Research Grants

Singularity Institute Visitors Grant

Key Aim: Bring more short-term visitors to the Singularity Institute for time periods on the order of a week, to compare strategies or work on joint research.

Vision:

1. Research is fueled by the exchange of ideas. If we can bring academics in related fields to visit the Singularity Institute for a short period, to discuss ideas and perhaps draft a research proposal or a talk together, this may benefit both our research and theirs.

2. AI risks activism, too, can profit from collaborative thinking. If we can find individuals concerned with existential risk or optimal philanthropy, and if we can bring them here to reflect on SIAI's strategies and to share their thoughts on what we may be doing wrong, both our strategies will improve.

3. Many visitors who wouldn't visit otherwise will come if SIAI provides for travel costs. This applies especially to those far from the San Francisco Bay Area who are interested in working towards reducing existential risk, but who don't know many people who are interested locally.

Steps to be taken to realize this vision:

Step 1: Select visitors.
Such visitors may include academics who have expressed interested in collaborating on papers; individuals we contact because we are interested in their writing or risk reduction efforts; or individuals who apply for a short visit based on an ad on Less Wrong or a related website.

Step 2: Plan agendas, and schedule visits.
Schedule appropriate dates for short visits and arrange transportation and other logistics.  Arrange also for any colloquia the visitors may give, any questions they or we may be particularly keen on discussing, and/or any papers to be undertaken.

Step 3: Host visitors.

Budget:
$650 per visit. (This grant can be funded any number of times. Each time the grant is funded, we expect to be able to support one visitor, but only as an average. Actual visitors may cost either more or less.) 

Transportation expenses: Most potential SIAI visitors live far from Singularity Institute headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area, and so the Singularity Institute will need to purchase airplane tickets for visitors.  Some of these flights are international.

Room and board: Visitors will stay temporarily with Singularity Institute staff and Visiting Fellows.

How this project, if funded, will reduce existential risk:

Benefit 1: Improvements to SIAI's existential risk reduction.  Visitors will add relevant ideas and expertise, and are likely to thereby improve our research, our efficacy as an organization, and our existential risk reduction strategy.

Benefit 2: Improvements to visitors' existential risk reduction.  Many visitors will never have encountered a community with this degree of knowledge, strategy, and interest around AI risks.  Many may leave with significant updates to their own research or to their own model of how to reduce existential risk, and with the energy that comes from in-person collaboration.

Benefit 3:  Improved strategic coordination.  The visits will leave us better aware of one another's research and other projects, and better able to coordinate future efforts for greater efficacy.

How the benefits will be assessed:
SIAI staff will assess the benefits by evaluating:

  • Actual costs of the visitors program, including both the direct monetary costs of the visits (flights, food) and the time diverted from other projects by SIAI staff
  • The impact that visitors' thinking has had on SIAI plans and strategies, as estimated by SIAI staff members
  • The impact that SIAI had on the visitors' plans and strategies for existential risk reduction, as estimated by the visitors
  • Any research papers that came out of the visit, either by SIAI staff, by the visitors, or both
  • Any other existential risks-reducing projects that came out of the visit
  • How many visitors became SIAI Visiting Fellows, staff, or major donors




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