2021 H1 S-Process Grant Round Recommendations – Survival and Flourishing Fund
webThis page documents the 2021 H1 grant recommendations from the Survival and Flourishing Fund using the S-Process, directing millions of dollars to AI safety organizations including CHAI, LessWrong, FHI, and others, reflecting philanthropic priorities in the AI safety ecosystem.
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Summary
The Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2021 H1 grant round used the 'S-Process' (Simulation Process) to allocate funding from Jaan Tallinn and Jed McCaleb to AI safety and existential risk organizations. Six recommenders including Katja Grace and Oliver Habryka participated in determining marginal value functions for each applicant. Major recipients included CFAR, LessWrong, David Krueger's Cambridge group, Andrew Critch at CHAI, and the Long-Term Future Fund.
Key Points
- •The S-Process uses marginal value functions and counterfactual delegation simulations to allocate grants across recommenders and funders.
- •Funders Jaan Tallinn and Jed McCaleb directed grants totaling several million dollars to AI safety organizations.
- •Top recipients included CFAR ($1.2M), LessWrong ($1.05M), David Krueger's Cambridge group ($1M), and Andrew Critch at CHAI ($898K).
- •Recommenders included notable AI safety figures: Katja Grace, Oliver Habryka, Adam Marblestone, and Ben Hoskin.
- •Each recommender held unilateral veto power over official endorsement of any individual grant recommendation.
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2021 H1 S-Process Grant Round Recommendations | Survival and Flourishing Fund
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In the first half of this year (2021-H1), six people participated as “Recommenders” in a single round of a grant-recommendation process for Funders Jaan Tallinn (independent) and Jed McCaleb (independent). The following Recommenders in this round agreed to have their identities made public:
Ben Hoskin
Katja Grace
Oliver Habryka
Adam Marblestone
How final grant amounts were determined: The “S-Process”
We call the recommendation process used in this grant round the “S-Process”, for “Simulation Process”, because it involves allowing the Recommenders and Funders to simulate a large number of counterfactual delegation scenarios using a table of marginal value functions. Recommenders specified marginal value functions for funding each application, and adjusted those functions through discussions with each other as the round progressed. Similarly, Funders specified and adjusted different value functions for deferring to each Recommender. In this round, the process also allowed the Funders to make some final adjustments to decide on their final intended grant amounts.
The S-Process app is still being developed for broader use.
Final recommendations
Most of the final endorsed recommendations of this round of the S-Process are listed below. These numbers have resulted from numerical inputs from both Funders and Recommenders, which represented estimates of the marginal utility of granting to each organization. Note that:
Some of the grants below might not happen if they are logistically difficult or time-consuming for the Funders (Jaan Tallinn, Jed McCaleb) to finalize for some reason.
Some additional grants might also appear on this list later as more details about them become clear.
Some grants might be made as a result of the information shared in this S-Process round that will not be counted as fully endorsed by the round, because each Recommender in the round had the unilateral ability to veto the group’s official endorsement of any particular grant. Grants not officially endorsed in this way will not appear on the list below.
Source
Organization
Amount
Receiving Charity
Purpose
Jaan Tallinn
Center For Applied Rationality
$1,207,000
Center For Applied Rationality
General Support
Jaan Tallinn
LessWrong
$1,055,000
Center For Applied Rationality
General support of LessWrong
Jaan Tallinn
Alpenglow Group Limited
$1,013,000
The Centre for Effective Altruism
General support of Alpenglow Group Limited
Jaan Tallinn
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