We have launched a new tech tree for secure AI! It gives an overview of potential technical paths toward secure and beneficial AI – highlighting open challenges, possible solutions, and the actors working on each. The tech tree is designed to help researchers, funders, and policymakers navigate the space, identify bottlenecks, and coordinate efforts more effectively.
If you’re new to the field, it offers a map and can help you understand ways to get involved. Funders can explore who’s working on specific capabilities, while researchers can identify key blockers and ask the built-in chatbot for relevant papers, labs, or projects.
The lead curator of the tech tree, AI researcher Linda Petrini, has given a seminar explaining how it works and how you can use it. The tree also includes a shorter demo to get you started quickly.
The next application deadline for our grants is coming up on June 30th!
Request for proposals in AI safety: we are seeking projects in security, neurotechnology, multi-agent security, and research and forecasting automation. Apply.
Fast grants in longevity biotechnology and molecular nanotechnology: these are smaller grants of around $10,000, designed to quickly test promising ideas. Apply.
Upcoming Events
Vision Weekend US 2025 | December 5-7 | The Bay Area
Our next flagship event, Vision Weekend, is coming up on December 5–7! Join leading researchers, entrepreneurs, funders, and policymakers to discuss frontier science and technology, and plan for flourishing futures. This year’s theme is “AI for X”, exploring how AI can accelerate progress in biotech, neurotech, and other transformative fields.
Expect talks from field leaders, office hours, curated 1-1s, tech demos, unconference sessions, mentorship hours, lab tours, biohacking, a $10K project pitch contest, a cyberpunk party, and more.
Get early bird tickets before prices increase on July 1st.
Neurotechnology Workshop | October 11-12 | San Francisco
We are inviting those advancing frontier neurotechnology for a two-day workshop! The goal is to build common knowledge about current capabilities, align on goals, and coordinate efforts to overcome key bottlenecks in the field. Participants will be a tightly curated set of 60 leading scientists, builders, programmers, funders, and institutional allies.
Confirmed speakers: Alan Mardinly (Science), Talmo Pereira (Salk Institute), Viren Jain (Google), Ed Boyden (MIT), Daniel Burger (86 Science), Jacques Carolan (ARIA), and Haleh Fotowat (Wyss Institute).
The deadline for our Fellowship and two major prizes is coming up in just a month!
Foresight Fellowship 2026
The Foresight Fellowship is a year-long program for early-career talents working to advance beneficial technologies. We provide Fellows with a strong network and opportunities to present their work in influential forums.Apply.
$10,000 Norm Hardy Prize in Usable Security
Our Norm Hardy Prize in computer science awards important work in usable security – making the secure way the easy way. We accept both academic and practical work. Apply.
Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology
The Feynman Prizesrecognize exceptional contributions to nanotechnology – previous winners include Nobel Laureates David Baker and Fraser Stoddart. The prizes come in three categories: Theory ($5,000), Experiment ($5,000), and Student ($1,000). Nominate.
The Existential Hope Podcast
The Existential Hope Podcast is now its own show! From previously being a part of our general Foresight feed, it now has its own. Subscribe in your podcast app for interviews with David Deutsch, Steven Pinker, and new releases with:
David Baker, 2024 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Nicklas Lundblad, former policy lead at DeepMind
Ed Finn, Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
Tune in to Foresight Institute Radio for audio versions of selected presentations from our seminars and events.
$1,000 Prize – Positive AI Futures
What should 2035 with AI look like? Our online course provides tools for thinking about, and shaping, our future with advanced AI. Share your ideas from the course – the “Best Overall World” wins $1,000! We also give out four $500 prizes for “Best Institution” and “Best Image or Video”. The submission deadline is coming up on June 30th.
Third Grand Award at the International Science and Engineering Fair
Gold Medal, Top of Category Award, and the Excellence in Astronomy Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair
Matthew Allcock has published a major report on space weather resilience. It covers how the space, energy, communications, and transport industries can keep their infrastructure safely operating during severe space weather (solar flares, geomagnetic storms, etc.). Matthew also presented this work in a recent seminar. Press release here.
Watch the latest presentations from our seminar groups! Apply here to join the discussions live next time.
Longevity x AI Hackathon
The judges of the hackathon & Olga Botvinnik presenting
Our last Vision Weekend in San Francisco featured a project pitch contest where the winning team – Olga Botvinnik, JJ Hales and Karl Pfleger – got $10,000 to realize their idea. The Longevity x AI Hackathon took place this month, with the goal of turning convoluted aging-biology data into ready-to-use resources for the machine learning community. The result? 66.6 GB – 36 longevity molecular profiling datasets – uploaded to the AI/ML platform HuggingFace!
Community Updates
Request for Proposals
Montana Biotech RFP| Infinita City Infinita City are collecting interest from biotech firms and clinics to bring longevity treatments to Montana under the new right-to-try law.
Consciousness from a Computationalist Perspective| CIMC CIMC is inviting research proposals, with the aim of understanding the nature and functionality of consciousness from a computationalist perspective.
Thanks for reading Foresight Institute’s newsletter! This post is public, so feel free to share it.
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New Tech Tree for Secure AI, Nobel Laureate David Baker Interview & New Podcast
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New Secure AI Tech Tree
We have launched a new tech tree for secure AI! It gives an overview of potential technical paths toward secure and beneficial AI – highlighting open challenges, possible solutions, and the actors working on each. The tech tree is designed to help researchers, funders, and policymakers navigate the space, identify bottlenecks, and coordinate efforts more effectively.
