Jaan Tallinn donations made (filtered to cause areas matching AI safety)

This is an online portal with information on donations that were announced publicly (or have been shared with permission) that were of interest to Vipul Naik. The git repository with the code for this portal, as well as all the underlying data, is available on GitHub. All payment amounts are in current United States dollars (USD). The repository of donations is being seeded with an initial collation by Issa Rice as well as continued contributions from him (see his commits and the contract work page listing all financially compensated contributions to the site) but all responsibility for errors and inaccuracies belongs to Vipul Naik. Current data is preliminary and has not been completely vetted and normalized; if sharing a link to this site or any page on this site, please include the caveat that the data is preliminary (if you want to share without including caveats, please check with Vipul Naik). We expect to have completed the first round of development by the end of July 2024. See the about page for more details. Also of interest: pageview data on analytics.vipulnaik.com, tutorial in README, request for feedback to EA Forum.

Table of contents

Basic donor information

ItemValue
Country United States
Affiliated organizations (current or former; restricted to potential donees or others relevant to donation decisions)Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
Wikipedia pagehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaan_Tallinn
Best overview URLhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/
Facebook username jaan.tallinn
Websitehttps://jaan.online/
Donations URLhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/
LessWrong usernamejaan
Regularity with which donor updates donations dataannual refresh
Regularity with which Donations List Website updates donations data (after donor update)irregular
Lag with which donor updates donations datamonths
Lag with which Donations List Website updates donations data (after donor update)months
Data entry method on Donations List WebsiteManual (no scripts used)
Org Watch pagehttps://orgwatch.issarice.com/?person=Jaan+Tallinn

Brief history: Tallinn is a co-founder of Skype and Kazaa and one of the earlier wealthy supporters of organizations working in AI safety, along with Peter Thiel. In 2011, he had a conversation with Holden Karnofsky sharing his thoughts on AI safetyand in particular the work of the Singularity Institute (SI), the former name of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. See https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/givewell/conversations/topics/287 and https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/6SGqkCgHuNr7d4yJm/thoughts-on-the-singularity-institute-si (GW, IR) for details. Tallinn played a significant role in financing the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (BERI)'s grantmaking operations, and later funding the Survival and Flourising Fund (SFF). In 2020, Tallinn prepared a philanthropy pledge https://jaan.online/philanthropy/ for his grantmaking for the next five years, and also indicated a plan to switch more to making direct grants using SFF's S-process, rather than giving funds to organizations such as BERI and SFF.

Brief notes on broad donor philosophy and major focus areas: https://jaan.online/philanthropy/ says: "the primary purpose of my philanthropy is to reduce existential risks to humanity from advanced technologies, such as AI. i currently believe that this cause scores the highest according to the framework used in effective altruism: (1) importance [...] (2) tractability [...] (3) neglectedness. [...] i'm likely to pass on all other opportunities — especially popular ones, like supporting education, healthcare, arts, and various social causes. [...] i'm considering (as of 2020) a few exceptions — eg, donating to more neglected climate interventions [...] i should also mention that i'm especially fond of software projects as philanthropic targets [...]"

Notes on grant decision logistics: Tallinn plans to use the Survival and Flourishing Fund (SFF)'s S-process (simulation process) to direct most of his grantmaking, as described e.g. at http://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2019-q4-recommendations and other grant rounds. He may also make one-off direct grants (at most $100,000 per grant) for funding needs that are time-sensitive but encourages grantees to also apply for the next SFF grant round. Tallinn has historically donated money to BERI and SFF for regranting, but does not expect to make similar donations for regranting in the future. Tallinn may also engage in small amounts of individual regranting and individual gifts.

Notes on grant financing: Tallinn donates his own money, but not always directly; in most cases (particularly when donating to US-based nonprofits) he donates money via (donor-advised funds managed by) Founders Pledge or Silicon Valley Community Foundation. He has also made direct gifts in cryptocurrency when not donating to US nonprofits.

