The first weeks of our new grant program for AI Safety have seen some tremendous applications roll in – which we’re highly excited and energised by!
However, we are continuing to look for the most impactful projects in under-explored areas within AI Safety. We are looking to fund projects across the following three areas:
Neurotechnology, Whole Brain Emulation, and Lo-fi uploading for AI safety
Cryptography and Security approaches for Infosec and AI security
Safe Multipolar AI scenarios and Multi-Agent games
Submit your proposal today and watch the recording of the launch.
Our Vision Weekends are the annual member festivals of Foresight Institute. Held in two countries, over two weekends, top talent across biotechnology, nanotechnology, neurotechnology, computing, and space are encouraged to burst their tech silos, and plan for flourishing long-term futures together.
Take a look at the weekend agenda here.
Space is limited for these highly engaging weekends. Ticket prices will increase after September 30th, so get your tickets for Vision Weekend France or Vision Weekend USA today!
Join the Existential Hope Salon, September 7, and our tech tree panels and presentation, September 8, with Trent McConaghy, Martin Karlsson, Mark Melnykowycz, and Lou de K.
Our Molecular Systems Design Workshop in San Francisco is completely full! We are thrilled that our capacity has been reached featuring a diverse group of attendees eager to contribute to the cutting-edge field of molecular machines.
However, we recognize the enthusiasm of our wider community and we are keen to accommodate as many individuals as we can. With this in mind, we are delighted to open up additional slots exclusively for our sponsors. It is an opportunity to directly support and engage with innovative research, ground-breaking ideas, and the brilliant minds shaping the future of molecular machines. As a sponsor, you’ll gain visibility within our community, and more importantly, play a crucial role in propelling this exciting field forward.
We look forward to welcoming our sponsors to this pivotal event and are grateful for their continued support.
If you or someone you know would like to help sponsor the workshop, please get in touch with [email protected]. Foresight is a 501(c)(3) which means your donation is tax-deductible in the US as permitted by law.
Confirmed presenters include:
We are excited to announce the first ever Norm Hardy Prize, administered by the Foresight Institute and sponsored by Agoric and Protocol Labs.
The long term goal of the Norm Hardy Prize is a set of design principles and tools that encourage developers to create interaction designs that make it easy for people to use secure systems securely.
We are inviting you to compete for the annual $10k prize. If you have insights or innovations pertaining to any of the following four criteria, we want to hear from you:
The deadline for submissions is September 30th. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to contribute to the field of secure system design!
We want to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all participants of the DeSci Paris 2023 during EthCC week. Sessions were engaging and high quality, and we couldn’t have asked for a more inspiring group of attendees.
The recordings of all the talks and sessions from the workshop will be made available soon.
If you participated, please consider answering our workshop 2 minutes feedback form. Your insights will help us improve and create an even better experience next year.
Allison Duettmann, The Foresight Institute
Intelligent Cooperation Workshop Introduction
Missed our Intelligent Cooperation Workshop? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! If you weren’t able to join us in-person, we invite you to visit our YouTube channel where we’ve uploaded all the lightning talks from the event.
Foresight Institute co-founder Christine Peterson shares her influential insights on the importance of open-source AI in this article from The Messenger!
Congratulations to Cedric Schaack in his new position as Assistant Professor at Wake Forest University. There, Cedric will research new chiral organic electronics, which hold great promise for applications in display technologies, sensing, and quantum information systems.
Irene Regeni, Leiden University, just published a paper in Agnew Chem!
Check out her and her colleagues work on Engineering Soluble Diketopyrrolopyrrole Chromophore Stacks from a Series of Pd(II)-based Ravels.
Dr. Mariam Elgabry is calling for contributions! Bronic is seeking to explore groundbreaking design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and creative activism to spark biosecurity socialization.
Submit your research outputs, design portfolios, short polemics, or position pieces to contribute to this interdisciplinary exploration. Check the Instructions for Authors for submission guidelines: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/research-directions-biotechnology-design/information/author-instructions/preparing-your-materials
Let’s join forces in transforming biosecurity and making a meaningful impact together!
A huge congratulations to 2023 Foresight Fellow Adrian Matysek for the publication of his latest research paper National University of Singapore “Targeting impaired nutrient sensing via the sirtuin pathway with novel compounds to prevent or treat dementia: A systematic review”
Danielle Fong, Lightcell, recently raised about $1mm on their uncapped SAFE and achieved a record brightness of about 66x direct daylight!
Here is a highlight reel of some of the fantastic presentations we had in our monthly seminar groups during August. Visit our seminar page to dive deeper.
Wanding Zhou | Updated Infinium BeadChips for Delineating DNA methylation dynamics in large cohorts
The new Infinium BeadChip has been specifically developed to reveal cellular identities and characteristic epigenetic irregularities in development and cancer processes. Furthermore, we uncovered innovative applications of the Infinium BeadChip for low-input DNA and integrative analysis of genetics-epigenetics interactions.
Brett Kagan | Brain Cells in a Dish as an Information Processing Device
What is intelligence? How can we create a generally intelligent system? The former question has remained contentious since humans first asked it, while the latter has inspired countless science fiction stories. Recent exciting advancements offer pathways to empirically investigate – and perhaps one day answer – both questions.
Owen Phillips | Brain Aging is the Key to Longevity
CEO Owen Phillips of brainkey.ai argues that brain aging is the leading cause of death for those over 80. He explains that the brain’s high computing and wiring costs make it vulnerable to aging. To support these costs, the brain requires extensive cooling, waste removal, and energy supply systems.
Bradley Love | Advancing Neuroscience Using Large Language Models
In this talk, Bradley Love explains his tool BrainGPT, a model that can shed light on the structure of neuroscience as a field. Importantly, BrainGPT will not summarize nor retrieve articles. In such cases, large-language models often confabulate, which is potentially harmful. BrainGPT is an open-source community effort with 1337+ volunteers.
Brad Templeton | Dark Aliens, New Looks at Answering Fermi’s Paradox
The question of why we have not yet encountered extraterrestrial intelligence, known as Fermi’s Paradox, remains one of the most intriguing unsolved puzzles in science. In this talk, Brad Templeton will discuss some of the new hypotheses emerging for explaining the Paradox, such as the “dark forest theory” that interstellar civilizations avoid detectable contact because of mutual distrust and potential threats to survival.
Liv Boeree | Game Theory, Moloch, and Our Hopeful Future
In this Xhope episode, Liv discusses her early interest in science, the competitive allure of poker, and the ethical questions that led her to reevaluate the zero-sum dynamics of the game.
An opportunity for those interested in advancing biotech
BE Therapeutics is an early-stage biotech company revolutionizing the future of longevity through innovative therapies to treat age related brain degeneration. They are currently looking to hire a tissue engineer and research associate.
Advocating for policies to reduce global catastrophic risk
Global Shield is a new international advocacy organization devoted to reducing all-hazards global catastrophic risk. Global Shield is developing a range of pragmatic policy solutions to reduce global catastrophic risk, and it will advocate directly with nations for the most critical and relevant solutions.
Apply for the Open Agency Keyholder Prize
We want innovative solutions to a unique problem in cryptographic key management within the Open Agency Architecture framework. The ideal solution will be awarded a $10,000 prize!
As an active part of our community of talented scientists and technologists who expand the limit of our civilization’s capabilities, you will be at the forefront of our research, and our intriguing network.