If you’re new to the field, it offers a map and can help you understand ways to get involved. Funders can explore who’s working on specific capabilities, while researchers can identify key blockers and ask the built-in chatbot for relevant papers, labs, or projects.
The lead curator of the tech tree, AI researcher Linda Petrini, has given a seminar explaining how it works and how you can use it. The tree also includes a shorter demo to get you started quickly.
Explore the Tech Tree
Grants Deadline: June 30th
The next application deadline for our grants is coming up on June 30th!
Request for proposals in AI safety: we are seeking projects in security, neurotechnology, multi-agent security, and research and forecasting automation. Apply.
Fast grants in longevity biotechnology and molecular nanotechnology: these are smaller grants of around $10,000, designed to quickly test promising ideas. Apply.
Upcoming Events
Vision Weekend US 2025 | December 5-7 | The Bay Area
Our next flagship event, Vision Weekend, is coming up on December 5–7! Join leading researchers, entrepreneurs, funders, and policymakers to discuss frontier science and technology, and plan for flourishing futures. This year’s theme is “AI for X”, exploring how AI can accelerate progress in biotech, neurotech, and other transformative fields.
Expect talks from field leaders, office hours, curated 1-1s, tech demos, unconference sessions, mentorship hours, lab tours, biohacking, a $10K project pitch contest, a cyberpunk party, and more.
Get early bird tickets before prices increase on July 1st.
Confirmed Speakers
Ed Boyden (MIT)
Liv Boeree (Win-Win Podcast)
Viren Jain (Google)
Laura Deming (Longevity Fund)
Andrew Trask (OpenMined)
Chiara Marletto (University of Oxford)
Get Tickets
Neurotechnology Workshop | October 11-12 | San Francisco
We are inviting those advancing frontier neurotechnology for a two-day workshop! The goal is to build common knowledge about current capabilities, align on goals, and coordinate efforts to overcome key bottlenecks in the field. Participants will be a tightly curated set of 60 leading scientists, builders, programmers, funders, and institutional allies.
Confirmed speakers: Alan Mardinly (Science), Talmo Pereira (Salk Institute), Viren Jain (Google), Ed Boyden (MIT), Daniel Burger (86 Science), Jacques Carolan (ARIA), and Haleh Fotowat (Wyss Institute).
Apply to Join
Find all our upcoming in-person and virtual events in Luma.
Fellowship & Prizes – Deadline July 31st!
The deadline for our Fellowship and two major prizes is coming up in just a month!
Foresight Fellowship 2026
The Foresight Fellowship is a year-long program for early-career talents working to advance beneficial technologies. We provide Fellows with a strong network and opportunities to present their work in influential forums. Apply.
$10,000 Norm Hardy Prize in Usable Security
Our Norm Hardy Prize in computer science awards important work in usable security – making the secure way the easy way. We accept both academic and practical work. Apply.
Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology
The Feynman Prizes recognize exceptional contributions to nanotechnology – previous winners include Nobel Laureates David Baker and Fraser Stoddart. The prizes come in three categories: Theory ($5,000), Experiment ($5,000), and Student ($1,000). Nominate.
The Existential Hope Podcast
The Existential Hope Podcast is now its own show! From previously being a part of our general Foresight feed, it now has its own. Subscribe in your podcast app for interviews with David Deutsch, Steven Pinker, and new releases with:
David Baker, 2024 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry
Nicklas Lundblad, former policy lead at DeepMind
Ed Finn, Director of the Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University
Tune in to Foresight Institute Radio for audio versions of selected presentations from our seminars and events.
$1,000 Prize – Positive AI Futures
What should 2035 with AI look like? Our online course provides tools for thinking about, and shaping, our future with advanced AI. Share your ideas from the course – the “Best Overall World” wins $1,000! We also give out four $500 prizes for “Best Institution” and “Best Image or Video”. The submission deadline is coming up on June 30th.
Submit
Fellowship Community
Arushi Nath has won several awards for her project “NEPTUNE: N-body Exoplanet Prediction using TTVs for Unseen Exoplanets":
Third Grand Award at the International Science and Engineering Fair
Gold Medal, Top of Category Award, and the Excellence in Astronomy Award at the Canada-Wide Science Fair
Matthew Allcock has published a major report on space weather resilience. It covers how the space, energy, communications, and transport industries can keep their infrastructure safely operating during severe space weather (solar flares, geomagnetic storms, etc.). Matthew also presented this work in a recent seminar. Press release here.
Gustavs Zilgalvis has graduated from Stanford University with a Master's in International Policy!
Apply to become a Fellow in our 2026 cohort! Deadline: July 31st.
Apply
Seminars
Watch the latest presentations from our seminar groups! Apply here to join the discussions live next time.
Longevity x AI Hackathon
Our last Vision Weekend in San Francisco featured a project pitch contest where the winning team – Olga Botvinnik, JJ Hales and Karl Pfleger – got $10,000 to realize their idea. The Longevity x AI Hackathon took place this month, with the goal of turning convoluted aging-biology data into ready-to-use resources for the machine learning community. The result? 66.6 GB – 36 longevity molecular profiling datasets – uploaded to the AI/ML platform HuggingFace!
Community Updates
Request for Proposals
Montana Biotech RFP | Infinita City
Infinita City are collecting interest from biotech firms and clinics to bring longevity treatments to Montana under the new right-to-try law.
Consciousness from a Computationalist Perspective | CIMC
CIMC is inviting research proposals, with the aim of understanding the nature and functionality of consciousness from a computationalist perspective.
Thanks for reading Foresight Institute’s newsletter! This post is public, so feel free to share it.
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