Donor donation statistics

Cause areaCountMedianMeanMinimum10th percentile 20th percentile 30th percentile 40th percentile 50th percentile 60th percentile 70th percentile 80th percentile 90th percentile Maximum
Overall 29 155,000 584,259 5,000 30,000 60,500 83,000 103,000 155,000 221,000 485,000 799,000 2,000,000 5,000,000
AI safety 29 155,000 584,259 5,000 30,000 60,500 83,000 103,000 155,000 221,000 485,000 799,000 2,000,000 5,000,000

Donation amounts by cause area and year

If you hover over a cell for a given cause area and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.

Note: Cause area classification used here may not match that used by donor for all cases.

Cause area Number of donations Number of donees Total 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
AI safety (filter this donor) 29 11 16,943,500.00 2,025,000.00 3,999,000.00 2,323,000.00 957,000.00 30,000.00 7,060,500.00 80,000.00 5,000.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 264,000.00
Total 29 11 16,943,500.00 2,025,000.00 3,999,000.00 2,323,000.00 957,000.00 30,000.00 7,060,500.00 80,000.00 5,000.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 264,000.00

Graph of spending by cause area and year (incremental, not cumulative)

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Graph of spending by cause area and year (cumulative)

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Donation amounts by subcause area and year

If you hover over a cell for a given subcause area and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.

For the meaning of “classified” and “unclassified”, see the page clarifying this.

Subcause area Number of donations Number of donees Total 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
AI safety 23 9 10,914,500.00 0.00 0.00 2,323,000.00 957,000.00 30,000.00 7,060,500.00 80,000.00 0.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 264,000.00
AI safety/technical research 3 2 5,299,000.00 1,846,000.00 3,453,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI safety/strategy 3 1 730,000.00 179,000.00 546,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Classified total 29 11 16,943,500.00 2,025,000.00 3,999,000.00 2,323,000.00 957,000.00 30,000.00 7,060,500.00 80,000.00 5,000.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 264,000.00
Unclassified total 0 0 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total 29 11 16,943,500.00 2,025,000.00 3,999,000.00 2,323,000.00 957,000.00 30,000.00 7,060,500.00 80,000.00 5,000.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 264,000.00

Graph of spending by subcause area and year (incremental, not cumulative)

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Graph of spending by subcause area and year (cumulative)

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Donation amounts by donee and year

Donee Cause area Metadata Total 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (filter this donor) AI safety/other global catastrophic risks Site TW 7,248,000.00 0.00 0.00 248,000.00 0.00 0.00 7,000,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Alignment Research Center (filter this donor) 4,025,000.00 1,846,000.00 2,179,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Machine Intelligence Research Institute (filter this donor) AI safety FB Tw WP Site CN GS TW 1,447,500.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 843,000.00 0.00 60,500.00 80,000.00 0.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 264,000.00
Redwood Research (filter this donor) 1,274,000.00 0.00 1,274,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Impacts (filter this donor) AI safety Site 1,021,000.00 179,000.00 546,000.00 221,000.00 40,000.00 30,000.00 0.00 0.00 5,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Center for Human-Compatible AI (filter this donor) AI safety WP Site TW 819,000.00 0.00 0.00 819,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Objectives Institute (filter this donor) 485,000.00 0.00 0.00 485,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Safety Support (filter this donor) 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 200,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Modeling Cooperation (filter this donor) 157,000.00 0.00 0.00 83,000.00 74,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Convergence Analysis (filter this donor) 137,000.00 0.00 0.00 137,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AI Safety Camp (filter this donor) 130,000.00 0.00 0.00 130,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Total -- -- 16,943,500.00 2,025,000.00 3,999,000.00 2,323,000.00 957,000.00 30,000.00 7,060,500.00 80,000.00 5,000.00 100,000.00 100,000.00 264,000.00

Graph of spending by donee and year (incremental, not cumulative)

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Graph of spending by donee and year (cumulative)

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Donation amounts by influencer and year

If you hover over a cell for a given influencer and year, you will get a tooltip with the number of donees and the number of donations.

