Back
The Future of Humanity Institute Closes — Bioethics Observatory (June 2024)
webbioethicsobservatory.org·bioethicsobservatory.org/2024/05/the-university-of-oxford...
A bioethics-perspective news report on the closure of FHI, a landmark AI safety and existential risk research institution; useful for understanding the institutional history and controversies surrounding longtermism and EA-aligned research centers.
Metadata
Importance: 35/100news articlenews
Summary
The Bioethics Observatory reports on the April 2024 closure of Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute (FHI), founded by Nick Bostrom in 2005. The piece covers the institute's focus on existential risk, AI, longtermism, and effective altruism, its controversial Silicon Valley backers, and the combination of bureaucratic disputes and personal scandals that led to its closure.
Key Points
- •FHI was closed by Oxford University in April 2024 after the Faculty of Philosophy halted fundraising and hiring in 2020 and declined to renew staff contracts in 2023.
- •The institute was founded by Nick Bostrom in 2005 and was central to longtermism and effective altruism movements focused on existential risks like AI.
- •Major funders included Open Philanthropy (£13.3m), Elon Musk (£1m), and Sam Bankman-Fried, who was later sentenced to 25 years for fraud.
- •Bostrom attributed closure to bureaucratic disputes with Oxford, but controversies over racism, sexual harassment, and financial fraud also played a role.
- •The article frames FHI and longtermism critically, noting detractors argue it neglects present-day issues like poverty and climate change.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Longtermism's Philosophical Credibility After FTX | -- | 50.0 |
Cached Content Preview
HTTP 200Fetched Mar 20, 202614 KB
[Skip to content](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/2024/05/the-university-of-oxford-has-closed-the-future-of-humanity-institute/46366/#content)
- 
# The University of Oxford has closed the Future of Humanity Institute
By [Bioethics Observatory](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/author/ester-bosch/ "Posts by Bioethics Observatory")Published On: May 29th, 2024Categories: [Artificial intelligence](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/Category/artificial-intelligence/), [Bioethics](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/Category/bioethics/), [BIOETHICS NEWS](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/Category/bioethics-news/), [Neuroscience](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/Category/neuroscience/), [SPECIAL REPORTS](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/Category/special-reports/), [Transhumanism](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/Category/transhumanism/)
The Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) was dedicated to the long-termism and effective altruism movements and was founded in 2005 by Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom.
The long-term movement argues that humanity should be primarily concerned with long-term existential threats, such as [**Artificial Intelligence**](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/2023/12/artificial-intelligence-a-bridge-between-transhumanism-and-posthumanism/45757/) (AI) and space travel. But its detractors argue that this movement applies an extremist calculus that does not take into account current problems such as climate change and poverty, and leans toward authoritarian ideas.
Effective altruism is the utilitarian belief that encourages people to focus their lives and resources on maximizing the amount of global good they can do.
The Future of Humanity Institute became famous for having the [financial support](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/19/oxford-future-of-humanity-institute-closes) of important Silicon Valley tech billionaires. Among the donations received are those made in 2018 by the Open Philanthropy Project, an organization supported by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, which donated £13.3m. Another benefactor was Elon Musk, who donated £1m in 2015. The most controversial of the movement’s backers is Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, who has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for fraud.
Nick Bostrom is a strong advocate of transhumanism, posthumanism and [human enhancement](https://bioethicsobservatory.org/2023/09/roberto-andorno-lets-put-limits-on-neurotechnology-before-nothing-can-be-done/45487/). In 2003 he published an article titled [“Are we living in a computer simulation?”](https://academic.oup.com/pq/article-abstract/53/211/243/1610975?redirectedFrom=fulltext) in which he presented the idea that humanity may be living in a simulation, indistinguishable from reality.
In 2014 he wr
... (truncated, 14 KB total)Resource ID:
3b6ceb66a1be7c47 | Stable ID: N2E5ODQ3ZG