Machine Intelligence Research Institute

What is MIRI's mission?

MIRI's mission is to "ensure that the creation of smarter-than-human artificial intelligence has a positive impact."

What does MIRI do?

• MIRI has developed a technical research agenda: "Agent Foundations for Aligning Machine Intelligence with Human Interests."
• MRI hosts research workshops, funds research that aligns with their agenda, and hosts an online forum.
• MIRI focuses on approaches to artificial intelligence that will remain transparent to humans (so that humans can understand why systems behave the way they do). They aim to develop intelligent systems that behave as intended, even without human supervision.
• MIRI promotes the development of intelligent systems that can learn to share the same values as humans.
• MIRI investigates important strategic questions and makes predictions related to the development of intelligent systems.

Why do we recommend MIRI?

• Open Philanthropy considers reducing risks posed by advanced artificial intelligence to be a high-priority focus area.
• MIRI is a research organisation that uses evidence and reason to inform its decisions.
• MIRI is highly transparent with donors and the public.
• In 2020, MIRI received a $7.7 million grant from Open Philanthropy. The grant was intended for general support. We consider this grant to be a vote of confidence from an organisation we trust.

Fast Facts

• MIRI receives support from foundations, investors, and individual donors.
• MIRI researchers study the mathematical underpinnings of intelligent behaviour.
• They aim to further the development of artificial intelligence systems, ensuring the systems’ safety and reliability.
• MIRI researchers don’t predict a specific timeline for the development of smarter-than-human artificially intelligent systems, but researchers generally agree that artificial intelligence will outperform humans in this century.