THE SINGULARITY INSTITUTE FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
https://www.singinst.org/challenge/The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Inc. is a nonprofit research think tank and public interest institute for the study and development of beneficial artificial intelligence and safe cognitive enhancement, and the tangible diminishment of global catastrophic risks.
General cognitive ability influences how well difficult problems can be solved. We thus work to advance the safe and significant enhancement of cognition through technical innovation to make global development challenges substantially more solvable. We pursue this long term goal by funding research projects, producing publications, creating partnerships, building an influential community, hosting events, and fostering a broader public understanding of beneficial AI, global catastrophic risks, and the Singularity.
The Singularity will be a change different in kind than any prior change humanity has experienced. The modern era of technology began with the agricultural revolution 10,000 years ago; but the acceleration of change that has occurred between then and now was produced by unaugmented human brains. The cognitive ability underlying that immense span of development was essentially constant, as evident from anthropology. If the bounds of cognition can be expanded, our problem solving ability will be enhanced. Every challenge, whether it is the reality of four billion living under $4 a day, or every sixth person with a mental or physical illness, can be better overcome through genuine improvements in cognitive capacity.
To learn more about our work, continue with “What Is the Singularity?” <
http://www.singinst.org/what-singularity.html> and “Why Work Toward the Singularity?” <
http://www.singinst.org/why-singularity.html>
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OUR 2006 WORK IN GREATER DETAIL
1. Research: Community Director Jeff Medina will continue his research on the ethics and science of artificial life (AI, superintelligence, uploading), and the general benefits and risks of emerging technologies. Associate Researcher Michael Wilson will further his AI prototype system -- a testbed for technical advances relevant to seed AI development. (His system will provide data on the tractability of key AI algorithms.) Research Fellow Eliezer Yudkowsky will continue his work on the groundwork for Friendly AI design by attempting to solve simplified versions of problems that a Friendly AI must solve.
2. The SIAI Partner Network: We will approach potential Inaugural Partners -- who champion new ideas and innovation -- throughout 2006 to be the foundation for a growing network of individuals and organizations committed to the advancement of beneficial artificial intelligence and the tangible diminishment of global catastrophic risks.
3. The Future of Humanity Forum: The Forum will have presentations, debates, and group discussion on cognitive science, cognitive computing, human computer interaction, artificial intelligence, accelerating change, sociology, ethics, global catastrophic risks, neurotechnology, nanotechnology, the Singularity, human enhancement, complexity science, and philosophy of science. The Forum will increase the awareness and understanding of these dialogues at Stanford University and in the Greater Bay Area, and will give us the opportunity to recognize our Partners every month on-campus.
4. Global Catastrophic Risks Resources: Our expanded emphasis will encompass the study and desired elevation of global catastrophic risk prevention, another profoundly under-funded area of research that would benefit from carefully structured theoretical roadmapping, followed by prize incentives. We see a concrete need for society to better understand GCRs, their characteristics, scope, and what countermeasures are needed.
5. Stanford Singularity Summit: Our Summit, The Singularity: Scope and Significance, will be held at Stanford Memorial Auditorium (1710 seats) on May 13, 2006. The event, free and open to the public, is being co-produced with the Stanford Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford Transhumanist Association, and KurzweilAI.net. Organized around Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near, the Summit will have ten prominent thinkers -- including Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson as moderator -- who accept that advanced AI and molecular nanotechnology are viable innovations, but who have different, although at times overlapping, views on the issues of desirability, pathway, development timeframe, strategic focus, benefits, risks, policy, and predictiveness.
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