Replying toMIRI’s 2025 Fundraiser

jaan2mo

this is an experiment to incentivise/help applicants to fundraise more widely, as SFF funds are getting ridiculously contested. also, TBC, this is an option the applicants are free to ignore. more here: https://survivalandflourishing.fund/matching-pledges.

Replying toAnthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

jaan5mo

Anthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

1. i agree. as wei explicitly mentions, signalling approval was a big reason why he did not invest, and it definitely gave me a pause, too (i had a call with nate & eliezer on this topic around that time). still, if i try to imagine a world where i declined to invest, i don't see it being obviously better (ofc it's possible that the difference is still yet to reveal itself).

concerns about startups being net negative are extremely rare (outside of AI, i can't remember any other case -- though it's possible that i'm forgetting some). i believe this is the main reason why VCs and SV technologists tend to be... (read more)

Replying toAnthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

jaan5mo

Anthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

ah, sorry about mis-framing your comment! i tend to use the term "FDT" casually to refer to "instead of individual acts, try to think about policies and how would they apply to agents in my reference class(es)" (which i think does apply here, as i consider us sharing a plausible reference class).

Replying toAnthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

jaan5mo

Anthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

There is a question about whether the safety efforts your money supported at or around the companies ended up compensating for the developments

yes. more generally, sign uncertainty sucks (and is a recurring discussion topic in SFF round debates).

It seems that if Dustin and you had not funded Series A of Anthropic, they would have had a harder time starting up.

they certainly would not have had harder time setting up the company nor getting the equivalent level of funding (perhaps even at a better valuation). it’s plausible that pointing to “aligned” investors helped with initial recruiting — but that’s unclear to me. my model of dario/founders just did not want the VC profit-motive... (read more)

Replying toAnthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

jaan5mo

Anthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

indeed, illiquidity is a big constraint to my philanthropy, so in very short timelines my “invest (in startups) and redistribute” policy does not work too well.

Replying toAnthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

jaan5mo

Anthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

These investors were Dustin Moskovitz, Jaan Tallinn and Sam Bankman-Fried

nitpick: SBF/FTX did not participate in the initial round - they bought $500M worth of non-voting shares later, after the company was well on its way.

more importantly, i often get the criticism that "if you're concerned with AI then why do you invest in it". even though the critics usually (and incorrectly) imply that the AI would not happen (at least not nearly as fast) if i did not invest, i acknowledge that this is a fair criticism from the FDT perspective (as witnessed by wei dai's recent comment how he declined the opportunity to invest in anthropic).

i'm open to improving my policy... (read more)

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Replying toAnthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

jaan5mo

Anthropic's leading researchers acted as moderate accelerationists

DeepMind was funded by Jaan Tallinn and Peter Thiel

i did not participate in DM's first round (series A) -- my investment fund invested in series B and series C, and ended up with about 1% stake in the company. this sentence is therefore moderately misleading.

Replying toThe Best Resources To Build Any Intuition

jaan6mo

The Best Resources To Build Any Intuition

the video that made FFT finally click for me:

Replying toLove stays loved (formerly "Skin")

jaan7mo

Love stays loved (formerly "Skin")

this was good.

Replying toOur Reality: A Simulation Run by a Paperclip Maximizer

jaan10mo

Our Reality: A Simulation Run by a Paperclip Maximizer

my most fun talk made a similar claim:

Jaan Tallinn's 2024 Philanthropy Overview

jaan

10mo

to follow up my philanthropic pledge from 2020, i've updated my philanthropy page with the 2024 results.

in 2024 my donations funded $51M worth of endpoint grants (plus $2.0M in admin overhead and philanthropic software development). this comfortably exceeded my 2024 commitment of $42M (20k times $2100.00 — the minimum price of ETH in 2024).

this also concludes my 5-year donation pledge, but of course my philanthropy continues: eg, i’ve already made over $4M in endpoint grants in the first quarter of 2025 (not including 2024 grants that were slow to disburse), as well as pledged at least $10M to the 2025 SFF grant round.

