Future of Life Institute (FLI)

We face a set of threats that put all of humanity at risk: the climate crisis, pandemics, nuclear weapons, and ungoverned AI. The ongoing harms and existential risk presented by these issues can't be tackled with short-term fixes. But with bold leadership and decisive action from world leaders, our best days can still lay ahead of us. That's why, with The Elders Foundation, we're calling on decision-makers to demonstrate the responsible governance and cooperation required to confront these shared global challenges. This #LongviewLeadership means: ⏰ Thinking beyond short-term political cycles to deliver solutions for current and future generations. 🤝 Recognising that enduring answers require compromise and collaboration for the good of the whole world. 🧍 Showing compassion for all people, designing sustainable policies which respect that everyone is born free and equal in dignity and rights. 🌍 Upholding the international rule of law and accepting that durable agreements require transparency and accountability. 🕊️ Committing to a vision of hope in humanity’s shared future, not playing to its divided past. World leaders have come together before to address catastrophic risks. We can do it again. Share and sign our open letter ⬇️ https://rb.gy/0duze1

🇫🇷 🔜 The next Paris AI Safety Breakfast is in less than one week! 📆 Thursday, 21 November, Dr. Rumman Chowdhury will join FLI's Imane (Ima) Bello for an engaging in-person discussion and Q&A about AI safety and algorithmic audits. 🔗 In the comments below, RSVP to attend this event and stay updated about future AI Safety Breakfasts. Keep an eye out for the conversation recording to follow!

⌛ Less than ONE week remains to apply for our PhD fellowships! 📆 🇨🇳 🇺🇸 New this year: our fellowships on US-China AI governance, in addition to our technical AI safety research fellowships. 🌎 Applications are open to all, with no geographic restrictions. Apply by November 20 at the link in the comments below!

🗞️ 🇺🇸 Finding a democracy-eroding "crisis of authenticity" fueled by the spread of AI-generated content and deepfakes, ISD (Institute for Strategic Dialogue) has released an analysis of the role AI played in the recent US election: 🗣️ "The rapid increase of AI-generated content has created a fundamentally polluted information ecosystem where voters are struggling to assess content’s authenticity and increasingly beginning to assume authentic content to be AI generated, or question whether anything they see is real at all." 🗣️ "This deterioration of trust in political discourse posed significant risks during the election period, when time-sensitive events created fertile ground for the spread of AI-generated content, and voters had to make critical decisions based on increasingly unstable information foundations." 🔗 Read their full report at the link in the comments below.

"I am an optimist. We can create an amazingly inspiring future with *tool* AI, as long as we don't build AGI - which is unnecessary, undesirable, and preventable." At #WebSummit yesterday, FLI President Max Tegmark gave a talk on the "suicide race" to AGI (or smarter-than-human AI) that some big tech companies are pushing on to humanity. ⏯️ Watch Max's full talk at the link in the comments below, and stay tuned for more coverage from Web Summit! ⬇️

📺 New on the FLI Podcast! ⬇️ Filmmaker Suzy Shepherd joins for an episode to discuss her short film "Writing Doom", which won the grand prize in our Superintelligence Imagined Creative Contest, how AI can be useful to creatives, finding meaning in an increasingly-automated world, and more. 🔗 Watch the full interview, and "Writing Doom", now at the links in the comments! ⬇️

Amidst growing global tensions, it's crucial that world leaders remember the unacceptably high costs of a nuclear strike. We're pleased to see the United Nations vote to produce a new study on the impacts of nuclear war - the first in 35 years. The results to come will reaffirm what countless experts have been saying for decades: nuclear war leaves no winners.

🤝 🧑🔬 We're excited to have teamed up with our friends at the Federation of American Scientists, granting them $1.5 million to support an 18-month project researching the impact of AI on global risks! A few weeks ago, we convened our first event as part of this initiative: a dinner in Washington, DC to engage the policy and technical community on the rapid rise and potential impacts of AI. These discussions will help inform the numerous workshops to follow, culminating in a 2026 global summit on global risk and AI. We look forward to working with FAS on this important project, building on their nearly 80 years of evaluating emerging technologies for opportunities to build a safer, more equitable, and more peaceful world. Stay tuned for much more to come!

⏳ Less than 3 weeks remain to apply for our PhD fellowships! 🆕 🇺🇸 🇨🇳 New this year: we're accepting applications for our fellowships on US-China AI governance, in addition to our technical AI safety research fellowships. 🔗 Applications are open to all, with no geographic restrictions. Learn more, and apply by November 20 at the link in the comments below! 👇

📔 A timely follow-up from the FLI podcast episode we shared yesterday featuring ControlAI's Andrea Miotti: Andrea, Connor Leahy, Gabriel Alfour, Chris Scammell, and Adam Shimi have now released "The Compendium" to complement "A Narrow Path". A fascinating read - making the proposals in "A Narrow Path" seem all the more urgent - "The Compendium" outlines the key groups recklessly pushing smarter-than-human AI on humanity... whether or not we want it. Read it now below: