Technical PhD Fellowships
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Technical PhD Fellowships support doctoral researchers studying existential risks from advanced AI and developing technical approaches to reduce them, strengthening the AI existential safety field.
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Funder: Future of Life Institute
Due Dates (Anticipated): November 2027 (Application deadline, anticipated)
Funding Amounts: Five years of tuition and fees, $40,000 annual stipend at US, UK, and Canadian universities, and $10,000 for research expenses
Summary: Supports doctoral research that analyzes existential risks from advanced AI and develops technical approaches to reduce them.
Key Information: Fellows must accept a compensation-donation obligation if they take certain AI-company jobs within two years of completing the fellowship.
Description
The Future of Life Institute (FLI) runs the Vitalik Buterin PhD Fellowship in AI Existential Safety in partnership with the Beneficial AI Foundation. The fellowship supports doctoral researchers studying how AI could cause catastrophes that permanently and drastically curtail humanity’s potential, including human extinction, and how technical research could reduce those risks. It aims to strengthen the field’s talent pipeline and build a research community free from financial conflicts of interest.
Supported research includes measuring AI properties associated with existential risk, interpreting and verifying machine learning systems, and ensuring AI objectives do not incentivize deception or resource accumulation. Other areas include formalisms for analyzing advanced AI, cybersecurity threats to AI integrity, and benchmarks for important safety problems. Fellows also receive research-expense support and opportunities to interact with other researchers.