For the meaning of “classified” and “unclassified”, see the page clarifying this.

Influencer Number of donations Number of donees Total 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Nick Hay|Alyssa Vance|Scott Garrabrant 2 2 2,725,000.00 0.00 2,725,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Olle Häggström|Steve Omohundro|Daniel Kokotajlo 1 1 1,846,000.00 1,846,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Oliver Habryka|Eric Rogstad 3 3 1,436,000.00 0.00 0.00 799,000.00 637,000.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Nell Watson|Malo Bourgon|Catherine Olsson 1 1 1,274,000.00 0.00 1,274,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Beth Barnes|Oliver Habryka|Zvi Mowshowitz 5 5 980,000.00 0.00 0.00 980,000.00 0.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Ben Hoskin|Katja Grace|Oliver Habryka|Adam Marblestone 3 3 524,000.00 0.00 0.00 524,000.00 0.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Alex Zhu|Andrew Critch|Jed McCaleb|Oliver Habryka 2 2 320,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 320,000.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Nathan Labenz|Michael Page 1 1 179,000.00 179,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
Survival and Flourishing Fund|Alex Flint|Alex Zhu|Andrew Critch|Eric Rogstad|Oliver Habryka 1 1 30,000.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 30,000.00
Classified total 19 11 9,314,000.00 2,025,000.00 3,999,000.00 2,303,000.00 957,000.00 30,000.00
Unclassified total 10 4 7,629,500.00 0.00 0.00 20,000.00 0.00 0.00
Total 29 11 16,943,500.00 2,025,000.00 3,999,000.00 2,323,000.00 957,000.00 30,000.00

Graph of spending by influencer and year (incremental, not cumulative)

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Graph of spending by influencer and year (cumulative)

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Donation amounts by disclosures and year

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Donation amounts by country and year

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Full list of documents in reverse chronological order (2 documents)

Title (URL linked)Publication dateAuthorPublisherAffected donorsAffected doneesAffected influencersDocument scopeCause areaNotes
Zvi’s Thoughts on the Survival and Flourishing Fund (SFF) (GW, IR)2021-12-14Zvi Mowshowitz LessWrongSurvival and Flourishing Fund Jaan Tallinn Jed McCaleb The Casey and Family Foundation Effective Altruism Funds:Long-Term Future Fund Center on Long-Term Risk Alliance to Feed the Earth in Disasters The Centre for Long-Term Resilience Lightcone Infrastructure Effective Altruism Funds: Infrastructure Fund Centre for the Governance of AI Ought New Science Research Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative AI Objectives Institute Topos Institute Emergent Ventures India European Biostasis Foundation Laboratory for Social Minds PrivateARPA Charter Cities Institute Survival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Miscellaneous commentaryLongtermism|AI safety|Global catastrophic risksIn this lengthy post, Zvi Mowshowitz, who was one of the recommenders for the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grant round based on the S-process, describes his experience with the process, his impressions of several of the grantees, and implications for what kinds of grant applications are most likely to succeed. Zvi says that the grant round suffered from the problem of Too Much Money (TMM); there was way more money than any individual recommender felt comfortable granting, and just about enough money for the combined preferences of all recommenders, which meant that any recommender could unilaterally push a particular grantee through. The post has several other observations and attracts several comments.
S-process funding2021-11-19Andrew Critch Protocol LabsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Jaan Tallinn Jed McCaleb The Casey and Family Foundation Survival and Flourishing Fund Reasoning supplementLongtermism|AI safety|Global catastrophic risksIn this presentation moderated by Karola Kirsanow of Protocol Labs (as part of the Funding the Commons summit), Andrew Critch presents in detail the S-process (simulation process) used by the Survival and Flourishing Fund for its own grantmaking (back when it had some funds of its own) and for recommending grants to other donors, including Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb, and The Casey and Family Foundation (represented by David Marble). Critch talks about the following key ideas in the S-process: marginal value functions (for each potential grantee), the use of a "hold" option for not granting funds now, recorded meetings between recommenders that funders can review to decide how much weight to give each recommender, a simulation where funders assign small portions of their funding to avoid perverse incentives created based on the order in which funders go, and funder flexibility to use or not use the recommended allocation.

