Project summary

My paper on using access controls to address the dual-use nature of AI models got accepted to ICML's technical AI governance workshop, and I seek funding to help me go there. I'm the sole author, so if I don't go, the work won't be presented. This would be my first conference ever, and it comes at a perfect time as I'm moving from technical AI safety to technical AI governance.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

I have two main goals.

The main thing I'm excited about is the networking and learning opportunity. I'm mid-transition from technical AI safety to technical AI governance — getting to talk to people at the workshop would help me quickly understand what problems people are working on, who's doing what, and find collaborators for future work. Plus there's all that tacit knowledge you can't get from just reading papers. Since this is my first conference, I expect the impact to be pretty significant for my career direction.

As for the paper itself — it's about the dual-use nature of AI models (how the same model can be used for good or harmful purposes) and why current approaches don't address this. I propose verification-based access controls as one potential solution, together with a possible technical implementation. The work is still pretty conceptual and needs many holes to be filled in by future work, but I do think something like access controls will eventually be part of AI systems, and maybe this paper can help start that conversation.

I am a Master's student, and worked on the project myself, so I can't get any support from my university / lab.

How will this funding be used?

I just found out about the acceptance 2 days ago, so these are rough estimates:

• Student conference ticket: $550

• Flight from Prague and back: ~$750  

• Accommodation for 9 days (AirBnB within ~30min of venue): ~$1,200

(I'm looking into other, at least partial, funding sources, hence I set the minimum to $500)

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The main way the first goal could "fail" is if I go but don't manage to connect with people. However, I will have a very thorough plan and specific talking points to help me resolve main cruxes about my future research directions, so I don't expect this failure mode to be likely.

As for the paper, it might turn out that the practical obstacles to implementing access controls are just too big, which would limit its impact. But I think even learning that would be useful.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

Last summer, I was part of Team Shard, which got compute funding from Neel Nanda/Manifund and general support funding from LTFF for our MATS project on gradient routing.