The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a non-profit that works to reduce existential risk from powerful technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, and to promote positive visions of the future. FLI's work consists of grantmaking, educational outreach, and advocating for better policymaking in the United Nations, the United States government, and European Union institutions.
FLI was founded in 2014 by Jaan Tallinn, Max Tegmark, Viktoriya Krakovna, Anthony Aguirre and Meia Chita-Tegmark.
FLI is funded by a wide range of individuals, having received 1500 donations between December 2022 and its foundation in in 2014[1]. FLI has also received institutional funding including from Open Philanthropy ($1.9 million)[2] and the Survival and Flourishing Fund ($500,000).[3][4]
Every year, FLI awards a prize, named the Future of Life Award, to one or more individuals judged to have had an extraordinary positive social impact but whose contributions are not sufficiently widely recognized. As of 2022, sixteen people have been so honored: Vasili Arkhipov (2017), Stanislav Petrov (2018), Matthew Meselson (2019), Viktor Zhdanov and William Folge (2020), and Joe Farman, Susan Solomon and Stephen Andersen (2021), and Jeannie Peterson, Paul Crutzen, John Birks, Richard Turco, Brian Toon, Carl Sagan, Georgiy Stenchikov and Alan Robock (2022).[5]
Future of Life Institute. Official website.