Junior researchers are often wondering what they should work on. To potentially help, we asked people at the Centre for the Governance of AI for research ideas related to longtermist AI governance. The compiled ideas are developed to varying degrees, including not just questions, but also some concrete research approaches, arguments, and thoughts on why the questions matter. They differ in scope: while some could be explored over a few months, others could be a productive use of a PhD or several years of research.
We do not make strong claims about these questions, e.g. that they are the absolute top priority at current margins. Each idea only represents the views of the person who wrote it. The ideas aren’t necessarily original. Where we think someone is already working on or has done thinking about the topic before, we've tried to point to them in the text and reach out to them before publishing this post.
If you are interested in pursuing any of these projects, please let us know by filling out this form. We may be able to help you find mentorship, advice, or collaborators. You can also fill out the form if you’re intending to work on the project independently, so that we can help avoid duplication of effort. If you have feedback on the ideas, feel free to email researchideas@governance.ai.
You can find the ideas here. Our colleagues at the FHI AI Safety team put together a corresponding post with AI safety research project suggestions here.
Other sources of AI governance research projects include:
A list of the ideas in the document: