We are the UK's civic movement dedicated to averting the risks of superhuman artificial intelligence.
Ryan+4We are the UK's civic movement dedicated to averting the risks of superhuman artificial intelligence.
Ryan+4PauseAI UK organises citizens concerned about the risks of superhuman AI into a strong political force that advocates for AI safety.
In the past year PauseAI UK has:
Delivered two conferences, on behalf of PauseAI Global, bringing together volunteers from around the world, strengthening the global PauseAI community.
Written an open letter to Demis Hassabis signed by over 60 UK politicians, establishing our political credibility and holding DeepMind to account.
Arranged a conference in the European Parliament with speakers including Brando Benifei, the key architect of the EU AI Act, and Stuart Russell, one of the world’s top AI scientists, discussing concrete steps to reduce AI extinction risk.
Co-organised the largest AI protest in the world, with around 300 volunteers marching to the London headquarters of Google DeepMind, boosting our visibility and building towards our long-term vision of a mass movement.
Hired a brilliant Deputy Director, Matilda da Rui, and gained many new talented and dedicated volunteers to help execute on more projects.
Supported several volunteers in founding local groups across the UK, laying the foundations for the infrastructure that will enable us to scale.
We create political will for legislation that actually reduce the risks of AI.
The UK is a valuable country in which to build a strong PauseAI movement because it has soft power with which it can help to convene discussions between the US and China, as with the first AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park. London has the world’s largest AI security institute and is a hub of AI research. There are more PauseAI members in London than any other city in the world. We have consistently held the largest AI protests since PauseAI began in May 2023, and we have seen a roughly exponential growth in the size of our demonstrations, with the number of attendees doubling approximately every 7 months.
For more on our theory of change, see our donor prospectus here: https://pauseai.uk/pdfs/Donor-Prospectus.pdf
Team Member
See our full track-record here: https://pauseai.uk/track-record
We currently have only around 3 months of runway at our minimal level of expenditure. This grant would cover our basic costs for paying staff and putting on events.
For more detail, see our funding scenarios here: https://pauseai.uk/pdfs/Donor-Prospectus.pdf#page=19.12
I endorse this project, particularly given the shift to a federated structure as Mark notes in his comment.
Pause AI UK have a great team, are doing good work and giving them time to build their own infrastructure and funding base seems sensible.
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I attended PauseCon Brussels, and while the importance of strategic communication has been stressed in our community for about a year already, this has been the first event that I attended that extensively delved into this and treated it as a lived skill, making people practice communicating about AI risks and adjusting their arguments depending on the audience. I have also been in the WhatsApp group of the event, and you could trully see that it was attended by many doers - people were taking so much action afterwards, just immediatly after people were asking for left over flyers so they can share them on thier way home, people on their train back were approach by EU official saying that they were inspired by how passionate they are and scheduling meetings with them, AI Risks Natwork made a video about the event. I myself got connected with relevant people there who wanted to do something impactful together. I think PauseAI is a catalyst for action for many people, but not always under PauseAI's official umbrella, so not all impactful outcomes get easily captured.
This endorsement is biased coming from inside PauseAI, but I am specifically endorsing their team which has also assisted with PauseAI Global strategy, running the PauseCons (the second of which motivated me to go fulltime). Having them not funded would be an especially big waste.
Endorsed.
The donor prospectus explains that the Pause AI movement is shifting to a federated structure, with each federated (national?) body responsible for its own fundraising (with the possibility of some support from the global PauseAI movement.
PauseUK has made solid progress in drawing political attention to AI risks, and I think it's important for the ecosystem to have some actors / advocates that are arguing for a Pause.