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Our mission

Steering transformative technology towards benefitting life and away from extreme large-scale risks.

We believe that the way powerful technology is developed and used will be the most important factor in determining the prospects for the future of life. This is why we have made it our mission to ensure that technology continues to improve those prospects.
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Our mission

Ensuring that our technology remains beneficial for life

Our mission is to steer transformative technologies away from extreme, large-scale risks and towards benefiting life.
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How certain technologies are developed and used has far-reaching consequences for all life on earth.

If properly managed, these technologies could change the world in a way that makes life substantially better, both for those alive today and those who will one day be born. They could be used to treat and eradicate diseases, strengthen democratic processes, mitigate - or even halt - climate change and restore biodiversity.

If irresponsibly managed, they could inflict serious harms on humanity and other animal species. In the most extreme cases, they could bring about the fragmentation or collapse of societies, and even push us to the brink of extinction.

The Future of Life Institute works to reduce the likelihood of these worst-case outcomes, and to help ensure that transformative technologies are used to the benefit of life.
Our mission

Cause areas

The risks we focus on

We are currently concerned by three major risks. They all hinge on the development, use and governance of transformative technologies. We focus our efforts on guiding the impacts of these technologies.
UAV Kargu autonomous drones at the campus of OSTIM Technopark in Ankara, Turkey - June 2020.

Our work

How we are addressing these issues

There are many potential levers of change for steering the development and use of transformative technologies. We target a range of these levers to increase our chances of success.

Policy

We perform policy advocacy in the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations.
Our Policy work

Outreach

We produce educational materials aimed at informing public discourse, as well as encouraging people to get involved.
Our Outreach work

Grantmaking

We provide grants to individuals and organisations working on projects that further our mission.
Our Grant Programs

Events

We convene leaders of the relevant fields to discuss ways of ensuring the safe development and use of powerful technologies.
Our Events

Featured Projects

What we're working on

Read about some of our current featured projects:
View all projects

newsletter

Regular updates about the technologies shaping our world

Every month, we bring 41,000+ subscribers the latest news on how emerging technologies are transforming our world. It includes a summary of major developments in our cause areas, and key updates on the work we do. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive these highlights at the end of each month.

Future of Life Institute Newsletter: Save the EU AI Act 🇪🇺

Defending the EU AI Act against Big Tech lobbying, the 2023 Future of Life Award winners, our new partnership on hardware-backed AI governance, and more.
December 4, 2023

Future of Life Institute Newsletter: Everyone’s (Finally) Talking About AI Safety

Updates on AI regulation, a historic UN resolution, our new open letter on AI licensing, examining the Terms of Use of leading AI labs, and more. Also, just two weeks left to apply for FLI PhD fellowships!
November 1, 2023

Future of Life Institute Newsletter: Our Pause Letter, Six Months Later

Reflections on the six-month anniversary of our open letter, our UK AI Safety Summit recommendations, and more.
October 1, 2023
Read previous editions
Our content

Latest posts

The most recent posts we have published:

Gradual AI Disempowerment

Could an AI takeover happen gradually?
February 1, 2024

Exploration of secure hardware solutions for safe AI deployment

This collaboration between the Future of Life Institute and Mithril Security explores hardware-backed AI governance tools for transparency, traceability, and confidentiality.
November 30, 2023

Protect the EU AI Act

A last-ditch assault on the EU AI Act threatens to jeopardise one of the legislation's most important functions: preventing our most powerful AI models from causing widespread harm to society.
November 22, 2023

Miles Apart: Comparing key AI Act proposals

Our analysis shows that the recent non-paper drafted by Italy, France, and Germany largely fails to provide any provisions on foundation models or general purpose AI systems, and offers much less oversight and enforcement than the existing alternatives.
November 21, 2023
View all posts

Policy papers

The most recent policy papers we have published:

FLI Response to NIST: Request for Information on NIST’s Assignments under the AI Executive Order

February 2024

FLI Response to Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS): Request for Comments on Implementation of Additional Export Controls

February 2024

Response to CISA Request for Information on Secure by Design AI Software

February 2024

FLI AI Liability Directive: Executive Summary

November 2023
View all policy papers

Future of Life Institute Podcast

The most recent podcasts we have broadcast:
View all episodes

Media mentions

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