Full list of donations in reverse chronological order (29 donations)

Graph of top 10 donees (for donations with known year of donation) by amount, showing the timeframe of donations

Graph of donations and their timeframes
DoneeAmount (current USD)Amount rank (out of 29)Donation dateCause areaURLInfluencerNotes
AI Impacts179,000.00142023-10AI safety/strategyhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2023-h2-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Nathan Labenz Michael Page Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2023 H2 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios. In each simulation, Recommenders specify a marginal value function for funding each application, and an algorithm calculates a table of grant recommendations by taking turns distributing funding recommendations from each Recommender in succession, using their marginal value functions to prioritize. The Recommenders then discuss their evaluations and update the simulation with their new opinions, using approval voting to prioritize discussion topics, until the end of the last meeting when their inputs are finalized. Similarly, funders specify and adjust different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's tenth grant round and the fifth with a grant to this grantee.

Other notes: This includes a speculation grant of $72,000; so the additional granted amount is $107,000. The grant is made completely via SFF rather than via Lightspeed Grants, unlike other grants in this round. A grant recommendation to the same grantee of $162,000 is also made for funder Future of Life Institute as part of the same SFF round.
Alignment Research Center1,846,000.0042023-04AI safety/technical researchhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2023-h1-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Olle Häggström Steve Omohundro Daniel Kokotajlo Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2023 H1 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios. In each simulation, Recommenders specify a marginal value function for funding each application, and an algorithm calculates a table of grant recommendations by taking turns distributing funding recommendations from each Recommender in succession, using their marginal value functions to prioritize. The Recommenders then discuss their evaluations and update the simulation with their new opinions, using approval voting to prioritize discussion topics, until the end of the last meeting when their inputs are finalized. Similarly, funders specify and adjust different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: https://futureoflife.org/grant-program/2023-grants/ says: "Support for the Alignment Research Center (ARC) Evaluation (Evals) Team. Evals is a new team at ARC building capability evaluations (and in the future, alignment evaluations) for advanced ML models. The goals of the project are to improve our understanding of what alignment danger is going to look like, understand how far away we are from dangerous AI, and create metrics that labs can make commitments around."

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's ninth grant round and the second with a grant to this grantee.

Other notes: In this grant round, there are two funders: Jaan Tallinn and Future of Life Institute, and the page https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2023-h1-recommendations does not provide a breakdown of the grant amount $3,247,000 by funder. https://futureoflife.org/grant-program/2023-grants/ is used to obtain the amount ($1,401,000) granted by FLI, and the amount granted by Jaan Tallinn is calculated as the difference of the two amounts. https://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.html is expected to eventually include the donation, but as of 2023-11-26 it does not.
Alignment Research Center2,179,000.0022022-12-20AI safety/technical researchhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Nick Hay Alyssa Vance Scott Garrabrant Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2022 H2 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2022-h2-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal value functions. Recommenders specified a marginal value function for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's eighth grant round and the first with a grant to this grantee.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The grant recommendation in the future grant round https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2023-h1-recommendations suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.
AI Impacts546,000.0082022-12-06AI safety/strategyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Nick Hay Alyssa Vance Scott Garrabrant Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2022 H2 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2022-h2-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal value functions. Recommenders specified a marginal value function for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's eighth grant round and the fourth with a grant to this grantee.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant recommendations for AI Impacts in https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2023-h2-recommendations (about a year later) suggest continued satisfaction with the grant outcome.
Redwood Research1,274,000.0052022-06-16AI safety/technical researchhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2022-h1-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Nell Watson Malo Bourgon Catherine Olsson Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2022 H1 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2022-h1-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal value functions. Recommenders specified a marginal value function for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's seventh grant round and the first with a grant to this grantee.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The future round https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2023-h1-recommendations includes a grant recommendation to Redwood Research for $1,098,000, suggesting satisfaction with the grant outcome.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative (Earmark: Center for Human-Compatible AI)248,000.00112021-10AI safetyhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h2-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts. [...] [The] system is designed to generally favor funding things that at least one recommender is excited to fund, rather than things that every recommender is excited to fund." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) explains the process from a recommender's perspective.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support the BERI-CHAI collaboration, This is BERI's collaboration with the Center for Human-Compatible AI (CHAI). See https://existence.org/collaborations/ for BERI's full list of collaborations.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's sixth grant round and the fourth with grants to the grantee. It is the first round with a grant specifically for this collaboration.

