Our Giving Fund: Safeguarding the Future in H1/2024

In Germany and Switzerland, we raised a total of €195,000 in the first half of 2024 for our Donation fund “Preserving the future” . The fund is dedicated to reducing existential risks to humanity, such as those posed by pandemics or nuclear war. The fund money for the first half of 2024 went entirely to CeSIA, a French think tank whose mission is to ensure that artificial intelligence is developed safely. The recommendation for this came from our partner Longview Philanthropy. 

2024 has already been an eventful year for the topic of safe AI. At the beginning of October, California Governor Gavin Newson, under pressure from companies such as Meta, Google and OpenAI, blocked a law that would have obliged such companies to implement a “kill switch” in their AI systems in order to be able to switch them off in an emergency. On the other side of the Atlantic, however, the EU AI Regulation came into force at the beginning of August, which regulates foundational models such as OpenAI’s GPT or Meta’s Llama and obliges their manufacturers to test them for systemic risks.

CeSIA

CeSIA (Center pour la Sécurité de l’IA, French: “Center for the Safety of Artificial Intelligence”) is committed to the development of AI that is both safe and beneficial to society. Based in Paris, CeSIA works towards this goal by educating the French public on the subject. France plays an important role, as it has a great deal of influence in Brussels and is home to Mistral, the company with probably the most advanced large language model in the EU.

CeSIA relies on three levers in its work. Firstly, it conducts its own technical research and is developing BELLS, a platform designed to test the reliability of monitoring systems for AI systems. Secondly, it is helping to build the research ecosystem in the field of secure AI. For example, it offers courses at French universities and has published a textbook on the subject. Thirdly, it brings together key players from industry and politics, e.g. by organizing round tables.

Charbel-Raphaël Ségerie, Managing Director of CeSIA, thanks the donors of effective donations:

We’re incredibly grateful to Effektiv Spenden and its donors for their generous support. There’s so much work to be done in France when it comes to AI safety, and your help is allowing us to hire key team members who are essential to driving our mission forward. Thanks a lot, your support truly makes a difference!

Charbel-Raphaël Ségerie (Executive Director, CeSIA)

Other News

With the fund money from the first half of 2023 we had supported METR with €128,000. METR builds software to check AI systems for dangerous behavior. For example, they got early access to OpenAI’s new GPT-4-preview and GPT-4-o1-mini models and tested them on the capability to conduct its own research into the further development of AI. This is relevant because AI systems that can improve themselves could become so powerful that they slip out of our control.

METR’s work has now been recognized by TIME Magazine, which lists Beth Barnes, the founder of METR, as one of the 100 most influential people in AI.

About the author

Anne Schulze

Founder & Managing Director

Book a meeting

I am one of the founders and managing directors of Effektiv Spenden. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to send me an email. I'll get right back to you.