[extropy-chat] Reminder: SIAI Challenge expires this Sunday | SIAI February news

[Tyler Emerson]

The Singularity Institute's 2006 $100,000 Challenge with Peter Thiel, the
former CEO of PayPal, will expire this Sunday, February 19. Any donation you
make will be matched dollar-for-dollar. So far, SIAI has matched $93,486. 

You can donate and track our progress here:
http://www.singularitychallenge.com

Personal checks postmarked by Sunday will be matched. If you send a donation
by check, please let us know so we can keep the donation total accurate.

Matching the Challenge is really crucial for our growth. Below is a summary
of our present projects, which I hope gives you a sense of our dedication. 

Your tax-deductible Challenge gift will support:

* The production and promotion of the Stanford Singularity Summit, a
conference to educate up to 1700 people in Silicon Valley about the
singularity hypothesis - representing an unprecedented chance to promote and
further the nascent fields of singularity and global risk studies. A
well-executed conference will increase the interest of gifted students,
raise the legitimacy of the research, and expand the range of investors. 

Summit homepage teaser: 
http://www.singinst.org/summit/

* Our second full-time Research Fellow. We are looking for someone
exceptional to collaborate with Yudkowsky on the challenge of a workable
theory for self-improving, motivationally stable Artificial Intelligence.

http://www.singinst.org/employment/researchfellow.html 

* A remarkable Development Director and Communications Director. I'm now
looking for skilled and dedicated collaborators to scale the Institute.  

http://www.singinst.org/employment/development.html
http://www.singinst.org/employment/communications.html 

* Our forthcoming monthly speaker series, the Future of Humanity Forum, at
Stanford Hewlett Teaching Center (its main lecture hall seats 500). The
Forum will be an ongoing series to complement and expand on the Singularity
Summit. Date and time for the inaugural event will be announced shortly. 

* Yudkowsky's Friendly AI theory and design work, conference presentations,
and published writing. He completed recently his two chapter drafts for Nick
Bostrom and Milan Cirkovic's Global Catastrophic Risks (forthcoming): the
first on cognitive biases potentially affecting judgment of global risks,
the second on the unique global risks of Artificial Intelligence. 

* The Singularity Institute Partner Network. Later this year, we'll begin
approaching potential inaugural partners to be our cornerstone for building
a network of companies, foundations, individuals, and organizations
committed to advancing beneficial AI, singularity, and global risk studies.

* Medina's academic presentations. In January, Medina was awarded full
financial support to attend a workshop on Bayesian inference, nonparametric
statistics, and machine learning at the Statistical and Applied Mathematical
Sciences Institute in North Carolina. One of the most popular academic
conferences on the interdisciplinary study of the mind, Tucson VII - Toward
a Science of Consciousness, has accepted his proposal for a talk on the
ethics of recursive self-improvement in April. He will also speak on
Artificial General Intelligence ethics at AGIRI's first workshop on moving
from narrow AI to AGI, and at Stanford Law School on a new problem for
personhood ethics in light of human enhancement technologies, both in May. 

* Our organizational identity and website overhaul, after the Summit. 

Further details: 
http://www.singinst.org/challenge/index.html#our_work_details 

~~

If you aren't familiar with our work, please see:

What Is the Singularity? 
http://www.singinst.org/what-singularity.html 

Why Work Toward the Singularity?
http://www.singinst.org/why-singularity.html 

~~

Additional news:

* Yudkowsky will give a talk on February 24 at the Bay Area Future Salon at
SAP Labs (attendance ranges from 70-100), to discuss the implications of
recursive self-improvement for Friendly AI implementation, and the unique
theoretical challenge that recursive self-improvement poses.

Time: 
6:00-7:00PM (networking, refreshments), 7:00-9:00PM (talk, discussion)

Location:
SAP Labs, Building D
3410 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94304

Details:
http://www.futuresalon.org/2006/02/hard_ai_future_.html

* Peter Thiel has joined The Singularity Institute's Board of Advisors:

http://www.singinst.org/advisoryboard.html 

~~

Comments are welcomed on the Summit teaser. Note that "What Others Have
Said" has some known headshot-display and text issues that will be fixed.

Feedback: 
emerson at singinst.org

~~

Thank you to everyone helping with the Challenge! 

Sincerely,

~~
Tyler Emerson | Executive Director
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence 
P.O. Box 50182 | Palo Alto, CA 94303 U.S. 
T-F: 866-667-2524 | emerson at singinst.org 
www.singinst.org | www.singularitychallenge.com