Other notes: Jed McCaleb makes a $250,000 grant to BERI in this grant round for the same collaboration (BERI-CHAI). The Casey and Family Foundation, that also participates as a funder in this grant round, does not make any grants to BERI. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 2.80%; announced: 2021-11-20.
AI Objectives Institute485,000.0092021-10AI safetyhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h2-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts. [...] [The] system is designed to generally favor funding things that at least one recommender is excited to fund, rather than things that every recommender is excited to fund." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) explains the process from a recommender's perspective.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's sixth grant round and the first one with grants to the grantee.

Other notes: Grant made via Foresight Institute. Although Jed McCaleb and The Casey and Family Foundation also participate as funders in this grant round, they do not make any grants to AI Objectives Institute in this round. In https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff#AI_Safety_Paper_Production (GW, IR) Zvi Mowshowitz, one of the recommenders in the grant round, expresses his reservations: "Then there’s the people who think the ‘AI Safety’ risk is that things will be insufficiently ‘democratic,’ too ‘capitalist’ or ‘biased’ or otherwise not advance their particular agendas. They care about, in Eliezer’s terminology from Twitter, which monkey gets the poisoned banana first. To the extent that they redirect attention, that’s harmful. [...] I do feel the need to mention one organization here, AIObjectives@Foresight, because they’re the only organization that got funding that I view as an active negative. I strongly objected to the decision to fund them, and would have used my veto on an endorsement if I’d retained the right to veto. I do see that they are doing some amount of worthwhile research into ‘how to make AIs do what humans actually want’ but given what else is on their agenda, I view their efforts as strongly net-harmful, and I’m quite sad that they got money. Some others seemed to view this concern more as a potential ‘poisoning the well’ concern that the cause area would become associated with such political focus, whereas I was object-level concerned about the agenda, and in giving leverage over important things to people who are that wrong about very important things and focused on making the world match their wrong views.". Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 5.48%; announced: 2021-11-20.
Modeling Cooperation83,000.00212021-10AI safetyhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h2-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts. [...] [The] system is designed to generally favor funding things that at least one recommender is excited to fund, rather than things that every recommender is excited to fund." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) explains the process from a recommender's perspective.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's sixth grant round and the third one with grants to the grantee.

Other notes: Grant made via Convergence Analysis. Although Jed McCaleb and The Casey and Family Foundation also participate as funders in this grant round, they do not make any grants to Modeling Cooperation in this round. Zvi Mowshowitz, one of the recommenders in the grant round, writes a post https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) about the round that does not seem to mention this grant. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 0.94%; announced: 2021-11-20.
AI Safety Camp130,000.00162021-10AI safetyhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h2-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts. [...] [The] system is designed to generally favor funding things that at least one recommender is excited to fund, rather than things that every recommender is excited to fund." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) explains the process from a recommender's perspective.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: It is likely (though not explicitly stated) that the grant funds the upcoming six-month virtual AI Safety Camp from January to June 2022.

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's sixth grant round and the first one with a grant to the grantee.
Intended funding timeframe in months: 6

Other notes: The grant is made via Rethink Charity. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 1.47%; announced: 2021-11-20.
Convergence Analysis34,000.00262021-10AI safetyhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h2-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Beth Barnes Oliver Habryka Zvi Mowshowitz Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H2 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts. [...] [The] system is designed to generally favor funding things that at least one recommender is excited to fund, rather than things that every recommender is excited to fund." https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) explains the process from a recommender's perspective.

