GCRI Receives $140,000 for General Support

Post Date July 07, 2020
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I am delighted to announce that GCRI has received $140,000 in new grants via the Survival and Flourishing Fund. $90,000 is from Jaan Tallinn and $50,000 is from Jed McCaleb. Both grants are for general support for GCRI. We at GCRI are grateful for these donations. We look forward to using them to advance our mission of developing the best ways to confront humanity’s gravest threats.

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GCRI Welcomes Project Manager and Research Assistant McKenna Fitzgerald

Post Date May 07, 2020
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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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Job Posting: Junior Research Assistant and Project Manager

Post Date January 28, 2020
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Category announcement, jobs

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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GCRI Receives $250,000 for 2020 Work on AI

Post Date December 18, 2019
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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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Lessons for Artificial Intelligence from Other Global Risks

Post Date November 21, 2019
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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 …

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The Challenge of Analyzing Global Catastrophic Risks

Post Date July 29, 2019
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Category announcement, articles, risk analysis

View the paper “The Challenge of Analyzing Global Catastrophic Risks”

The quantification of global catastrophic risks in terms of their probabilities and severities is difficult, but it is important for many decisions. Likewise, the fields of risk and decision analysis have much to offer the study of global catastrophic risk. This short paper summarizes the challenge of quantitatively analyzing global catastrophic risks. I was invited by the Decision Analysis Society to write this for their publication Decision Analysis Today.

As the paper explains, the quantification of global …

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GCRI Session at the 2019 Society for Risk Analysis Meeting

Post Date July 22, 2019
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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 …

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Risk-Risk Tradeoff Analysis of Nuclear Explosives for Asteroid Deflection

Post Date June 17, 2019
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Category announcement, articles, asteroids, nuclear war, risk analysis

View the paper “Risk-Risk Tradeoff Analysis of Nuclear Explosives for Asteroid Deflection”

If an asteroid is found to be on collision course with Earth, it may be possible to deflect it away. One way of deflecting asteroids would be to use nuclear explosives. A nuclear deflection program may reduce the risk of an asteroid collision, but it might also inadvertently increase the risk of nuclear war or other violent conflict. This paper analyzes this potential tradeoff and evaluates its policy implications. The paper is published in …

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GCRI Welcomes Special Advisor Jared Brown

Post Date March 27, 2019
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I am delighted to announce GCRI’s newest team member, Jared Brown, who will serve as GCRI’s Special Advisor for Government Affairs. Mr. Brown will assist GCRI in particular with our policy outreach, mainly with the United States government. Outreach is a growing focus for GCRI, and Mr. Brown’s assistance will be of tremendous value for this. (For further detail on our outreach, please see Summary of GCRI’s 2018-2019 Accomplishments, Plans, and Fundraising.)

Until recently, Mr. Brown worked at the US Congressional Research Service, developing a very …

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GCRI Receives $250,000 Donation For AI Research And Outreach

Post Date December 15, 2018
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I am delighted to announce that GCRI has received a $250,000 donation from Gordon Irlam, to be used for GCRI’s research and outreach on artificial intelligence. The donation will be used mainly to fund Robert de Neufville and myself during 2019.

The donation is a major first step toward GCRI’s goal of raising $1.5 million to enable the organization to start scaling up. Our next fundraising priority is to bring GCRI Director of Research Tony Barrett on full-time, and possibly also one other senior hire whom …

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