Rethink Priorities
Programs
Special Projects Program
Special Projects: RP's Special Projects (SP) team supports priority projects that RP fiscally sponsors, incubates, or directly launches. Since the SP program launched in July 2022, some notable achievements include: 71 fiscal sponsorship expressions of interest received; 12 projects supported; $5.1m total direct costs of supported projects in 2023 alone; 7 sponsee hiring rounds completed; 71 sponsee staff onboarded (total) of which 42 sponsee staff recruited directly by SP; 20 visa sponsorship applications (UK & US); 8 in-person events; 23 days of on-site event support; and 219 total event attendees. In 2023, the following projects were fiscally sponsored or incubated at RP: Epoch, Existential Risk Alliance (ERA), Apollo Research, Effective Altruism Consulting Network (EACN), Quantified Uncertainty Research Institute (QURI), Condor Camp, The Insect Institute, and Insect Welfare Research Society. The SP team also supported founder search for field building for AI Policy and provided event planning services to the Cooperative AI Foundation.GeographiesNot indicatedDatesJan 1, 2023 – Dec 31, 2023Source990No causes providedNo populations provided–$3.4MAnimal Welfare Research and Advocacy
Animal Welfare: Rethink Priorities' (RP's) Animal Welfare (AW) Department aims to be a leading hub of research and innovation to accelerate the end of factory farming and reduce the suffering of other animals. Through work spanning independent research, consulting services, and applied projects, the team supports advocacy organizations, philanthropic foundations, and other actors to drive evidence-based and reason-driven change for animals. Some notable accomplishments from the Animal Welfare department over the course of the year include: publication of our research about the potential effects of plant-based alternatives in replacing animal-based products and our findings on the role of price, taste, and convenience in driving food choice; continued efforts to lead EU policy reform with an EU farmed fish policy reform roadmap brief; success in launching The Insect Institute by building an academic community around insect welfare through research and dissemination activities, with fifteen academics and six students collaborating with us and another seventeen academics expressing interest for future work; convening the Animal Advocacy Strategy Forum to provide an annual space for leaders of animal advocacy organizations to strategize together and strengthen the movement; and estimating that shrimp production for human food is more important in scale-i.e., in the number of individuals affected?than the problem of insect farming, wild fish captures, or the farming of any other vertebrates used for human consumption.GeographiesNot indicatedDatesJan 1, 2023 – Dec 31, 2023Source990No causes providedNo populations provided–$1.9MInstitute for AI Policy and Strategy
AI Policy and Strategy: In 2023, Rethink Priorities' (RP's) AI Governance and Strategy Department launched into a new think tank called Institute for AI Policy and Strategy (IAPS). A brief overview of IAPS' four main workstreams and 2023 accomplishments follows: (1) Compute governance work aims to establish a firmer empirical and theoretical grounding for the fledgling field of compute governance, to inform ongoing policy processes and debates, and to develop more concrete technical and policy proposals. In 2023, RP published a report on AI chip smuggling into China, prominently mentioned in The Times online newspaper. RP also co-authored a forthcoming paper with the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) focused on using on-chip governance mechanisms to manage national security risks from AI and advanced computing. Both of these above-mentioned reports have received positive feedback and interest from researchers and senior US policymakers. The authors have been asked to deliver briefings on their findings to audiences, including through roundtable discussions co-hosted by CNAS and in the Foundation for American Innovation's podcast. (2) Lab governance work aims to identify concrete interventions that could improve the safety, security, and governance of frontier AI labs' systems via voluntary lab commitments, standards, or regulations. Program accomplishments from 2023 include publications which describe how frontier AI developers can respond to risks discovered after deployment of a model through a toolkit of "deployment corrections expansion on previous cybersecurity work to provide a wide-ranging yet actionable framework for risk management of emerging threats from AI; and, working with the Centre for the Governance of AI (GovAI) to examine the risks and benefits of open-sourcing in highly capable foundation models. (3) AI regulations work aims to focus on US AI standards, regulations, and legislation, using methods including case studies from other sectors. Some highlights from 2023 include the production of a series of outputs drawing lessons from risk management and regulation in other sectors and co-authoring on a forthcoming paper about Managing AI Risks in an Era of Rapid Progress. (4) China & international governance work aims to to improve decisions at the intersection of AI governance and international governance or China. Work was conducted on questions related to international governance regimes for frontier AI, China-West relations concerning AI, and relevant technical and policy developments within China. Some highlights from 2023 include working with GovAI on a report on international AI safety dialogues and working with the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) on a forthcoming report on possible risks from AI alignment efforts and how to avoid them.GeographiesNot indicatedDatesJan 1, 2023 – Dec 31, 2023Source990No causes providedNo populations provided–$1.5M
Copyright 2026. All rights reserved to Chario Inc. (d.b.a. Impala)