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Jaan Tallinn's 2023 Philanthropy Overview

jaan

to follow up my philantropic pledge from 2020, i've updated my philanthropy page with 2023 results.

in 2023 my donations funded $44M worth of endpoint grants ($43.2M excluding software development and admin costs) — exceeding my commitment of $23.8M (20k times $1190.03 — the minimum price of ETH in 2023).

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Jaan Tallinn's 2022 Philanthropy Overview

jaan

to follow up my philantropic pledge from 2020, i've updated my philanthropy page with 2022 results.

in 2022 i made $23M worth of endpoint grants ($22.9M after various admin costs), exceeding my commitment of $19.9M (20k times $993.64 — the minimum price of ETH in 2022).

Jaan Tallinn's 2021 Philanthropy Overview

jaan

to follow up my philantropic pledge from 2020, i've updated my philanthropy page with 2021 results.

in 2021 i made $22M worth of endpoint grants — exceeding my commitment of $14.4M (20k times $718.11 — the minimum price of ETH in 2021). notes:

this number includes $1.9M to orgs that do re-granting (LTFF, EAIF, impetus grants, and PPF) — so it's likely that some of that $1.9M should not be included in the "endpoint grants in 2021" total. regardless, i'm comfortably above my commitment level for that not to matter;
i have an ongoing substantial charitable project that's not reflected in the 2021 numbers — it's possible (and likely if ETH price holds, as SFF's s-process alone can't handle such amount) that i will report it retroactively next year or in 2024.

Soares, Tallinn, and Yudkowsky discuss AGI cognition

So8res

So8res, Eliezer Yudkowsky, jaan

This is a collection of follow-up discussions in the wake of Richard Ngo and Eliezer Yudkowsky's Sep. 5–8 and Sep. 14 conversations.

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Chat

Google Doc content

Inline comments

7. Follow-ups to the Ngo/Yudkowsky conversation

[Bensinger][1:50] (Nov. 23 follow-up comment)

A general background note: Readers who aren't already familiar with ethical injunctions or the unilateralist's curse should probably read Ends Don't Justify Means (Among Humans), along with an explanation of the unilateralist's curse.

7.1. Jaan Tallinn's commentary

[Tallinn][6:38] (Sep. 18)

thanks for the interesting debate! here are my comments so far: [GDocs link]

[Tallinn] (Sep. 18 Google Doc)

meta

a few meta notes first:

i’m happy with the below comments being shared further without explicit permission – just make

... (read 11919 more words →)

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Jaan Tallinn's 2020 Philanthropy Overview

jaan

to follow up my philantropic pledge from last year, i've updated my philanthropy page with 2020 results.

TL;DR: i made $4.3MM worth of endpoint grants in 2020, mostly via SFF's grant rounds, beating my minimum commitment by about 2x.

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Jaan Tallinn's Philanthropic Pledge

jaan

for common knowledge, i've prepared a page explaining my philanthropic policies as well as making a concrete commitment for 2020-2024.

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LW

LESSWRONG
LW

jaan

Jaan Tallinn's 2024 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's 2023 Philanthropy Overview

Soares, Tallinn, and Yudkowsky discuss AGI cognition

Jaan Tallinn's 2020 Philanthropy Overview

jaan

jaan

Jaan Tallinn's 2024 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's 2023 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's 2022 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's 2021 Philanthropy Overview

Soares, Tallinn, and Yudkowsky discuss AGI cognition

Jaan Tallinn's 2020 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's Philanthropic Pledge

jaan

Jaan Tallinn's 2024 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's 2023 Philanthropy Overview

Soares, Tallinn, and Yudkowsky discuss AGI cognition

Jaan Tallinn's 2020 Philanthropy Overview

jaan

jaan

Jaan Tallinn's 2024 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's 2023 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's 2022 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's 2021 Philanthropy Overview

Soares, Tallinn, and Yudkowsky discuss AGI cognition

Jaan Tallinn's 2020 Philanthropy Overview

Jaan Tallinn's Philanthropic Pledge

7. Follow-ups to the Ngo/Yudkowsky conversation

7.1. Jaan Tallinn's commentary