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support "Research on AI & International Relations"

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's sixth grant round and the third one with grants to the grantee.

Other notes: Although Jed McCaleb and The Casey and Family Foundation also participate as funders in this grant round, they do not make any grants to the grantee. Zvi Mowshowitz, one of the recommenders in the grant round, writes a post https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kuDKtwwbsksAW4BG2/zvi-s-thoughts-on-the-survival-and-flourishing-fund-sff (GW, IR) about the round that does not seem to mention this grant. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 3.84%; announced: 2021-11-20.
AI Impacts221,000.00122021-07-23AI safetyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Ben Hoskin Katja Grace Oliver Habryka Adam Marblestone Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H1 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h1-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fifth grant round. Grants to AI Impacts had been made in the second and third grant rounds.

Donor retrospective of the donation: The followup grant for AI Impacts in https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h1-recommendations continued satisfaction with the grant outcome.

Other notes: The grant round also includes a grant from Jed McCaleb ($82,000) to the same grantee (AI Impacts). Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 2.32%.
AI Safety Support200,000.00132021-04AI safetyhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h1-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Ben Hoskin Katja Grace Oliver Habryka Adam Marblestone Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H1 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fifth grant round and the first with a grant to the grantee.

Other notes: Although Jed McCaleb also participates as a funder in this grant round, he does not make any grants to this grantee. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 2.10%.
Convergence Analysis103,000.00182021-04AI safetyhttps://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2021-h1-recommendationsSurvival and Flourishing Fund Ben Hoskin Katja Grace Oliver Habryka Adam Marblestone Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H1 grants based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Direct project expenses

Intended use of funds: Grant to support "Convergence: Project AI Clarity"

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fifth grant round and the second with a grant to the grantee.

Other notes: The grant round also includes a $13,000 grant to Convergence Analysis for Convergence. Although Jed McCaleb also participates as a funder in this grant round, he does not make any grants to this grantee. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 10.83%.
Center for Human-Compatible AI20,000.00282021-03-12AI safetyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.html-- Donation process: Although most of Jaan Tallinn's public grantmaking during this period is through the Survival and Flourishing Fund's process (with https://survivalandflourishing.fund/ having the details), this particular grant is not made through the SFF process. However, it is made shortly after a much larger 2020 H2 grant through the SFF process, so it may simply be a top-up of that grant.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support
Center for Human-Compatible AI799,000.0062021-01-12AI safetyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Oliver Habryka Eric Rogstad Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H2 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amout recommended by the S-process is $779,000, but the actual grant amount is $799,000 ($20,000 higher).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fourth grant round and the first with grants to this grantee.

Other notes: Although the Survival and Flourishing Fund and Jed McCaleb also participate in this grant round as funders, neither of them makes any grants to this grantee.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute563,000.0072020-12-17AI safetyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Oliver Habryka Eric Rogstad Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H2 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts." The recommended grant amount was $543,000 but the actual grant made was for $563,000.

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating that amount (rather than a bigger or smaller amount): The amount recommended by the S-process is $543,0000, but the actual grant amount is $563,000 ($20,000 higher).

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fourth grant round. Grants to MIRI had also been made in the third round (2020 H1).

Other notes: Although the Survival and Flourishing Fund and Jed McCaleb also participate as donors in this round, neither of them makes a grant to MIRI.
Modeling Cooperation74,000.00232020-12-08AI safetyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Oliver Habryka Eric Rogstad Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H2 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Recommenders specified marginal utility functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, funders specified and adjusted different utility functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this is SFF's fourth grant round and the second with grants to this grantee.

