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Outreach work

The educational and communications wing of the FLI team.

Introduction

Informing the discourse around our cause areas.

The outreach team works to improve awareness, provide accurate and accessible information, and deepen understanding of our cause areas. Using evidence-based strategies of risk communication, we seek to emphasise positive steps by which extreme risks from transformative technologies can be reduced, and global prospects enhanced.

To these ends, we create informative content, operate dynamic social media accounts, collaborate with journalists, and run the Future of Life Award, celebrating unsung heroic individual efforts which made our world a better, safer place.
Our work

Outreach projects

Learn more about our ongoing projects:

Ban Deepfakes

2024 is rapidly turning into the Year of Fake. As part of a growing coalition of concerned organizations, FLI is calling on lawmakers to take meaningful steps to disrupt the AI-driven deepfake supply chain.

The Elders Letter on Existential Threats

The Elders, the Future of Life Institute and a diverse range of preeminent public figures are calling on world leaders to urgently address the ongoing harms and escalating risks of the climate crisis, pandemics, nuclear weapons, and ungoverned AI.

Educating about Lethal Autonomous Weapons

Military AI applications are rapidly expanding. We develop educational materials about how certain narrow classes of AI-powered weapons can harm national security and destabilize civilization, notably weapons where kill decisions are fully delegated to algorithms.

Worldbuilding Competition

The Future of Life Institute accepted entries from teams across the globe, to compete for a prize purse of up to $100,000 by designing visions of a plausible, aspirational future that includes strong artificial intelligence.

Future of Life Award

Every year, the Future of Life Award is given to one or more unsung heroes who have made a significant contribution to preserving the future of life.

Future of Life Institute Podcast

A podcast dedicated to hosting conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and doers in the field of emerging technology and risk reduction. 140+ episodes since 2015, 4.8/5 stars on Apple Podcasts.
Our content

Featured videos

Here a few of the videos that we have produced ourselves, or in collaboration with other content creators:

Achievements

Some of the things we have achieved

Here are a few of our proudest achievements in this area:

Celebrated 18 unsung heroes with Future of Life Awards

Every year since 2017, the Future of Life Award has celebrated the contributions of people who helped preserve the prospects of life.
See the award

Produced a viral video series raising the alarm on lethal autonomous weapons

We produced two short films, with a combined 75+ million views, depicting a world in which lethal autonomous weapons have been allowed to proliferate.
Watch the videos

Interviewed over 100+ key experts in our cause areas

Over the past 5 years, our team has hosted in-depth conversations with over 100+ leading figures in fields relating to our cause areas, all available for free on our podcast.
Listen to the podcast
Posts

Featured posts

Dr. Matthew Meselson Wins 2019 Future of Life Award

On April 9th, Dr. Matthew Meselson received the $50,000 Future of Life Award at a ceremony at the University of […]
April 9, 2019

$50,000 Award to Stanislav Petrov for helping avert WWIII – but US denies visa

Click here to see this page in other languages:  German Russian  To celebrate that today is not the 35th anniversary of […]
September 26, 2018
Podcasts

Featured podcasts

Rohin Shah on the State of AGI Safety Research in 2021

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November 2, 2021

Filippa Lentzos on Global Catastrophic Biological Risks

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October 1, 2021

James Manyika on Global Economic and Technological Trends

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September 7, 2021

Beatrice Fihn on the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

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January 22, 2021
Resources

Featured resources

Women for the Future

In honor of Women's History Month, FLI presents 'Women for the Future': a celebration of the women who’ve made it their job to create a better world for us all. Ran in March 2019.
March 13, 2019

Trillion Dollar Nukes

Would you spend $1.2 trillion tax dollars on nuclear weapons? How much are nuclear weapons really worth? Is upgrading the […]
October 24, 2016
US Nuclear Targets

1100 Declassified U.S. Nuclear Targets

The National Security Archives recently published a declassified list of U.S. nuclear targets from 1956, which spanned 1,100 locations across Eastern Europe, Russia, China, and North Korea. The map below shows all 1,100 nuclear targets from that list, and we’ve partnered with NukeMap to demonstrate how catastrophic a nuclear exchange between the United States and Russia could be.
May 12, 2016

Accidental Nuclear War: a Timeline of Close Calls

The most devastating military threat arguably comes from a nuclear war started not intentionally but by accident or miscalculation. Accidental […]
February 23, 2016

Our team

Meet our outreach team

We're a 100% remote team spread all across the western hemisphere.

Ben Cumming

Communications Director
Future of Life Institute

Gus Docker

Podcast Host & Director
Future of Life Institute

Maggie Munro

Communications Strategist
Future of Life Institute

Taylor Jones

Website Manager
Future of Life Institute

Contact us

Let's put you in touch with the right person.

We do our best to respond to all incoming queries within three business days. Our team is spread across the globe, so please be considerate and remember that the person you are contacting may not be in your timezone.

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