. All this and more …

Read More »

Lessons for Artificial Intelligence from Other Global Risks

Post Date November 21, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category announcement, articles, artificial intelligence

View the paper “Lessons for Artificial Intelligence from Other Global Risks”

It has become clear in recent years that AI poses important global risks. The study of AI risk is relatively new, but it can potentially learn a lot from the study of similar, better-studied risks. GCRI’s new paper applies to the study of AI risk lessons from four other risks: biotechnology, nuclear weapons, global warming, and asteroids. The paper is co-authored by GCRI’s Seth Baum, Robert de Neufville, and Tony Barrett, along with GCRI Senior …

Read More »

September 2019 Newsletter

Post Date September 30, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category newsletter

Survival and Flourishing Fund Grant

GCRI has been awarded a $60,000 grant from the Survival and Flourishing Fund (SFF), a new donor-advised fund held at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. SFF’s goal is “to bring financial support to organizations working to improve humanity’s long-term prospects for survival and flourishing”. GCRI is grateful for SFF’s support of our work.

Risk and Decision Analysis

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum has an article on “The Challenge of Analyzing Global Catastrophic Risks” in the July issue of Decision Analysis Today. The article describes …

Read More »

Review of End Times in Science

Post Date September 23, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category articles

Read Seth Baum’s review of End Times.

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum recently reviewed Bryan Walsh’s new book End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World for Science. Dr. Baum calls End Times is “a highly readable account of the field of global catastrophic risk as it is currently constituted”. The book specifically covers Earth-asteroid collision, volcano eruption, nuclear war, global warming, disease outbreaks, biotechnology, and various threats from artificial and extraterrestrial intelligence. Dr. Baum writes that the book raises two key questions …

Read More »

GCRI Session at the 2019 Society for Risk Analysis Meeting

Post Date July 22, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category announcement, risk analysis

GCRI is hosting a session on Global Catastrophic Risks at the 2019 meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA) in Arlington, VA. SRA is the leading professional society for all types of risk. SRA brings together researchers from many disciplines as well as professionals from government, industry, nonprofits, and other sectors.

GCRI Director of Research Tony Barrett is chairing the session. It will feature talks by GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum, GCRI Special Advisor for Government Affairs Jared Brown, GCRI Senior Advisor Gary Ackerman, University …

Read More »

July Newsletter: Asteroid-Nuclear Risk Analysis

Post Date July 16, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category newsletter

Dear friends,

One reason it is important to analyze the global catastrophic risks quantitatively is that some decisions involve tradeoffs between them. An action may reduce one risk while increasing another. It’s important to know whether the decrease in the one risk is large enough to offset the increase in the other.

This month, we announce a new paper that presents a detailed analysis of one such decision: the use of nuclear explosives to deflect Earthbound asteroids away. Nuclear deflection is an option under active consideration by …

Read More »

May Newsletter: Call For Advisees & Collaborators

Post Date May 30, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category newsletter

Dear friends,

I’m pleased to announce that GCRI has recently launched an open call for advisees and collaborators. If you are interested in working with GCRI, or if you would simply like some advice from us on how you can get involved in global catastrophic risk, then please don’t hesitate to reach out. We welcome inquiries from people at all career points, from students to senior scholars and professionals. Please see our blog post for details.

Sincerely,

Seth BaumExecutive Director

Planetary Defense

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum gave a talk titled …

Read More »

Open Call for Advisees and Collaborators, May 2019

Post Date May 29, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category outreach

GCRI is currently welcoming inquiries from people who are
interested in seeking our advice and/or collaborating with us on projects.

At this time we are holding a preliminary, informal, open call for people at all career points interested in working on any aspect of global catastrophic risk. We cannot engage with everyone, but will try to talk to as many interested people as we can.

Of particular interest:

Scholars and professionals at intermediate and senior career points (Ph.D. graduates and up, or equivalent professional experience) whose work overlaps with …

Read More »

Violent Conflict Risk in Planetary Defense Decisions

Post Date May 14, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category talks

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum gave a talk titled “Accounting For Violent Conflict Risk In Planetary Defense Decisions” at the 2019 International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Planetary Defense Conference in Washington, D.C. Baum’s talk looked at the relationship between efforts to protect the Earth from the impact of near-Earth objects (NEOs) and the risk of violent conflict. Richard A. Lovett wrote about Baum’s talk and about the discussion of planetary defense decisions at the conference in Cosmos.

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum gave a talk titled …

Read More »

Why Catastrophes Can Change the Course of Humanity

Post Date April 18, 2019
Comments Comments Closed
Author
Category articles

BBC Future just published an essay by GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum titled “Why Catastrophes Can Change the Course of Humanity” on global catastrophes and the long-term fate of human civilization. The essay argues that we need to consider the impact of potential catastrophes not just on people alive today but also on the long-term future of humanity.

The essay draws on a paper Dr. Baum wrote with a group of scholars including Olle Häggström, Robin Hanson, Karin Kuhlemann, Anders Sandberg, and Roman …

Read More »
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »