Have an idea for a business, policy, technology, or invention related to X-risk mitigation?
We’re hosting a research sprint November 18-19th. You’ll have 24 hours to come up with a project related to X-risk. We’ll fuel you with pizza and give you access to our office space. Oh, and there’s £500 in cash prizes for the best ideas.
Starts Saturday, November 18th at 10AM.
Ends Sunday, November 19th by 10AM.
Location: Meridian Office
Registration for SprintX is now open!
Join us for 24 hours of fun and collaborative research into X-risk mitigation. In this hackathon, we focus on how we can mitigate and secure against the most severe risks which could end humanity or permanently curtail human potential, including nuclear war, climate change, adversarial AI, and more.
You can join by yourself or with a team of up to 3 others!
📣 Schedule:
Saturday:
10:00AM - 10:30AM: We will start with socialising and an introductory talk.
10:30-13:00: You will choose and plan your project and start working! There will be (optional) check-ins from organizers if you need support.
13:00-14:00: Lunch!
14:00-18:30: More time to work, and do research.
18:30-19:30: Dinner!
19:30-2:00AM: This time is yours. We'll leave the office open until 2AM.
Sunday:
6:00AM: We'll open the Office back up if you'd like to get an early start and have some light breakfast.
6:00-9:30: Co-working on your project with your team, finalising projects for submission.
9:30-10AM: Time to submit and briefly present your minimum viable product!
Frequently asked questions:
Is the event free to attend, or are there any costs?
- The event is completely free to attend, including food and drinks.
Do I need to come for the entire 24 hours?
- No. SprintX begins at 10AM, November 18th and ends 10AM November 19th, but you are not expected to be in the Office or working the entire time.
What should I bring?
- Computer and anything else you think would be helpful. You will have access to desk space, monitors, outlets, printers, pens/paper, and food.
🔬 Who is this hackathon for?
You can join without any experience. We'll share some starter resources - x-risk mitigation is very interdisciplinary so whatever you can bring will likely be valuable. Economics, statistics, general research skills, comp sci/machine learning/programming, knowledge of current and global affairs, risk management, design/presentation skills... The list goes on. While this is a "hackathon" not everybody needs to be a programmer nor technically inclined, although many projects in the past have been technical
If the topic of X-risk mitigation seems daunting, come anyway! It feels like that for everyone, even those making a career in this space
What will I get out of this event?
🏆 There is a prize pool of £500 cash up for grabs for the best projects.
🍕 We will have free food at the event
You might also:
- kickstart a career or passion in X-risk
- make a bunch of connections with other Cambridge students and researchers
- maybe make the world safer and help safeguard humanity
- have lots of fun
Projects
A list of types of projects you might do:
programming projects
machine learning projects
policy proposals for business or government
data science projects
business plans for a startup or NGO
engineering projects
This is not an exhaustive list and we encourage you to come up with your own project ideas. SprintX projects relate to existential risk - risks that threaten the future of human civilisation, like advanced AI, pandemics, nuclear war, and climate change.
Past projects include:
Model for calculating and mapping X-risk probability based on governance, vulnerabilities, etc.
Pathogen detection technology for aircrafts
Prediction market-based approaches for various cause areas
Models for food production in climate-stressed areas
Treatment of arctic thermokarst
Nuclear warfare neural network
Teams
You can work individually or in teams of 2-4. You can specify your team on the signup form, or you can form a team at the start of the event.
How to win
In addition to excellent execution, we are excited to see projects that:
are new and creative, especially in a way that involves seizing a neglected path to impact (think: "would someone else do this anyways?")
have a solid "theory of change" for how the project could actually mitigate a problem in the real world while acknowledging uncertainties.
SprintX Focus Areas
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AI Safety
Advanced systems more intelligent than ourselves present new challenges: How can we be sure to maintain control of the trajectory of the future as we continue to hand over decision-making processes to these systems? How do we govern the risks and power imbalances between nations and/or individual actors, as these systems come into existence? Possible project directions include machine learning experiments and tools to help test AI systems.
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Biosecurity
Pandemics have blighted humanity for millennia, and Covid-19 has shown that we continue to be ill-prepared for these events. We are particularly interested in broad-spectrum defense against all types of pandemics. UV-C light has been shown to sterilise airborne pathogens - might we clean up air in the way that we once cleaned up water? What improvements might we have to protective equipment, and how do we ensure there’s enough of it for the next pandemic?
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Climate change
Climate change presents multiple potential existential or catastrophic consequences, both through tail risks of extreme warming and indirectly via affecting global stability, systems, and institutions. Evaluating and tackling these risks is crucial to ensure that the world can minimise the loss and damage from extreme climate change.
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Nuclear Security
Nuclear weapons that are armed at all times could kill tens of millions of people directly, and perhaps billions of people due to the subsequent effects on climate and crop growth. Yet nuclear weapons are not discussed much, and the international politics and game theory behind their use are not well known. Can you help inform people about nuclear risks, or design a concrete actionable policy towards a world with less nuclear risk?
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Misc & Meta
Some x-risk work does not fit into neat categories, but is relevant for all. How should we try to predict unprecedented future events? What might help civilisation be resilient to all sorts of future catastrophes?