@Cambridge_Uni
interdisciplinary research centre dedicated to the study and mitigation of risks that could lead to human extinction or civilizational collapse.
Do you have a background in global systems breakdown, natural disasters, international security, or transformative technologies?
CSER is seeking 2 Assistant Professors to lead our new MPhil in Global Risk & Resilience
Apply here:
#AcademicJobs
#Cambridge
Welcome to CSER visitor Sumaya Nur
@mayaanuur
!
Sumaya has been a remote visitor since June 2022 & is visiting CSER in person for the next few weeks.
Sumaya's research interests lie in the intersection of law and artificial intelligence.
Mr Peter Ho of Singapore's Centre for Strategic Futures calls them Black Elephants:
A problem that's visible to all, but noone wants to deal with so they pretend it's not there. When it blows up, we all feign surprise & behave as if it were a black swan.
This was not a black swan, but rather a gray rhino, so to speak—a crisis that was terribly predictable and generally anticipated, but for which preparation remained utterly inadequate.
Welcome to CSER visitor
@MichelleMalonza
!
Michelle Malonza is a Research Associate at the
@ILINAProgram
. At CSER, she will be working on an OpenAI funded project on how democratic societies can responsibly integrate AI into their critical infrastructure.
10 years ago today, Huw Price and Jaan Tallinn met in a taxi in Copenhagen and realised the need for a centre dedicated to existential risk.
Happy birthday to CSER!
What makes you hopeful?
"Rather than just focusing on what's going on now, looking at the history of humanity & how that's been - there's some proof of progress"
Hear
@CecilYongo
talk more about about his journey into global catastrophic research👇
We are excited to announce that Prof Matthew Connelly
@mattspast
will join us as Director of CSER from July 2023. His most recent role was as professor of international and global history at Columbia University. Read more: (1/3)
We're excited to announce the publication of "The Era of Global Risk"!
This book presents essays that explore aspects of global risk, with the potential to bring about human extinction & civilization collapse.
Download for free or buy the book below:
The Keynote from
@LordMartinRees
begins:
"Covid-19 has been a wakeup call with an estimated cost of $20 trillion. It's worth paying an insurance premium to reduce the risk of these mega-disasters"
Geoffrey Hinton's lecture will be starting in about 10 minutes. "Two Paths to Intelligence" has already filled up the lecture theatre here. Follow along with us for the key insights! Organised along with
@LeverhulmeCFI
,
@Cambridge_Eng
, and
@CSERCambridge
.
#2Paths
.
59 international co-authors from 29 orgs, including tech companies and academic groups, came together to write this report. It suggests 10 mechanisms for how AI developers can make more verifiable claims in three areas: institutional, software & hardware.
Our major new report - The Mailicious Use of Artificial Intelligence. Written with 26 co-authors across 14 institutions incl.
@FHIOxford
@OpenAI
@CNASdc
@EFF
Excited for Toby Ord's new book!
“the international body responsible for the continued prohibition of bioweapons (the Biological Weapons Convention) has an annual budget of just $1.4 million [£1.1m] – less than the average McDonald’s restaurant”.
"I expect that a vast and extraordinary future lies ahead if we can navigate the challenges and opportunities posed by new technologies in the upcoming century."
The ‘Lessons from COVID-19’ project at CSER aims to assess the global pandemic response and distill key lessons from this response to improve the prevention and mitigation of global catastrophic risks (GCRs) in the future. Find out more here:
This week is our first virtual conference! Over the next 4-days, we'll be revisiting
@LordMartinRees
's 'Our Final Century' through panel discussions with some incredible speakers
#CCCR2020
. A thread ⬇️
New paper! In ‘Seven Questions for Existential Risk Studies’,
@CSERCambridge
researchers
@lalithasun
,
@matthijsMmaas
, and
@CSERSJ
pose a set of open methodological, epistemic, ethical and strategic questions for the existential risk studies community to grapple with.
We’re pleased to announce the call for abstracts has opened for CSER’s Cambridge Conference on Catastrophic Risk in September 2024!
Find out more👇
#CallForAbstracts
#CCCR24
Thank you to
@CecilYongo
,
@Nandini___S
and
@HaydnBelfield
for a fantastic talk last night about their journeys into existential risk research!
The recording will be available on our YouTube channel soon
#CamFest
Had a great time. Super grateful to the people at
@CSERCambridge
for planning this and inviting me. For good reason, CSER’s been one of the best things that ever happened in my professional life!
Thank you to Professor Benoît Pelopidas
@NKnowledges
for his fantastic lecture in June about Nuclear Weapons choices in an age of Existential Risk!
