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Wikipedia - Center for Applied Rationality

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Wikipedia·en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Applied_Rationality

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Useful background reference for understanding the organizational landscape of the AI safety community, particularly the role of rationalist-adjacent organizations in cultivating researchers and advocates in the field.

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Importance: 30/100wiki pagereference

Summary

Wikipedia overview of the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR), a nonprofit organization focused on developing and teaching rationality techniques to help people think more clearly and make better decisions. CFAR has been particularly influential in the AI safety community by training researchers and advocates in cognitive tools and epistemic practices. The organization has historically served as a pipeline connecting rationalist community members to AI safety work.

Key Points

  • •CFAR is a nonprofit that conducts workshops teaching applied rationality and cognitive debiasing techniques drawn from psychology and behavioral economics.
  • •The organization has strong ties to the LessWrong rationalist community and the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI).
  • •CFAR workshops have been used to recruit and prepare individuals for careers in AI safety research and related fields.
  • •The center focuses on practical skill-building around decision-making, introspection, and overcoming cognitive biases.
  • •CFAR represents a community-building and human-capital development approach to improving AI safety outcomes.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 
 
 
 
 
 
 US-based nonprofit organization 
 

 Center for Applied Rationality Formation 2012 &#59; 14 years ago  ( 2012 ) Type Nonprofit research institute Legal status 501(c)(3) tax exempt charity [ 1 ] Purpose Research and training in cognitive science , and de- biasing , to alleviate existential risk from artificial general intelligence [ 2 ] Location Berkeley, California , U.S.
 President Anna Salamon [ 1 ] Website rationality .org 
 The Center for Applied Rationality ( CFAR ) is a nonprofit organization based in Berkeley, California , that hosts workshops on rationality and cognitive bias . It was founded in 2012 by Julia Galef , Anna Salamon, Michael Smith and Andrew Critch, [ 3 ] to improve participants' rationality using "a set of techniques from math and decision theory for forming your beliefs about the world as accurately as possible". [ 4 ] Its president since 2021 is Anna Salamon. [ 1 ] 

 CFAR's training draws upon fields such as psychology and behavioral economics in an effort to improve people's mental habits. Jennifer Kahn visited the group and described its strengths and flaws in the New York Times . [ 5 ] CFAR has conducted a survey of participants which indicates that workshops reduce neuroticism and increase perceived efficacy. [ 6 ] 

 CFAR is part of the rationality movement surrounding Eliezer Yudkowsky 's web site LessWrong , from which CFAR originated. [ 7 ] Paul Slovic and Keith Stanovich have served as advisors. [ 8 ] 

 The group taught classes for Facebook and the Thiel Fellowship . [ 5 ] 

 A scholarship funded by the founder of Skype , Jaan Tallinn , has been used to send selected Estonian students to workshops held by the Center for Applied Rationality. [ 9 ] 

 "Zizians" and Sonoma County incident

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 On November 15, 2019, four people dressed in Guy Fawkes masks were arrested for allegedly barricading off a wooded retreat where CFAR was holding an event. According to police, the suspects were not cooperative and said things about their views on rationalism that the officers could not understand. [ 10 ] The protesters were members of a splinter group of the rationalist movement that became known as the " Zizians ". [ 11 ] They alleged that CFAR's leader "discriminates against trans women", and accused CFAR of not "appreciably develop[ing] novel rationality/mental tech". Alleged members of the Zizians later became the suspects or persons of interest in an attempted murder in November 2022 and four murders in 2022 and 2025, including the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol officer in a shootout. [ 12 ] Two of the alleged Zizians also died violently in these incidents.

 References

 [ edit ] 
 
 ^ a b c "Center for Applied Rationality" . Guidestar . Retrieved March 31, 2015 . 

 ^ Salamon, Anna (December 3, 2016). "CFAR's new focus, and AI 

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