Future of Life Institute
In plain wordsAn advocacy group that warns about the dangers of advanced AI and other powerful technologies, funds research and lobbies governments. It organized the 2023 open letter calling for a pause on giant AI experiments.
A nonprofit that seeks to lower the chance that advanced AI, or another powerful technology, causes a global catastrophe. It convened the 2015 Puerto Rico conference, whose open letter on research priorities for beneficial AI drew thousands of signatures, made some of the first grants for AI safety research, and hosted the 2017 Beneficial AI conference that produced the Asilomar AI PrinciplesAsilomar AI Principles, prop. n.: A list of 23 guidelines for safe and beneficial AI drawn up at a 2017 conference in California and signed by thousands of researchers and public figures.. It campaigns against lethal autonomous weapons, including through the 2017 film Slaughterbots; published the March 2023 Pause Giant AI ExperimentsPause Giant AI Experiments, prop. n.: A 2023 open letter, signed by tens of thousands of people including prominent technologists, that asked AI labs to halt the training of any AI more capable than GPT-4 for at least half a year. letter; grades AI companies in an AI Safety Index; and in October 2025 issued the Statement on SuperintelligenceStatement on Superintelligence, prop. n.: A 2025 public statement, signed by scientists, celebrities and politicians, calling for a ban on building superintelligent AI until it is shown to be safe and the public supports it., calling for a prohibition on developing superintelligencesuperintelligence, n.: A mind, usually imagined as an AI, that would leave even the cleverest people far behind in nearly every kind of thinking, not just in one game or skill. None is known to exist. until there is broad scientific consensus that it can be done safely and controllably, and strong public support. It lobbies in Brussels and Washington.
Origin
Founded in March 2014 in the Boston area by physicist Max TegmarkMax Tegmark, prop. n.: A Swedish-American physicist at MIT who co-founded the Future of Life Institute, which organized the 2023 open letter calling for a pause in training the most powerful AI systems., Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, cosmologist Anthony Aguirre, Viktoriya Krakovna and Meia Chita-Tegmark. Elon Musk gave $10 million for its 2015 research program, and a 2021 cryptocurrency donation from Vitalik Buterin greatly enlarged its endowment.
Usage note
Not to be confused with the Future of Humanity InstituteFuture of Humanity Institute, prop. n.: Nick Bostrom's research center at Oxford University (2005–2024), where philosophers and scientists studied threats that could permanently derail humanity's future, advanced artificial intelligence among them. at Oxford, which closed in 2024.
Related
- Max TegmarkMax Tegmark, prop. n.: A Swedish-American physicist at MIT who co-founded the Future of Life Institute, which organized the 2023 open letter calling for a pause in training the most powerful AI systems.
- Pause Giant AI ExperimentsPause Giant AI Experiments, prop. n.: A 2023 open letter, signed by tens of thousands of people including prominent technologists, that asked AI labs to halt the training of any AI more capable than GPT-4 for at least half a year.
- Asilomar AI PrinciplesAsilomar AI Principles, prop. n.: A list of 23 guidelines for safe and beneficial AI drawn up at a 2017 conference in California and signed by thousands of researchers and public figures.
- AI pauseAI pause, n.: A proposed halt, temporary or indefinite, on building AI systems more powerful than today's, to give safety research and regulation time to catch up.
- existential riskexistential risk, n.: A danger that could end humanity, or shut it out of a good future forever. Some experts count advanced AI among the largest such risks; others think this worry is overblown.
- superintelligencesuperintelligence, n.: A mind, usually imagined as an AI, that would leave even the cleverest people far behind in nearly every kind of thinking, not just in one game or skill. None is known to exist.
- Future of Humanity InstituteFuture of Humanity Institute, prop. n.: Nick Bostrom's research center at Oxford University (2005–2024), where philosophers and scientists studied threats that could permanently derail humanity's future, advanced artificial intelligence among them.
Mentioned in
Elon MuskElon Musk, prop. n.: A South African-born American entrepreneur who runs Tesla and SpaceX, co-founded OpenAI, founded the AI company xAI, and has long warned that AI could endanger humanity., Max TegmarkMax Tegmark, prop. n.: A Swedish-American physicist at MIT who co-founded the Future of Life Institute, which organized the 2023 open letter calling for a pause in training the most powerful AI systems., Pause Giant AI ExperimentsPause Giant AI Experiments, prop. n.: A 2023 open letter, signed by tens of thousands of people including prominent technologists, that asked AI labs to halt the training of any AI more capable than GPT-4 for at least half a year., Asilomar AI PrinciplesAsilomar AI Principles, prop. n.: A list of 23 guidelines for safe and beneficial AI drawn up at a 2017 conference in California and signed by thousands of researchers and public figures., Future of Humanity InstituteFuture of Humanity Institute, prop. n.: Nick Bostrom's research center at Oxford University (2005–2024), where philosophers and scientists studied threats that could permanently derail humanity's future, advanced artificial intelligence among them., Open Letter on Artificial IntelligenceOpen Letter on Artificial Intelligence, prop. n.: A 2015 open letter, signed by Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk and many leading AI researchers, urging that AI research aim not only at making systems more capable but also at making them safe and beneficial., PauseAIPauseAI, prop. n.: A volunteer protest movement, begun in 2023, that pickets AI companies and lobbies governments for a worldwide treaty halting work on AI more advanced than today's best until it is proven safe., Statement on SuperintelligenceStatement on Superintelligence, prop. n.: A 2025 public statement, signed by scientists, celebrities and politicians, calling for a ban on building superintelligent AI until it is shown to be safe and the public supports it., tool AItool AI, n.: AI built to be used like an instrument, answering, suggesting or calculating when asked, rather than pursuing goals on its own. Some argue that this is the only kind we should build., Victoria KrakovnaVictoria Krakovna, prop. n.: An AI-safety researcher at Google DeepMind who popularized 'specification gaming', AI systems meeting the letter of their goals but not the intent, and co-founded the Future of Life Institute.