TOP DEVELOPMENTS

* $7M in AI research grants announced: We were delighted to announce the selection of 37 AI safety research teams which we plan to award a total of $7 million in funding. The grant program is funded by Elon Musk and the Open Philanthropy Project.

Max Tegmark, along with FLI grant recipients Manela Veloso and Thomas Dietterich, were interviewed on NPR’s On Point Radio for a lively discussion about our new AI safety research program.

* Open letter about autonomous weapons: FLI recently published an open letter advocating a global ban on offensive autonomous weapons development. Thousands of prominent scientists and concerned individuals are signatories, including Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, the team at DeepMind, Yann LeCun (Director of AI Research, Facebook), Eric Horvitz (Managing Director, Microsoft Research), Noam Chomsky and Steve Wozniak.

Stuart Russell was interviewed about the letter on NPR’s All Things Considered (audio) and Al Jazeera America News(video).

* Open letter about economic impacts of AI: Inspired by our Puerto Rico AI conference and the resulting open letter, a team of economists and business leaders have launched their own open letter about AI’s future impact on the economy. It includes specific policy suggestions to ensure positive economic impact.

EVENTS

* ITIF AI policy panel: Stuart Russell and MIRI Executive Director Nate Soares participated in a panel discussion about the risks and policy implications of AI (video here). The panel was hosted by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington-based think tank focusing on the intersection of public policy & emerging technology.

* IJCAI 15: Stuart Russell presented the autonomous weapons open letter at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

* EA Global conferences: FLI co-founders Viktoriya Krakovna and Anthony Aguirre spoke at the Effective Altruism Global (EA Global) conference at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California. FLI co-founder Jaan Tallinn spoke at the EA Global Oxford conference on August 28-30.

* Stephen Hawking AMA: Professor Hawking is hosting an “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) conversation on Reddit. Users recently submitted questions here; his answers will follow in the near future.

OTHER UPDATES

* FLI anniversary video: FLI co-founder Meia Tegmark created an anniversary video highlighting our accomplishments from our first year.

* Future of AI FAQ: We’ve created a FAQ about the future of AI, which elaborates on the position expressed in our first open letter about AI development from January.