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Alignment grantmaking funding constraints
blogAuthor
johnswentworth
Credibility Rating
3/5
Good(3)Good quality. Reputable source with community review or editorial standards, but less rigorous than peer-reviewed venues.
Rating inherited from publication venue: Alignment Forum
A mid-2023 field-status update relevant to researchers navigating the AI safety funding landscape; useful context for understanding resource constraints and the field's maturation trajectory.
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Importance: 42/100blog postanalysis
Summary
This post documents a notable reversal in AI alignment funding dynamics as of mid-2023: historically the field was talent/project-limited with surplus capital, but grant rounds are now receiving more qualified applications than available funds. The author attributes this shift to alignment research entering the mainstream, drawing more researchers and competing funders. Uncertainty remains about whether this is temporary or structural.
Key Points
- •Pre-2023, alignment grantmaking was bottlenecked by a shortage of fundable projects, not a shortage of money.
- •By mid-2023, grant rounds are reportedly receiving more qualified applications than available funds, reversing the historical dynamic.
- •The mainstreaming of AI alignment research has attracted both more researchers seeking funding and more institutional funders.
- •The author is uncertain whether this funding-limited state is a temporary anomaly or a permanent structural shift.
- •This shift has practical implications for researchers seeking funding and for how the field should prioritize resource allocation.
Cited by 1 page
| Page | Type | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| AI Alignment Research Agendas | Crux | 69.0 |
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[Alignment Grantmaking is Funding-Limited Right Now](https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/SbC7duHNDHkd3PkgG/alignment-grantmaking-is-funding-limited-right-now#)
2 min read
[Grants & Fundraising Opportunities](https://www.alignmentforum.org/w/grants-and-fundraising-opportunities)[Effective altruism](https://www.alignmentforum.org/w/effective-altruism)[Community](https://www.alignmentforum.org/w/community)[AI](https://www.alignmentforum.org/w/ai)
Frontpage
# 116
# [Alignment Grantmaking is Funding-Limited RightNow](https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/SbC7duHNDHkd3PkgG/alignment-grantmaking-is-funding-limited-right-now)
by [johnswentworth](https://www.alignmentforum.org/users/johnswentworth?from=post_header)
19th Jul 2023
2 min read
[68](https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/SbC7duHNDHkd3PkgG/alignment-grantmaking-is-funding-limited-right-now#comments)
# 116
For the past few years, I've generally mostly heard from alignment grantmakers that they're bottlenecked by projects/people they want to fund, not by amount of money. Grantmakers generally had no trouble funding the projects/people they found object-level promising, with money left over. In that environment, figuring out how to turn marginal dollars into new promising researchers/projects - e.g. by finding useful recruitment channels or designing useful training programs - was a major problem.
Within the past month or two, that situation has reversed. My understanding is that alignment grantmaking is now mostly funding-bottlenecked. This is mostly based on word-of-mouth, but for instance, I heard that the recent [lightspeed grants](https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/xQ4ajnzavSgbYiko2/launching-lightspeed-grants-apply-by-july-6th) round received far more applications than they could fund which passed the bar for basic promising-ness. I've also heard that the [Long-Term Future Fund](https://funds.effectivealtruism.org/funds/far-future) (which funded my current grant) now has insufficient money for all the grants they'd like to fund.
I don't know whether this is a temporary phenomenon, or longer-term. Alignment research has gone mainstream, so we should expect both more researchers interested and more funders interested. It may be that the researchers pivot a bit faster, but funders will catch up later. Or, it may be that the funding bottleneck becomes the new normal. Regardless, it seems like grantmaking is at least funding-bottlenecked right now.
Some takeaways:
- If you have a big pile of money and would like to help, but haven't been donating much to alignment because the field wasn't money constrained, now is your time!
- _If_ this situation is the new normal, then earning-to-give for alignment may look like a more useful option again. That said, at this point committing to an earning-to-give path would be a bet on this situation being the new normal.
- Grants for upskilling, training junior people, and recruitment make a lot less sense right now from grantmakers' perspective.
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