GCRI Receives $209,000 for General Support

Post Date January 27, 2021
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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.

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GCRI Statement on the January 6 US Capitol Insurrection

Post Date January 15, 2021
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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 …

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

Post Date December 31, 2020
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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 …

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November Newsletter: Year in Review

Post Date November 25, 2020
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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 …

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2020 Annual Report

Post Date November 24, 2020
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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. …

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October Newsletter: AI Governance Call For Papers

Post Date October 15, 2020
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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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Call For Papers: Governance of Artificial Intelligence

Post Date October 12, 2020
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Category call for papers

GCRI Executive Director Seth Baum is editor of a new special issue of the journal Information on Governance of Artificial Intelligence. The special issue welcomes manuscripts on all aspects of the governance of AI. Details below.

Note that 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 Baum directly about this.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is playing an increasingly important role in human affairs and in …

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September Newsletter: Planetary Defense & Violent Conflict

Post Date September 29, 2020
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Dear friends,

A primary reason GCRI works across the range of global catastrophic risks is to address the many important points of intersection between the risks. These points of intersection often are neglected by communities that focus on one risk at a time.

This month, we announce a paper on the intersection of planetary defense and violent conflict, especially nuclear war. Planetary defense refers to protection against asteroids, comets, and meteors. One point of intersection is the proposed use of nuclear explosives to target Earthbound asteroids …

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Accounting for Violent Conflict Risk in Planetary Defense Decisions

Post Date September 09, 2020
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Category asteroids, publications, risk analysis

View the paper “Accounting For Violent Conflict Risk In Planetary Defense Decisions”

Planetary defense is the defense of planet Earth against collisions with near-Earth objects (NEOs), which include asteroids, comets and meteoroids. A central objective of planetary defense is to reduce risks to Earth and its inhabitants. Whereas planetary defense is mainly focused on risks from NEO, this paper argues that planetary defense decisions should also account for other risks, especially risks from violent conflict. The paper is based on a talk I gave at the 2019 Planetary …

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August Newsletter: Quantifying Probability

Post Date August 31, 2020
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Dear friends,

One of the great features of being part of a wider community of scholars and professionals working on global catastrophic risk is the chance to learn from and build on work that other groups are doing. This month, we announce a paper of mine that builds on an excellent recent paper by Simon Beard, Thomas Rowe, James Fox. The Beard et al. paper surveys the methods used to quantify the probability of existential catastrophe (which is roughly synonymous with global catastrophe).

My paper comments …

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