Invitation to lead a project at AI Safety Camp 

Virtual Edition, 2025

Do you have AI Safety research ideas that you would like to work on with others? Is there a project you want to do and you want help finding a team? AI Safety Camp could be the solution for you!

Summary

AI Safety Camp Virtual is a 3-month long online research program from January to April 2025, where participants form teams to work on pre-selected projects. We want you to suggest the projects!

If you have an AI Safety project idea and some research experience, apply to be a Research Lead. If accepted, we offer some assistance to develop your idea into a plan suitable for AI Safety Camp. When project plans are ready, we open up team member applications. You get to review applications for your team, and select who joins as a team member. From there, it’s your job to guide work on your project.

Who is qualified?

We require that you have some previous research experience. If you are at least 1 year into a PhD or if you have completed an AI Safety research program (such as a previous AI Safety Camp, PIBBSS, MATS, and similar), or done a research internship with an AI Safety org, then you are qualified already. Other research experience can count, too.

More senior researchers are of course also welcome, as long as you think our format of leading an online team inquiring into your research questions suits you and your research.

We require that all Research Leads are active participants in their projects and spend at least 10h/week on AISC.
 

If you are unsure, or have any questions you are welcome to:

• Book a call with Robert

• Send an email to Robert

Choosing project idea(s)

AI Safety Camp is about ensuring future AIs are either reasonably safe or not built at all.

We welcome many types of projects including projects aimed at stopping or pausing AI development, aligning AI, deconfusion research, or anything else you think will help make the world safer from AI. If you like, you can read more of our perspectives on AI safety, or look at past projects.

If you already have an idea for what project you would like to lead, that’s great. Apply with that one!

However, you don’t need to come up with an original idea. What matters is you understanding the idea you want to work on, and why. If you base your proposal on someone else's idea, make sure to cite them. 

1. For ideas on stopping harmful AI, see here and/or email Remmelt.

2. For some mech-interp ideas see here.

3. We don’t have specific recommendations for where to find other types of project ideas, so just take inspiration wherever you find it.

You can submit as many project proposals as you want. However, you are only allowed to lead one project.

Use this template to describe each of your project proposals. We want one document per proposal.

We’ll help you improve your project

As part of the Research Lead application process, we’ll help you improve your project. The organiser whose ideas match best with yours, will work with you to create the best version of your project.

We will also ask for assistance from previous Research Leads, and up to a handful of other trusted people, to give you additional feedback.

Timeline

Research Lead applications

• September 22 (Sunday):  Application deadline for Research Leads.

• October 20 (Sunday):  Deadline for refined proposals.

Team member applications:

• October 25 (Friday):  Accepted proposals are posted on the AISC website. Application to join teams open.

• November 17 (Sunday):  Application to join teams closes. 

• December 22 (Sunday):  Deadline for Research Leads to choose their team. 

Program 

• Jan 11 - 12: Opening weekend.

• Jan 13 - Apr 25:  Research is happening.
  Teams meet weekly, and plan in their own work hours. 

• April 26 - 27 (preliminary dates):  Final presentations.

Afterwards

• For as long as you want:  Some teams keep working together after the official end of AISC.
  When starting out we recommend that you don’t make any commitment beyond the official length of the program. However if you find that you work well together as a team, we encourage you to keep going even after AISC is officially over.

Application process for Research Leads

As part of the Research Lead application process we will help you improve your project plan, mainly through comments on your document. How much support we can provide depends on the number of applications we get. However, everyone who applies on time (before September 22nd) is guaranteed at least one 1-on-1 call with someone on the AISC team, to discuss your proposal. 

Your application will not be judged based on your initial proposal, but on the refined proposal, after you had the opportunity to respond to our feedback. The final deadline for improving your proposal is October 20th. 

Your Research Lead application will be judged based on:

1. Theory of change
   What is the theory of impact of your project? Here we are asking about the relevance of your project work for AI Safety. If your project succeeds, can you tell us how this makes the world safer?

2. Project plan and fit for AISC
   Do you have a well-thought-out plan for your project? How well does your plan fit the format of AISC? Is the project something that can be done by a remote team over 3 months? If your project is very ambitious, maybe you want to pick out a smaller sub-goal as the aim of AISC?

3. Downside risk
   What are the downside risks of your projects and what is your plan to mitigate any such risk? The most common risk for AI safety projects is that your project might accelerate AI capabilities. If we think your project will enhance capabilities more than safety, we will not accept it.

4. You as Research Lead
   Do we believe that you have the required skills and commitment to the project, and enough time to spend on this, in order to follow through? If we are going to promote your project and help you recruit a team to join you, we need to know that you will not let your team down. 

Stipends

As Research Leads, you can apply to receive a stipend of $1500 USD (for the entire program, not per month).

For your team members we may be limited to only giving stipends to people from lower income countries. This will depend on the outcome of our fundraising.

EA Hotel

AISC is currently run online, but if you want to turn it into an in-person program, you can apply to stay at EA Hotel (Blackpool, UK) during all or part of AISC. The EA Hotel staff has told us that AISC participants are very likely to be accepted as residents. 

If you choose to stay at EA Hotel, you can decide to preferentially accept team members who are able to join you there. If this is something you want to do, we can discuss the logistical details more during your Research Lead application.

Please mind that AISC is open and welcoming to people from many communities, so you might end up missing out on some applicants if you select for affinity with Effective Altruism (EA).  

Do you want to be a Research Lead?

If you have a project idea and you are willing to lead or guide a team working on this idea, you should apply to be a Research Lead.

We don’t expect a fully formed research plan! If we think your idea is suitable for AISC, we can help you to improve it.

If you are unsure, or have any further questions you are welcome to:

• Book a call with Robert

• Send an email to Robert