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The Cosmos Institute , a not-for-profit whose constitute buster admit Anthropic co - founding father Jack Clark and former Defense Department technologist Brendan McCord , has announced a venture programme and inquiry opening to — in the organization ’s words — “ cultivate a new propagation of engineer and entrepreneur equip with cryptic philosophical thinking to pilot the unmapped territory of our AI historic period . ”
In ablog office , McCord , Cosmos ’ chair , said that the Institute will happen an AI research laboratory at the University of Oxford call the Human - Centered AI Lab , or “ HAI Lab ” for myopic . It ’ll be led by Oxford philosopher Philipp Koralus — another of the Institute ’s establish fellows — and will aim to “ interpret the philosophical principles of human being thrive into open source software and AI systems . ”
What does “ render the philosophic principles of human flourishing ” entail , exactly ? indecipherable . But the Crux Australis is to foster the initiation of AI technical school that respects human gravitas while keep off promoting harmful hoo-ha ( e.g. , automation leading to job expiration ) . A gamey and nebulous bar , to be trusted — but one the HAI science lab is live on to strive for .
The Institute is also spinning up a fellowship — the Cosmos Fellowship — with a cohort of four fellows to start . function at the HAI Lab or other partner institutions for between “ a terminal figure and a class , ” fellows will collaborate with Cosmos mentors and pursue independent projects to “ [ explore the ] intersection of AI expertise and rich philosophic sixth sense , ” McCord said .
There ’s an investing component to the Institute ’s architectural plan , and it ’s launching in the human body of a venture org : Cosmos Ventures . go by former DeepMind product lead Jason Zhao , ex - Stripe principal of corporate strategy Alex Komoroske , Darren Zhu , and Zoe Weinberg , Cosmos Ventures will support “ provocative young prototypes , essays and originative undertaking that explore fundamental questions around the philosophy of technology , ” McCord say .
McCord characterizes Cosmos Ventures as “ down in the mouth command processing overhead , ” model after Institute fellow Tyler Cowen’sEmergent Ventures . Investments will array between $ 1,000 and $ 10,000 per project , and projects — which can be new or existing — must bring forth a “ major deliverable ” within three month .
The first group has already been fund , McCord enunciate .
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The Cosmos Institute is n’t the first to attempt to march on a more honorable , humanist visual sensation of AI . OpenAI , institute with the mission of give up the benefits of forward-looking AI to all humanity , has dismantled intact condom teams . Clark ’s own Anthropic once positioned itself as a safer , more honorable vendor , but inrecent monthshas push back on AI regulations and aggressively scrape data without permission .
Perhaps the Cosmos Institute will fare better with its embracement of what McCord calls “ accelerationism ” : the idea that the future is n’t predetermined and therefore humanity is responsible for for what it hold .
“ We must build AI that promote inquiry over complacency and promotes fighting battle over passive dependence , especially in education , medication , the public second power and other vital domains , ” McCord writes . “ We champion AI that decentralizes power and enable bottom - up resolution , allowing individuals and communities to co - create a plenteous , more various high society . ”
They ’re admirable place . This reporter only hop that money , influence and power do n’t make the enticement to abandon them irresistible .