The Singularity Institute Blog

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Team Update

Executive Director Tyler Emerson:

• Rebranding process began in March, in collaboration with award-winning designer and MINE Founder Christopher Simmons, who is nearing completion of the initial research.
• Tyler began an update list for anyone to join who wants more regular updates on SIAI and the broader long term philanthropy community. Email “Updates - Yes” to emerson@singinst.org to join.
• In February, Tyler co-organized BIL, a free counterpoint to TED. Coverage included Wired and NPR. BIL2009 will be February 7th-8th in Long Beach.
• Beginning in May, SIAI Blog will be updated at least once every 10 days by volunteer Joshua Fox, focusing on SIAI activity and Friendly AI / AGI developments.
• Singularity Summit 2008 will be Saturday October 18th at Montgomery Theater in San Jose. We will have a more intimate summit with seating limited to 500. Details forthcoming.
• Singularity Summit 2007 videos (filmed, edited, and produced at a generously low-cost by independent filmmaker Doug Wolens) are online.

Director of Research Ben Goertzel, Ph.D.:

• Development on OpenCog began in February. Researchers in New Zealand and Brazil have been retained for the project.
• Director of Open Source Projects David Hart secured acceptance of OpenCog within Google’s Summer of Code program. Eleven summer interns paid by Google will work on OpenCog code.
• Ben and Director of Outreach Bruce Klein are co-organizing the Journal of Artificial General Intelligence (a new research journal), and AGI Network, an online social network for AI researchers.

Research Fellow Eliezer Yudkowsky:

• Eliezer has written 300,000 words as of March on the Overcoming Bias blog. Select material is intended for a popular book; the rest can be used by SIAI for years to come.
• Eliezer attended the AGI 08 Conference, AAAI Spring Symposium at Stanford, and will speak at the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute’s Global Catastrophic Risks Conference in July.

Director of Partnerships Jonas Lamis:

• In April, Jonas spoke at RoboBusiness 2008 on the future of autonomous vehicles, and at Envision on the coming waves of society-changing technologies.
• Jonas’s company SciVestor launched in January. SciVestor is focused on becoming a leading industry research firm for the business of breakthrough technologies.
• Jonas is working on a partner program for Singularity Summit 2008. He is also planning a SciVestor workshop to be held prior to the summit reception on the 17th.

Director of Strategy Colby Thomson:

• In February, Colby attended TED. He has been working with Tyler on naming/branding, PR, donor prospects, TV series and viral video discussion, and how to explain our mission concisely online.

Director of Outreach Bruce Klein:

• Bruce and Tyler are working with others on Convergence, an Unconference on November 15th-16th at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley.
• In collaboration with Dr. Pete Estep, James Clement, and Dr. Derya Unutmaz, Bruce and Tyler are helping start the Innerspace Foundation. IF will support neuroengineering approaches for the enhancement of memory and learning. On April 30th, Estep spoke about the foundation at the Bay Area Future Salon.

Other News

1. Director Ray Kurzweil collaborated on the National Academies’ Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st Century, announced in February. Other committee members included Segway creator Dean Kamen, Google Cofounder Larry Page, and genomics pioneer Craig Venter.
2. Ray was featured in Wired Magazine’s April issue.
3. Peter Thiel discussed the Singularity and SIAI in Reason Magazine’s May issue. Excerpt:

   Reason: Why do you support the Singularity Institute?

   Thiel: I think it’s a group of really smart people working on an important problem. I think that the basic rule of philanthropy I have is that I want to donate money to causes that are worthwhile but where there are no market-based mechanisms for them. There is a category of things that would benefit all of humanity but where the benefits are very diffuse and the costs are concentrated. Maybe it’s very long term. So I focus my philanthropy on things with a 20-, 30-, or 40-year horizon. The horizons are too long for a for-profit company to take advantage of, and the government and universities are not pushing things because maybe it’s too unconventional or it doesn’t easily fit into a particular political agenda or vision of the future. Those areas are probably systematically underfunded. It may be the only area of philanthropy that’s underfunded.

4. Steve Omohundro’s paper on “The Basic AI Drives,” and the following interviews on the challenges of artificial intelligence: SIAI Interview Series, Accelerating Future, and Future Blogger.

Events

1. Future Trends – The Singularity Hypothesis @ Santa Clara University: Organized by SIAI volunteers’ Victor Quintanar-Zilinskas and Yonah Berwaldt. Ben and Eliezer were speakers.
2. Artificial General Intelligence 2008 @ University of Memphis: Co-organized by Ben and Bruce.
3. BIL 2008 @ Monterey: Co-organized by Tyler. Sponsored by SIAI ($2,000).
4. Methuselah Foundation Conferences @ UCLA: June 27th-29th.
5. Singularity Summit 2008 @ San Jose Montgomery Theater: October 17th-18th. Details forthcoming.
6. BIL 2009 @ CalState Long Beach.