About Us

Our History

  • 2012

    In January 2012, the Singularity Institute began publishing monthly progress reports.

  • 2011

    During 2011, the Singularity Institute moved its primary focus of operations to Berkeley, California. Throughout the summer, Rationality Minicamp and Rationality Boot Camp were run, bringing together dozens of rationalists from around the world to learn more about rationality and personal effectiveness. Singularity Institute hired Research Fellows Carl Shulman and Luke Muehlhauser to expand our research program. A Research Associates program was created, including researchers Daniel Dewey, Vladimir Nesov, Joshua Fox, Steve Rayhawk, and Peter de Blanc. Louie Helm was hired as Director of Development, founding the Singularity Institute Volunteer Program and raising funds for a $125,000 Summer Challenge Grant, which completed successfully on September 1st. Michael Anissimov presented on Friendly AI at the Society for Philosophy of Technology conference in Dayton, TX. Singularity Summit 2011 was held in New York City, with the videos available online. In November, Luke Muehlhauser was named Executive Director. Three publications were released throughout 2011: "Ontological Crises in Artificial Agents' Value Systems", "Learning What to Value", and "Complex Value Systems are Required to Realize Valuable Futures". For the first time, a Strategic Plan was released as part of efforts towards greater transparency at the Singularity Institute. Two primer websites were created: IntelligenceExplosion.com and Friendly-AI.com.

  • 2010

    During the Summer, Singularity Institute held another Visiting Fellows Program, with more than 15 participants. Seven papers were published in 2010, listed on our publications page. SIAI held the Singularity Summit 2010 in August in San Francisco, receiving media coverage in a front-page article in the February 21st, 2011 issue of TIME magazine. Summit videos were posted in their entirety online, garnering over half a million views. The first Singularity Summit spinoff overseas was held, in Melbourne Australia. Eliezer Yudkowsky progressed on his rationality book project. SIAI fellows presented research at the European Conference on Philosophy and Computing and the Society for Risk Analysis conference. SIAI President Michael Vassar presented at the Audacious Optimism dinner, hosted by the Thiel Foundation in San Francisco. The Institute ran the $125,000 Tallinn-Evans Challenge, which successfully raised $250,000 for SIAI operations in 2011. MIT professor Max Tegmark joined the Singularity Institute's advisory board. Amy Willey was hired as Chief Operating Officer.

  • 2009

    Michael Vassar joined SIAI as President. Funded by the Google Summer of Code, work continued on OpenCog, Director of Research Dr. Ben Goertzel's open source software project aimed at providing a generic framework for the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) software. 11 interns participated. The SIAI Visiting Fellows Program was founded in June, bringing 14 researchers (mostly graduate students) to Silicon Valley for summer work on papers focused on AI growth modeling, the role of discounting in utilitarian models, and more. This summer program was followed up with continuing fellowships on a rolling basis. In October, the Singularity Summit 2009 was held, with over 800 attendees and media coverage from Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Forbes. SIAI participated in the founding of the web community Less Wrong, where SIAI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky finished a major writing project which will be organized into a book on human rationality. Michael Anissimov was hired as Media Director.

  • 2008

    SIAI also funded two summer research groups, composed mainly of grad students: one focused on mathematics and other focused on creating a probabilistic modeling tool to explore futures around intelligence enhancement, AI, and associated catastrophic risk. Participants included Anna Salamon, Steve Rayhawk, Tom McCabe, Peter de Blanc, Michael Anissimov, Nick Hay, and Marcello Herreshoff. Eliezer Yudkowsky presented at Convergence 2008. The Singularity Summit 2008 was held in San Jose.

  • 2007

    Ray Kurzweil joined the board of directors. The Singularity Challenge 2007 was announced to build the institute's donor base for support of research, education, and outreach expansion in 2007.

  • 2006

    SIAI co-sponsored the Singularity Summit at Stanford, organized by Tyler Emerson in collaboration with Ray Kurzweil and Peter Thiel. Eliezer Yudkowsky released “Artificial Intelligence as a Positive and Negative Factor in Global Risk” and “Cognitive Biases Potentially Affecting Judgment of Global Risks”, published as chapters in Global Catastrophic Risks (Oxford, 2008). Yudkowsky presented at the Bay Area Future Salon, Singularity Summit, and AGI Workshop. SIAI raised $200,000 through a challenge grant backed by Clarium Capital President Peter Thiel. Peter Thiel, Barney Pell, and Neil Jacobstein became advisors.

  • 2005

    Eliezer Yudkowsky released “A Technical Explanation of Technical Explanation,” an essay on Bayesian probability theory, rationality, and philosophy of science. SIAI presented at Stanford, the Immortality Institute's Life Extension Conference, and Terasem's Colloquium on the Law of Transhuman Persons. SIAI relocated to Silicon Valley. SIAI-Canada was founded. Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey became advisors.

  • 2004

    Eliezer Yudkowsky released “Coherent Extrapolated Volition,” updating his Friendly AI theory. SIAI's “3 Laws Unsafe” campaign launched in conjunction with the film release of I, Robot to inform the public that Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics were unsafe as a framework for safe AI. Nick Bostrom and Christine Peterson became founding advisors. Tyler Emerson joined as Executive Director.