CAMPBELL, Calif. — Future of Life Institute announces 16 winners of its latest grant program to explore how AI can be safely leveraged to solve specific and intractable problems facing humanity around the world. Allocated $240,000 to support research on
Two requests for proposals were released earlier this year. The first track called for research proposals on how AI could impact the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on poverty, health, energy and climate. The second focused on a design proposal to a global agency that manages advanced AI, or artificial general intelligence (AGI). The 130 participants come from 39 countries including Malawi, Slovenia, Vietnam, Serbia, Rwanda, China and Bolivia.
“Big tech companies are investing unprecedented amounts of money into making AI systems more powerful than solving society’s most pressing problems. From healthcare to education to clean energy, AI The amazing benefits of can already be realized by developing systems that address specific problems,” said Emilia Jaborski, Futures Program Director at FLI. “AI should be used to empower people everywhere, rather than further centralizing power in the hands of a handful of billionaires.”
Each grantee will receive $15,000 to support their project. Winners in the UN SDG track will explore the impact of AI across areas such as maternal mortality, climate change education, labor markets, and poverty. The Global Governance Institution Design Grant will support research on a range of proposals including CERN, Fairtrade AI, and Global AGI Institutions for AI.
For more information about the grantees and their projects, please see below.
Grantee: Global Governance Institution Design
For more information on each project, please visit the grant program webpage.
Justin Bullock, University of Washington, USA – Global institution managing AGI projects. Katharina Zuegel, Information and Democracy Forum, France – “Fairtrade AI” mechanisms to ensure AGI systems are ethical, reliable and beneficial to society. Haydn Belfield, University of Cambridge, UK – International AI Agency and “CERN for AI” that centralizes and monitors AGI development. José Villalobos Ruiz, Institute for Law & AI and Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, Costa Rica – International treaty to ban misaligned AGI. Joel Christoph, European University Institute, France – international AI governance organization that regulates and monitors AGI development. Joshua Tan, Metagov, University of Oxford, USA – Network of publicly funded AI labs for secure AGI.
Grantee: How AI will impact the Sustainable Development Goals
For more information on each project, please visit the grant program webpage.
Uroš Ćemalović, Center for Ecology and Sustainability, Serbia – Education on AI and climate change mitigation. Reeta Sharma, Energy Resources Institute, India – AI for Climate Resilience. Marko Grobelnik, International Research Center for AI, Slovenia – AI-powered poverty watchdog. Surekha Tetali, Mahindra University, India – AI for heat mitigation and adaptation. Sumaya Adan, Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative, UK – The impact of AI on poverty alleviation in resource-poor settings. M. Oladoyin Odubanjo, Nigerian Academy of Sciences, Nigeria – Impact of AI on health outcomes in Nigeria. Nicholas Ngepah, Africa Institute for Inclusive Growth, South Africa – The role of AI in reducing maternal mortality. Andrés García-Suaza, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia – The impact of AI on labor market dynamics and poverty. Surafel Tilahun, Addis Ababa University of Science and Technology, Ethiopia – Impact of AI on health outcomes and healthcare. Patrick Owoche, Kibabi University, Kenya – The role of AI in strengthening maternal health care and reducing maternal mortality.
Note to editors: Founded in 2014, the Future of Life Institute is a leading nonprofit organization working to advance innovative technologies for the benefit of humanity. FLI supports a 2023 open letter calling for a six-month moratorium on advanced AI development supported by experts such as Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell, as well as the Asilomar AI Principles and recent EU AI legislation. He is best known for his work on
This content was first published on futureoflife.org. July 11, 2024.
About Future of Life Institute
Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a global nonprofit organization with a team of more than 20 full-time staff members in the United States and Europe. Since its founding in 2014, FLI has been committed to driving the development of innovative technologies that benefit people’s lives and avoid risks at extreme scale. Learn more about our mission or explore our work.
