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Are you happy to share a short summary of the non-funding factors that contributed to this decision? All the best with whatever is next!

As far as I know, the reason AISS shut down was 100% because of lack of funding. However, it's not so easy to just start things up again. People who don't get paid tend to quit and move on.

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Shutting down AI Safety Support

by JJ Hepburn

Jul 30 20231 min read 17

116

AI safetyAI Safety Support (Organisation)Organization updates

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This is a quick post to officially announce that AI Safety Support is on an indefinite pause. We have been on pause for a while now, but I wanted to make it official. I might have more to say on this later but expect that if I wait till I write a longer explanation, it will not happen.

I’m calling it a pause because maybe AI Safety Support does reopen in some capacity in the future, possibly with a different person running it.

A lack of funding is a part of the decision but is not the only factor. That is to say that I’m not looking for offers of funding.

AI Safety Support Ltd, the Australian-based charity, supports several other projects and will continue to do so. None of these projects should be affected by this.

If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments here, but I may not respond to them.

It has been a wild ride these last few years. I have so much love and appreciation for everyone I have worked with.

Thank you all so much.

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Magdalena WacheJul 30 202356

Hi JJ, just wanted to say a big thank you for all your work!

I used the fiscal sponsorship, the free health coaching, the AISS newsletter, and the alignment slack, and found all of them super helpful! And probably I've used even more things which of I'm not even aware that they are coming from AISS.

I particularly appreciate your lots of links page. It's one of my favorite resources for an overview of which things exist in the AI safety ecosystem.

I hope whatever you are up to next goes well!

Michael Noetel 🔸Jul 30 202319

Just wanted to +1 the appreciation for all your work over the years JJ

pseudonymJul 30 202344

Are you happy to share a short summary of the non-funding factors that contributed to this decision? All the best with whatever is next!

Linda LinseforsAug 18 20232

As far as I know, the reason AISS shut down was 100% because of lack of funding. However, it's not so easy to just start things up again. People who don't get paid tend to quit and move on.

plexJul 30 202342

AI Safety Support has been for a long time a remarkably active in-the-trenches group patching the many otherwise gaping holes in the ecosystem (someone who's available to talk and help people get a basic understanding of the lie of the land from a friendly face, resources to keep people informed in ways which were otherwise neglected, support around fiscal sponsorship and coaching), especially for people trying to join the effort who don't have a close connection to the inner circles where it's less obvious that these are needed.

I'm sad to see the supporters not having been adequately supported to keep up this part of the mission, but excited by JJ's new project: Ashgro.

I'm also excited by AI Safety Quest stepping up as a distributed, scalable, grassroots version of several of the main duties of AI Safety Support, which are ever more keenly needed with the flood of people who want to help as awareness spreads.

Abby BabbyJul 31 20233

Super helpful background info, thanks so much :)

NunoSempereJul 31 202330

I, and perhaps others, would be curious about a bit more of a postmortem. It seems like this was a beloved and valuable project. Why did it get shut down? Did you get burnt out? Was it a lack of funds? Any requests? Is there something that the EA community could have done better?

JJ HepburnDec 6 20246

Yes, burnt out. Yes, lack of funds.

AISS ran out of funding while waiting for a decision from the LTFF. In my original post I said I wasn’t looking for funding, because I had reached a point where even if the project got fully funded I would not want to be running it when we next needed funding.

My requests would mostly be around better communication. Despite waiting so long for a decision that we ran out of funding and I gave up would seem like I would want decisions to be faster. I think there are some much easier wins around communication that would drastically improve the applicant experience independent of how long it takes to process a decision.

Only a few days after I posted this update I found out that the reason LTFF hadnt made a decision on my grant is that they were low on funding. If we had been below their normal funding bar we would have already been rejected. Just having this information could have critical.

A few weeks earlier I was talking to an individual that could have personally funded AISS for a year. Their main hesitation for not funding us was that LTFF still hadn’t decided. They assumed LTFF has some concerns that they are not aware of. They assumed that LTFF was not funding constrained. At that moment if I had know LTFFs real position I could have told this to the donor and helped my and LTFFs funding problem.

NunoSempereDec 7 20242

Thanks JJ

Evan R. MurphyJul 30 202311

Will the AI alignment Slack continue to run?

Thanks JJ and everyone who has worked on AISS for all your great work!

JJ HepburnJul 30 20239

There's no need to shut down the AI Alignment Slack.
Moderation hasn't been too much of a burden, but it could be better. Would be good to find someone else to take ownership of this.

Chris LeongAug 2 202310

Sorry to hear about this, but thank you for all of your hard work!

ben.smithAug 2 20238

JJ--thanks for all your words of support in the last few years. I appreciate your attitude, care, and your hard work. I'm sorry to hear about this. Hope you are well!

jacquesthibsJul 30 20235

Thanks for all your work, JJ! Good luck with whatever you end up doing next!

(Note in case anybody else wants to pick up where AISS left off: This is a bit unfortunate for me given that not having an org to sponsor work visas in the UK might affect my decision for moving to there. We had talked about AISS trying to do the work to get that setup in the next 1-2 years.)

JJ HepburnJul 30 202315

I still have plans to setup a research org in the UK

Mckiev 🔸Jul 30 20232

Did LTFF decline you grant application? Have you applied to manifund.org?

JJ HepburnJul 30 20232

No decision from LTFF. Funding wouldn't help at this point.