Watch the recording below:
Welcome to Day 3 of the Cambridge Conference on Catastrophic Risk (
#cccr2022
)! Today we're talking about Global Solutions. We'll be hearing about all things policy and decision making. Follow along here:
Three exciting research positions at CSER, Cambridge. Topics: AI safety, responsible innovation and tech risk, and global population and sustainability. Deadline August 26th. Please share the word!
The 2022 Cambridge Conference on Catastrophic Risk
#cccr2022
is about to kick off with a keynote from
@LordMartinRees
!
We'll be live-tweeting the whole thing, follow along and join the conversation
Do you want to lead a team of 25 researchers, bringing specialist knowledge in geology, biology, law, politics and philosophy to the challenge of avoiding catastrophe in the 21st Century? CSER is looking for a Director, funded for five years:
Now -
@laramani14
on "‘What works’ for global catastrophic risk communication?"
How we're communicating, challenges, methods & tools, initial lessons
Starts with the iconic Doomsday Clock from
@BulletinAtomic
75 years of communication, >35 million readers a year
We're hiring!
We're seeking a part-time Research Assistant to support the analysis of biological security policy and emerging biological technologies.
Deadline 29 May 2022
Apply below:
Meet the Researcher: Matthijs Maas. Matthijs looks at how we should govern high-risk technological change, in a changing world, using governance tools which may themselves be left changed by technology, for better or worse. Read the profile here:
Our 2nd major Bioengineering horizon scan has just been published! Some of the 20 issues identified:
-Regulation of genomic data
-Increased philanthropic funding
-Malicious uses of neurochemicals
-Crops for changing climates
-Agricultural gene drives
We're hiring! We're seeking a full-time Senior Research Associate with expertise in the long-term impacts, risks, and governance of artificial intelligence. Deadline 30 January 2022. More information and how to apply here:
Our researchers responded to the EU's AI White Paper.
The key recommendation is to keep the proposed framework of mandatory conformity assessments for high-risk AI applications carried out by independent testing centres - and not water it down.
CSER is looking for a new Deputy Director! The role will combine leadership, academic, and management responsibilities for CSER and support the Executive Director by assuming operational responsibility for day-to-day activities.
Find out more:
CSER are in Geneva this week for the 9th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention. States Parties have spoken about verification, scientific expert groups & enhancing Implementation Support Unit capacities. Still a great deal of discussion ahead
#BWCRevCon
Sessions recordings from our Cambridge Conference on Catastrophic Risk 2020 are now available to watch on our youtube channel! Details in the thread ⬇️
#CCCR2020
Welcome to new CSER visitor
@nemocentric
Thomas Moynihan!
Tom works on the history of ideas, primarily the ways changing theories about the wider universe have transformed human self-conceptions and practical priorities throughout the past.
We are delighted to announce that CSER’s 2022 Cambridge Conference on Catastrophic Risk will take place from 19th-21st April and registration for online participants is now open!
Visit the conference website below for more information:
3 job opportunities to research existential risk
@Cambridge_Uni
Closing date: 10 November 2019
-Research Associate in Public Policy for Global Risk
-Research Associate In Communication & Outreach for Global Risk
-Research Assistant: Global Risk
We're looking for a new Academic Programme Manager!
As a Senior Research Associate role, it will combine academic, management and administrative responsibilities and is a great opportunity to make a real impact.
Find out more:
We're also excited to announce
@harari_yuval
has joined CSER as a Research Fellow, the first appointment in the
@Cambridge_ITH
Distinguished Fellowship programme!
Disruption, Democracy and the Global Order
Watch the lecture below by
@harari_yuval
on today's most urgent global challenges!
With discussion from
@mattspast
@gilliantett
of
@Kings_College
and students from the Cambridge Existential Risks Initiative
Shahar Avin's Civilisation 5 superintelligence mod is out and freely available. Explores AI & tech tree dynamics. Encourages players to invest in AI safety research alongside AI capabilities research.
Want to learn more about CSER's research?
⭐️Climate Change⭐️
This infographic outlines some of CSER’s research around the existential and globally catastrophic potential of climate change as a risk driver, risk multiplier, and risk mitigation opportunity
Welcome to CSER visitor Elizabeth Cooper!
Elizabeth works as the Deputy Director at the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative.
At CSER, she will work closely with the management team on fundraising, diversity & inclusion, & field-building initiatives
I'm really proud to announce that I've launched a new organization, Global Shield, with my co-founders
@ArielConn
and Jared Brown. We advocate for government policy on global catastrophic risk. The risk is only growing, so Global Shield is about getting government to act.
We're excited to join
@LeverhulmeCFI
&
@CHIA_Cambridge
as
@Cambridge_ITH
!