Other notes: Grant made via Convergence Analysis. Although the Survival and Flourishing Fund and Jed McCaleb also participate in this grant round as funders, neither of them makes any grants to this grantee. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 2.74%.
AI Impacts40,000.00252020-06-12AI safetyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Alex Zhu Andrew Critch Jed McCaleb Oliver Habryka Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H1 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h1-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process). A request for grants was made at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wQk3nrGTJZHfsPHb6/survival-and-flourishing-grant-applications-open-until-march (GW, IR) and open till 2020-03-07. The S-process "involves allowing the recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Funders were free to assign different weights to different recommenders in the process; the weights were determined by marginal utility functions specified by the funders (Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb, and SFF). In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this 2020 H1 round of grants is SFF's third round; grants to AI Impacts had also been made in the second round in 2019 Q4.

Other notes: The grant round also includes a grant from Jed McCaleb ($20,000) to the same grantee (AI Impacts). Although the Survival and Flourishing Fund also participates as a funder in the round, it had no direct grants to AI Impacts in the round. Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 4.35%.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute280,000.00102020-06-11AI safetyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Alex Zhu Andrew Critch Jed McCaleb Oliver Habryka Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2020 H1 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h1-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process). A request for grants was made at https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/wQk3nrGTJZHfsPHb6/survival-and-flourishing-grant-applications-open-until-march (GW, IR) and open till 2020-03-07. The S-process "involves allowing the recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Funders were free to assign different weights to different recommenders in the process; the weights were determined by marginal utility functions specified by the funders (Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb, and SFF). In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this 2020 H1 round of grants is SFF's third round and the first with grants to MIRI.

Donor retrospective of the donation: A further grant from Jaan Tallinn to MIRI (see https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h2-recommendations in 2020 H2) suggests continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: The grant round also includes grants from the Survival and Flourishing Fund ($20,000) and Jed McCaleb ($40,000) to the same grantee (MIRI). Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 30.43%.
AI Impacts30,000.00272019-12-04AI safetyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.htmlSurvival and Flourishing Fund Alex Flint Alex Zhu Andrew Critch Eric Rogstad Oliver Habryka Donation process: Part of the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2019 Q4 grants https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2019-q4-recommendations based on the S-process (simulation process) that "involves allowing the Recommenders and funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a spreadsheet of marginal utility functions. Funders were free to assign different weights to different Recommenders in the process; the weights were determined by marginal utility functions specified by the funders (Jaan Tallinn and SFF). In this round, the process also allowed the funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts."

Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support

Donor reason for donating at this time (rather than earlier or later): Timing determined by timing of grant round; this November 2019 round of grants is SFF's second round.

Donor retrospective of the donation: Continued grants (such as https://survivalandflourishing.fund/sff-2020-h1-recommendations in 2020 H1) suggest continued satisfaction with the grantee.

Other notes: The grant round also includes a grant from the Survival and Flourishing Fund ($70,000) to the same grantee (AI Impacts). Percentage of total donor spend in the corresponding batch of donations: 2.76%; announced: 2019-12-15.
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative5,000,000.0012017-12AI safetyhttp://existence.org/2018/01/11/activity-update-december-2017.html-- Donation amount approximate.
Machine Intelligence Research Institute60,500.00242017AI safetyhttps://web.archive.org/web/20170204024838/https://intelligence.org/topdonors/--
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative2,000,000.0032017AI safetyhttp://existence.org/grants--
Machine Intelligence Research Institute80,000.00222016AI safetyhttps://web.archive.org/web/20160115172820/https://intelligence.org/donortools/topdonors.php--
AI Impacts5,000.00292015-10-15AI safety/strategyhttps://jaan.online/philanthropy/donations.html-- Intended use of funds (category): Organizational general support
Machine Intelligence Research Institute100,000.00192014AI safetyhttp://archive.today/2014.10.10-021359/http://intelligence.org/topdonors/--
Machine Intelligence Research Institute100,000.00192013AI safetyhttp://archive.today/2013.10.21-235551/http://intelligence.org/topdonors/--
Machine Intelligence Research Institute109,000.00172012AI safetyhttps://web.archive.org/web/20120918094656/http://singularity.org:80/topdonors/--
Machine Intelligence Research Institute155,000.00152012AI safetyhttps://web.archive.org/web/20120719220051/http://singularity.org:80/topdonors/--

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