Blog | Global Catastrophic Risk Institute

GCRI Receives $200,000 for 2021 Work on AI

Post Date February 24, 2021

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Author Seth Baum

Category announcement

I am delighted to announce that GCRI has received a new $200,000 donation to fund work on AI in 2021 from Gordon Irlam. Irlam had previously made donations funding AI project work conducted in 2020 and 2019.

Irlam explains in his own words why he chose to support our work:

“It isn’t enough that we research technical AGI alignment. Any such technical AGI alignment scheme must then be implemented. This is the domain of AGI policy. GCRI is one of the leading U.S. organizations working on AGI …

GCRI Welcomes Research Associate Andrea Owe

Post Date February 23, 2021

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category announcement

GCRI is delighted to announce our newest team member, Andrea Owe. Andrea will work as a research associate, contributing primarily to GCRI’s research on ethics and artificial intelligence.

Andrea holds an M.Phil in Development, Environment and Cultural Change from the Centre for Development and the Environment at the University of Oslo, and a B.A. in Fine Arts from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. At the University of Oslo, she was an Arne Næss Stipend holder and researcher at the Arne Næss Programme on …

In Memory of John Garrick

Post Date February 22, 2021

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Author Seth Baum

Category memorial

Late last year, the field of risk analysis lost a pioneer and longtime leader, B. John Garrick. Garrick helped develop the field, first in the nuclear power industry and then later across a wide range of other domains, including global catastrophic risk. He was also a colleague and a friend of GCRI, who contributed to our work as one of our senior advisors. He will be dearly missed by many, including all of us at GCRI.

As histories of risk analysis document (e.g. this and this), …

January Newsletter: Insurrection & AGI Survey

Post Date January 28, 2021

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category newsletter

Dear friends,

January 6, 2021 was a dark day in the US. The violent insurrection at the US Capitol was terrible in its own right, but, as we discuss on the GCRI blog, it also had several links to global catastrophic risk, including visions of global genocide against non-whites and systems of disinformation that also undermine the governance of climate change and of the COVID-19 pandemic.

GCRI is nonpartisan, and we welcome constructive contributions from people of all political views. We do not, however, welcome those who …

GCRI Receives $209,000 for General Support

Post Date January 27, 2021

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Author Seth Baum

Category announcement

I am delighted to announce that GCRI has received $209,000 in a new grant from Jaan Tallinn via the Survival and Flourishing Fund. The grant is for general support for GCRI. We at GCRI are grateful for this donation. We look forward to using it to advance our mission of developing the best ways to confront humanity’s gravest threats.

GCRI Statement on the January 6 US Capitol Insurrection

Post Date January 15, 2021

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Author Seth Baum

Category events, news coverage, statement

We at the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute were appalled and disgusted to watch as right-wing domestic violent extremists stormed the US Capitol on January 6 to threaten Congress and disrupt certification of the Electoral College vote [1].

Though shocking in its own right, the insurrection fits a broader pattern. Empirical research shows that right-wing domestic violent extremism has been the main source of terrorism in the United States since the attacks of September 11, 2001. We unequivocally oppose all forms of terrorism and political violence. We hope that …

2020 Survey of Artificial General Intelligence Projects for Ethics, Risk, and Policy

Post Date December 31, 2020

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Author Seth Baum

Category publications

View the paper “2020 Survey of Artificial General Intelligence Projects for Ethics, Risk, and Policy”

In 2017, GCRI published the first-ever survey of artificial general intelligence (AGI) research and development (R&D) projects for ethics, risk, and policy. This paper updates the 2017 survey. The 2020 survey features improved methodology, enabling it to find more projects than the 2017 survey and characterize them more precisely. The 2020 survey also evaluates how the landscape of AGI R&D projects has changed from 2017 to 2020.

AGI is AI that can …

November Newsletter: Year in Review

Post Date November 25, 2020

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category newsletter

Dear friends,

What a year 2020 has been. The COVID-19 pandemic is already the most severe global catastrophe in decades, and it’s far from over. It shows the importance of addressing global catastrophic risk: a global catastrophe can upend everything else we’re doing and destroy so much of what we care about.

GCRI has been relatively fortunate during the pandemic. We have always been a remote collaboration organization, so we have been able to maintain a high degree of social distancing with relatively little impact on our …

2020 Annual Report

Post Date November 24, 2020

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Author Seth Baum

Category planning

2020 has been a challenging year for GCRI, as it has been for so many other organizations. The pandemic we are currently living through is, by some definitions, a global catastrophe. COVID-19 has already killed more than a million people worldwide, and has disrupted the work and lives of many others. At the same time, political turmoil in the US and around the world has demanded our attention and created both new risks and new opportunities.

Fortunately, GCRI is relatively well-positioned to operate
under these conditions. …

October Newsletter: AI Governance Call For Papers

Post Date October 15, 2020

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Author Robert de Neufville

Category newsletter

Dear friends,

I am editing a new special issue on “Governance of Artificial Intelligence” for the journal Information. The call for papers is online here. Please see details below. Please feel free to circulate this among others who may be interested.

Information is an open access journal with an author processing charge. GCRI is able to cover the author processing charge for a limited number of submissions. Interested authors should contact me directly about this.

Sincerely,Seth Baum,Executive Director

Call For Papers: Governance of Artificial Intelligence

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/information/special_issues/Governance_AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is …

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