The Institute supports research that investigates the opportunities & challenges technology transformations pose for our societies, our environment & our world
Our panel discussion on "Doom and Doubt: Uncertain Futures & Open Questions about Existential Risk" is kicking off with
@matthijsMmaas
,
@lalithasun
and
@CSERSJ
- chaired by
@S_OhEigeartaigh
.
We'll be live-tweeting it on this thread 🧵1/many
Some of our AI risk researchers argue:
"The European Commission is proposing the world’s first regulation on AI - a historic opportunity to set global standards which will influence how this technology shapes our world."
One audience member asks how HInton sees the trade-off between open source and closed source AI with relation to risk.
Hinton responds: "How do you feel about open source development of nuclear weapons?"
"As soon as you open source it [AI], people can do a lot of crazy things".
Welcome to new CSER team member
@alexklein_
!
Alex researches biological security & is currently undertaking a PhD in Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy at UCL. Previously she worked in academic publishing as a Development Editor at the Royal Society of Chemistry.
We are announcing new grants for research into systemic AI safety.
Initially backed by up to £8.5 million, this program will fund researchers to advance the science underpinning AI safety.
Read more:
Meet the Researcher: Tom Hobson. Tom’s research is concerned with understanding how societies imagine the future, how existing technologies shape this vision, and how they endeavour to secure a vision of the future. Read the profile here:
👀Coming soon!
On 8th Sept we'll be launching our Cambridge history of existential risks map!
Use the interactive map to discover landmarks related to X-Risks that we research including disease outbreaks, environmental change & technology
@OpenCambridgeUK
#OpenCambridge
The 📽️ says it all - bookings for
#OpenCambridge
are now open!
Not all events require booking but those that do are clearly marked with information on how to book.
View the full programme and plan your September now ➡️
@heritageopenday
@Cambridge_Uni
Why is the Doomsday Clock the closest its ever been to Midnight?
@RachelBronson1
President & CEO of
@BulletinAtomic
explains why in this Public Lecture
Welcome to new CSER visitor Nathaniel Cooke!
Nathaniel works on theoretical, systemic, and sociopolitical approaches to existential risk, as well as societal collapse and resilience, and is also a current research affiliate at CSER.
'A Science of Global Risk' is an interdisciplinary project at CSER, and aims to develop robust methods for studying high impact/low probability events, engage with a truly global audience and translate research into policy impact.
From surveillance to superintelligence -
@LeverhulmeCFI
's Stephen Cave and CFI and CSER's Sean Ó hÉigeartaigh on bridging near- and long-term concerns around AI.
@NatMachIntell
#AIethics
.
@Cambridge_Uni
will divest from all direct & indirect fossil fuel investments by 2030. Its £3.5bn Endowment Fund (biggest in Europe) will ramp up investments in renewables.
Massive achievement & tribute to years of research & debate by students & staff.
Amnesty International: "We are also interested in issues around the long-term safety of AI, including potential existential risks, even if these are relatively remote possibilities."
📢We're Recruiting!
We have 2 positions available exploring natural hazards & the relationship between climate change & mitigation of X-Risk
Research Associate in Environmental Risk
Senior Research Associate in Environmental Risk
Find out more below:
❗Breaking News❗
A new provisional recording of 38.7 °C at Cambridge Botanic Garden has been received from yesterday
It will be quality controlled & if validated would be the highest temperature officially recorded in the UK
More here:
#UKHottestDay
New paper by Aaron Tang and
@LukaKemp
investigates stratospheric aerosol injection's contribution to Global Catastrophic Risk. "If high levels of warming are hidden by SAI, then the system could represent a planetary Sword of Damocles" Read more here:
Important new breakthrough from
@OpenAI
. We welcome the caution and responsibility shown in taking possible malicious uses seriously, and pausing from full publication to allow debate and discussion.
We've trained an unsupervised language model that can generate coherent paragraphs and perform rudimentary reading comprehension, machine translation, question answering, and summarization — all without task-specific training:
"The More Who Die, the Less We Care"
Paul and Scott Slovic joins CSER to talk about how communication can help overcome insensitivity to large-scale humanitarian challenges by turning numbness into poignancy.
15 March 2022 6pm
Register here to watch:
The Law, Technology and Disruption Conference is happening online this weekend! On March 20th,
@matthijsMmaas
and Hin-Yan Liu will be presenting their paper, "Solving for X?’ Towards a problem-finding framework to ground longterm governance strategies for artificial intelligence"
This paper presents seven global
#pinchpoints
where a clustering of global critical systems converges with regions of volcanic activity, presenting a new landscape for catastrophic volcanic risk.
It's finally summer!🌞Over the next few weeks, CSER will be sharing some of our favourite papers, articles, podcasts and other media about Existential Risk.
See the thread below for this week’s pick 👇