Organizing an AI Safety Summit

Maybe this is too ambitious / crazy, but it also seems like we may actually be able to pull it off: organizing an AI Safety Summit. Because if no-one is being the adult in the room, perhaps we need to be the adults.

I've been focused on a summit since day one, but the focus always was on convincing someone to organize a summit. The UK did, but they fucked up in a couple of important ways: no treaty, no international org, and worst of all: they passed on the stick to France. And as you probably know by now, they gutted the november AI safety summit (postponed it, removed safety focus, led by AI-skeptic).

So maybe we need to play a more active role in all of this. Shape the agenda in a meaningful way. Get the right people to visit. Make the right preparations (e.g. treaty draft).

What would it take

A suitable location
A meaningful programme (with big name speakers)
Buy-in from important attendees
Money (at least... 100k?)
Website
Press releases

## Questions

How do we make this legitimate? How do we get the big names to join? I think getting the big AI safety names is not a big challenge. The difficulty is getting the countries to join. Branding it as "pauseAI" is probably not the way to go.
What is our invite strategy? Do we send out invites to a couple of big names first and use these for bragging rights?
Who can fund this? How much will it even cost?
Who do we really need to talk to about this?

## How you can help

(easy) Do research in how earlier summits were organized. Share learnings below!
(medium) Get us in touch with the right people
(hard) Help us fund this thing
(nightmare mode) Make it happen. Dedicate hours. Commit to realising this.

popular-magenta•4/8/24, 5:15 PM

It really feels like we'd need to dedicate someone full time to doing this, instead of just pretending it's going to happen from a discord group.

hurt-tomatoOP•4/8/24, 5:15 PM

BE that person

popular-magenta•4/8/24, 5:17 PM

I am NOT the person you want organizing this. There are things I can do, but my mental health is already way too strained.

popular-magenta•4/8/24, 5:17 PM

Thanks though

hurt-tomatoOP•4/8/24, 5:31 PM

Had a chat with Wyatt from AIGS (canada) on this, who's also considering organizing a summit. Some notes:

We should avoid a "no" or "stop" narrative, but something like "instead".
We need to have a vision for the future
People will want to talk about effects from narrow AIs (e.g. deepfakes and job loss).
Would be cool if its november 2024. Poetically nice.
A treaty would be the perfect outcome, but likely to fail. People don't want to partake in somethiing that they expect to fail. Maybe a follow-up to the bletchley declaration would be more feasible.
Enforcing a treaty is the difficult part. How do you deal with bad actors? Heavy economic sanctions will not suffice (see russia), we may need a threat of violence. That is outside of the overton window.
Canada - France relations would be harmed if canadat one-ups france. May 2025 is easier politically.
We need a snowball. Get some people on board, get increasingly bigger names. Civil society, corporates, scientists, politicians.

sacred-rose•4/8/24, 6:54 PM

What can we do to help?

sacred-rose•4/8/24, 6:55 PM

Also, is there literally anything we can show people in writing that mentions it being postponed?

Ssacred-rose Also, is there literally anything we can show people in writing that mentions it...

hurt-tomatoOP•4/8/24, 7:13 PM

No. Still not a single article out there, but it has now been confirmed to me from 3 sources.

sacred-rose•4/8/24, 7:18 PM

So we only have verbal sources? Damn itll be difficult to convince people to care then

sacred-rose•4/8/24, 7:18 PM

Maybe confront them publically? Like tagging them in a tweet asking them or something?

awake-maroon•4/8/24, 7:19 PM

Has anyone tried to contact journalists about this yet with the offer to put them in contact with the three sources?

Aawake-maroon Has anyone tried to contact journalists about this yet with the offer to put the...

hurt-tomatoOP•4/8/24, 7:23 PM

I haven't

sacred-rose•4/8/24, 7:23 PM

((Lets be careful tho, idk how trustworthy the sources are, joep probs knows that, it might be an attempt to make us loose face?))

Aawake-maroon Has anyone tried to contact journalists about this yet with the offer to put the...

hurt-tomatoOP•4/8/24, 7:23 PM

@Stijn Bronzwaer-NRC => https://twitter.com/PauseAI/status/1777300788580094158

PauseAI ⏸ (@PauseAI) on X

Bad news.

France opted to host an AI Safety Summit in November 2024, but several of our sources confirm it has been postponed to February 2025. It has also been renamed to “AI Action Summit”, dropping the all-important safety focus. Safety will be a minor part of the summit,…

Twitter

•

4/8/24, 11:41 AM

primary-violet•4/8/24, 7:53 PM

Hmm I think hosting a “pause” summit is a more compelling idea. There’s plenty of safety groups, but no one is doing enough to call for pause. It’s bold but also aligned with this org

primary-violet•4/8/24, 7:54 PM

But either way hosting an event is a great idea! Calling it a safety summit is decent

primary-violet•4/8/24, 7:55 PM

And hasn’t FLI taken the lead on hosting a pretty effective safety summit?

sacred-rose•4/9/24, 11:52 PM

so like, can a random org organize a summit? how common is that?

I still think the summits are great, the bletchley summit was probably really good in comparison with other summits? but don't quote me on that, and we still don't know if things are gonna change that much for the french summit. seems more feasible to better the the ones that already exist.

sacred-rose•4/9/24, 11:55 PM

if we fail it could make us look bad and lose some support.. but we could also gain some support from other people. I would imagine that would be net negative tho

sad-indigo•4/12/24, 9:30 AM

The costs will also depend on who is coming. If it is just experts, you might get away with 100k. If heads of states should join, it will be 7-figure. Bletchley Park has been turned into a fortress!

sad-indigo•4/12/24, 9:30 AM

But I really like the idea!

hurt-tomatoOP•4/12/24, 9:51 PM

Reached out to Ian Hogarth for advice and asked if the UK would be open to co-host. He said UK is busy enough with the next two summits, but he wants to know when / if we take next steps

faint-white•10/21/24, 10:12 AM

Hi @Joep Meindertsma I have an idea on how this can be achieved, probably brussels, but it needs some work.

Ffaint-white Hi @Joep Meindertsma I have an idea on how this can be achieved, probably bruss...

hurt-tomatoOP•10/21/24, 10:15 AM

Interesting!

faint-white•10/21/24, 10:20 AM

First: There needs to be report with some big names that explain and provide a a set of rules regarding AI Safety and Governance.

Second: After the report is made (It can involve 35 big heads that meet up 10 times via zoom to write a proposal/report on what is needed and how we can achieve it.

Advocacy of the report to all MEP's (thinking Europe in this case), and KOL's in Brussels (EITCA/AI) - CredoAI as example).

Third: Create a life event with some important figures present who took part in the report. At the end of the event, a live handing of the report to the different orgs like the European Ombudsman or the , which pushes them to have to act and discuss it, possibly leading to Pause AI and other orgs to have a bigger say.

Same would be by making a petition to the EU parliament to revise the report provided by Pause AI, regarding human and digital.

faint-white•10/21/24, 10:20 AM

This is me breaking it into a short text

hurt-tomatoOP•10/21/24, 10:22 AM

nice

You have some experience with thiings like this?

faint-white•10/21/24, 10:28 AM

Yeap, I would say that I have more experience with community management, event management and partnership and network creation. But with over 8 years in the nonprofit in Belgium, I got to learn some of the ways to make oneself heard.

faint-white•10/21/24, 1:02 PM

Just sent my application your way

Organizing an AI Safety Summit

What would it take

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