Crypto Company's Collapse Strands Scientists
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Reports on FTX's collapse and its impact on AI safety research funding, particularly through Sam Bankman-Fried's Future Fund commitments to AI ethics and biosecurity research, illustrating funding vulnerabilities in the AI safety ecosystem.
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The collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has created a funding crisis for scientific research organizations. Sam Bankman-Fried's philanthropic foundations, particularly the Future Fund launched in February 2022, had committed hundreds of millions of dollars to research in climate, biodefense, and AI ethics before FTX filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. With the Future Fund's officials resigning and announcing they cannot honor many committed grants, numerous science projects—including pandemic preparedness research, CRISPR diagnostics, coronavirus vaccine development, and biosecurity initiatives—now face severe funding shortfalls and potential closure.
Cited by 5 pages
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| EA Epistemic Failures in the FTX Era | -- | 84.0 |
| EA Institutions' Response to the FTX Collapse | -- | 53.0 |
| FTX Red Flags: Pre-Collapse Warning Signs That Were Overlooked | -- | 53.0 |
| FTX Collapse: Lessons for EA Funding Resilience | Concept | 78.0 |
| FTX Future Fund | Organization | 60.0 |
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# Crypto company's collapse strands scientists
## Foundations supported by FTX committed hundreds of millions of dollars to research on climate, biodefense, and AI ethics
- 14 Nov 2022
- 5:30 PM ET
- By [Robert F. Service](https://www.science.org/content/author/robert-f-service "Robert F. Service")
Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency company FTX is in disarray and some scientists may not get money pledged by foundations as a result.Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images
[Table of contents](https://www.science.org/toc/science/378/6621)
A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 378, Issue 6621. [Download PDF](https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.adf8362 "")
Last week’s collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX is sending aftershocks through the scientific community. An undergraduate physics major at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who founded FTX and quickly became a billionaire, 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried began to back philanthropic organizations that supported a wide variety of science-related causes, most designed to improve human well-being. Now, with FTX in bankruptcy and under investigation for misuse of investors’ money, his formerly flush foundations are suddenly strapped for cash and much of that work is at risk.
One foundation, the Future Fund, was just launched in February. But by the end of June, its officials reported awarding 262 grants and “investments” totaling $132 million. It’s unclear how much of that money has been distributed. But on 10 November, five senior Future Fund officials resigned and announced in a statement, “We are devastated to say that it looks likely that there are many committed grants that the Future Fund will be unable to honor.”
“It’s definitely a mess,” says Josh Morrison, who heads 1Day Sooner, a pandemic preparedness research and advocacy organization that received $375,000 from the Future Fund and the FTX Foundation. During the pandemic, 1DaySooner became known for advocating so-called human challenge trials, which deliberately infected volunteers with SARS-CoV-2 to test vaccines.
Other notable science recipients of the Future Fund’s money include Sherlock Biosciences, which was awarded $2 million for CRISPR-based infectious disease diagnostics; HelixNano, which was awarded $10 million for research on a vaccine
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