Activity Update - October 2018

This post is part of our monthly activity update series. Each activity update briefly describes what we've been up to in the last month and, hopefully, helps to shed light on how our priorities shift over time. Note that some of our time each month will be spent investigating future project opportunities (or on other activities) that may not be covered in these posts until our plans are more solid.

Accomplishments

• In collaboration with the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI), we…

  • Began the trial of a full-time ML Engineer.

  • Agreed to an upcoming full-time trial with another ML Engineer candidate.

  • Agreed to a collaboration grant to a CHAI intern for their work this summer (this is the fifth CHAI intern that BERI has supported).

  • Hired a contractor to provide CHAI with event planning support for its Annual Workshop.

  • Explored options for office space to accommodate CHAI (and perhaps BERI's) future growth.

  • Began funding in-office snacks, additional team meals, and team-building events for CHAI's team.

• In collaboration with the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), we...

  • Hired 3 contractors to provide:

    • Research assistance to the Governance of AI Program.

    • Communications and application support to the AI Safety team.

    • Publication support (light editing, LaTeX formatting, etc.).

  • Used existing contractors to provide copyediting and graphic design support for an upcoming publication.

• We granted $20,000 to the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in support of 2019 Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, and Society conference.

• We announced our Round One Project Grant winners in this blog post.

• We received a grant of $129,000 from the Open Philanthropy Project to support projects done in collaboration with the Future of Humanity Institute.

• We concluded a trial of a potential Project Manager (we decided to not extend an offer).

Works in Progres****s

We are…

• Hiring! We are seeking a Project Manager, a Director of Operations, and a Machine Learning Research Engineer interested in working with CHAI,: http://existence.org/jobs/.

• Investigating several organizations for possible grants from BERI.

• Developing policies around confidentiality to share with our collaborators.

• Currently prioritizing revamping our financial systems above other projects. This prioritization includes working with an external consulting firm to improve and streamline our processes.