GCRI Welcomes Project Manager and Research Assistant McKenna Fitzgerald

I am delighted to announce GCRI’s newest team member, McKenna Fitzgerald, who will serve as GCRI’s Project Manager and Research Assistant. Ms. Fitzgerald was selected through a competitive search process and we are excited to have her joining our team. Her initial focus will be on GCRI’s ongoing AI projects.

Until recently, Ms. Fitzgerald worked as Director of Academic Affairs at the Consulate General of Israel in San Francisco. Her work there focused on facilitating partnerships between government, academia, and industry on AI …

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The Defense Production Act and the Failure to Prepare for Catastrophic Incidents

GCRI Special Advisor for Government Affairs Jared Brown has a new essay in War on the Rocks about the Defense Production Act and the US’ systemic failure to prepare for catastrophes like the current SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Brown writes in his essay that “the executive branch’s ad-hoc application of the Defense Production Act’s authorities to this pandemic is Exhibit A of how our government, across multiple Republican and Democratic administrations and throughout the national security enterprise, has failed to develop or adapt the Act’s tools for …

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GCRI Statement on the COVID-19 Pandemic

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is already the most severe global event in decades. It has killed more than 80,000 people and counting worldwide, left millions more out of work, and upended the lives of a large portion of the global population. We at GCRI are monitoring the situation closely and assessing opportunities to contribute to the outbreak response.

What follows are some initial thoughts on the pandemic. We
expect to comment further as the situation unfolds.

What is GCRI’s primary message at this time?

We agree with the common …

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January Newsletter: GCRI Is Hiring + Call For Advisees/Collaborators

Dear friends,

I am delighted to announce that GCRI is currently hiring for the position of Junior Research Assistant and Project Manager. This is a great opportunity for someone seeking to make an impact and advance their career in global catastrophic risk. Additionally, GCRI has recently launched a new advising and collaboration program for people at all career points interested in our active AI projects. Please see below for details of both of these items. They are both made possible by a generous recent donation from …

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Job Posting: Junior Research Assistant and Project Manager

UPDATE: The junior research assistant and project manager position has been filled and this job posting is now closed. Thanks to everyone who applied for their interest.

The Global Catastrophic Risk Institute (GCRI) seeks to hire one or more people for research assistant and project manager roles. We aim to hire one person on a full-time basis and/or multiple people on a part-time basis.

The Global Catastrophic Risk Institute (GCRI) seeks to hire one or more people for research assistant and project manager roles. We aim to …

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Call for Advisees and Collaborators for Select AI Projects, January 2020

UPDATE June 9: We are not taking on new participants to this advisees and collaborators program right now. However, anyone interested in seeking our advice and/or collaborating with us is still welcome to contact us as per the instructions below and we will include them in our next advisees and collaborators program.

GCRI is currently welcoming inquiries from people who are interested in seeking our advice and/or collaborating with us on select AI projects, which are detailed below. We have some funding available for select project …

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GCRI Receives $250,000 for 2020 Work on AI

I am delighted to announce that GCRI has received a new $250,000 donation from Gordon Irlam that will fund GCRI’s work on AI in 2020. Irlam had previously made a donation of the same amount a year ago, also for AI work.

Irlam explains why he made the donation this way:

“Technical AGI safety is an emerging field. Whether its recommendations to make AGI safe are heeded or ignored carries tremendous weight for the future. Having these recommendations heeded is fundamentally is a social, political, and …

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November Newsletter: A Year of Growth

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 …

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2019 Annual Report

2019 has been a year of growth for GCRI. We have made good progress toward our goal, announced last year, of scaling up the organization so we can do more to reduce global catastrophic risk. We have also completed work on ongoing global catastrophic risk projects. We are especially happy with the advising and collaboration program we ran this year, through which we helped many people advance their work on global catastrophic risk while demonstrating how GCRI can operate at a larger scale.

Last year, we …

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Lessons for Artificial Intelligence from Other Global Risks

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 …

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