It's more important than ever that PauseAI is funded. Pretty much the only way we're going to survive the next 5-10 years is by such efforts being successful to the point of getting a global moratorium on further AGI/ASI development. There's no point being rich when the world ends. I encourage others with 7 figures or more of net worth to donate similar amounts. And I'm disappointed that all the big funders in the AI Safety space are still overwhelmingly focused on Alignment/Safety/Control when it seems pretty clear that those aren't going to save us in time (if ever), given the lack of even theoretical progress, let alone practical implementation.
Note that this is to be considered general funding to PauseAI Global, maxing out the volunteer stipends fundraiser and funding additional hires (from OP: "If we surpass our goal, we will use that money to fund additional hires for PauseAI Global (e.g. a Social Media Director).")
10
PauseAI local communities - volunteer stipends
ActiveGrant
$93,574raised
$42,000funding goal
Project summary
PauseAI is a grassroots community of volunteers which aim to inform the public and politicians about the risks from superhuman AI and urge them to work towards an international treaty that prevents the most dangerous AI systems from being developed.
PauseAI is largely organised through local communities which take actions to spread awareness such as letter writing workshops, peaceful protests, flyering and giving presentations.
The funding in this project will be used to provide local organizers with funding to help them set up and grow these local communities.
What are this project's goals and how will you achieve them?
Help local PauseAI communities organize events and grow, so these communities become more effective at increasing awareness of AI risks and the governance solutions that we can get to achieve them.
How will this funding be used?
It will be exclusively used to directly fund local PauseAI organizers. Every organizer can apply for EUR 2100/yr as a volunteer stipend. This amount should cover 8 hrs of volunteering per week. This amount corresponds to the maximum annual amount that can be provided tax-free to volunteers under Dutch tax law. Our goal (42000) would fund 20 local organizers for one year.
In return, local organizers are expected to host at least 6 events per year, 3 of which should be impact-focused (e.g. letter writing, protesting, flyering).
PauseAI will coordinate with local community leaders and provide them with materials and support to increase their chances of being successful.
If we surpass our goal, we will use that money to fund additional hires for PauseAI Global (e.g. a Social Media Director).
Who is on your team and what's your track record on similar projects?
Joep Meindertsma is team lead and founder of PauseAI. He’s been primarily responsible for growing the PauseAI community so far (+/- 2000 members, 100 registered volunteers).
Sophie Wucherer is community manager of PauseAI. She has experience running and growing a local EA community (Maastricht).
What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails? (premortem)
Unclear expectations. If we fail to properly communicate with local organizers, they may focus on the wrong activities or not work hard enough to grow their community.
Lack of autonomy by being too controlling. If we, as PauseAI global, are too restrictive, that could dampen initiative and motivation, leading to a lack of action.
Net-negative messaging / outreach. If we do not control / vet enough, some organizers may spread messages that could poison the well, or misrepresent AI risks. It is our job to provide materials and guidance to organizers to help them communicate effectively.
What other funding are you or your project getting?
About 80% of our funding comes from donations from individuals. We’re also applying for grants (e.g. SFF). However, this is the frist time we’re applying specifically for funding to be used exclusively for local communities.
donated $85,500
Greg Colbourn
about 1 year ago
donated $85,500
Greg Colbourn
about 1 year ago
Note that this is $90k less Manifund fees (same as my donation to PauseAI US - https://manifund.org//projects/pauseai-us-2025-through-q2?tab=comments#2d85cbfd-d392-447c-ad7f-da056aa77928 - just the fees are taken out first here)
donated $50
Remmelt Ellen
over 1 year ago
I trust Joep and a few other organisers I know at Pause AI. They resolved to raise awareness about AI risks, and are open to collaborating with other communities concerned about ongoing harms.
Face-to-face outreach allows more people to get informed about reckless corporate AI scaling, and the people concerned to take organised action. I hope Sophie and Joep will go beyond one-way recruitment tactics such as broadcasting messages – to finding multi-way consensus on harms/risks and parallel actions for peacefully targeting institutions, to prevent things from getting worse.
donated $5,451
Michael Dickens
over 1 year ago
Public advocacy seems likely to be the best thing on the margin to prevent extinction.
Technical alignment research is (a) less neglected and (b) unlikely to solve alignment in time.
Well-done advocacy directed at policymakers is possibly better, but it's unclear what efforts are most useful, and it's less neglected.
PauseAI is the only game in town for public advocacy. At this point I think it's too early to say if they're doing a good job, but I think it's a good EV bet.
donated $5,451
Michael Dickens
over 1 year ago
I chose to donate through Manifund instead of directly to PauseAI, even though it was kind of a pain, because I believe Manifund is providing a useful service. The grant requests that orgs submit through Manifund tend to have valuable information that 's not included on their websites or in fundraising materials. Manifund is doing a good job of eliciting decision-relevant info that I can't get elsewhere.
donated $10
Michaël Rubens Trazzi
over 1 year ago
Note: donating a small amount now to signal support, might add more later when I have more clarity on how I want to spread my donations.
I think a world in which no advocacy for an AI Pause would be worse so I am glad that they exist and organize protests.
Main reasons I'm excited
- I think 2.1k / volunteer is quite cheap for the amount of work a volunteer could do a year
- I've interviewed Holly Elmore from PauseAI US who I overall trust with the project
- I think their discord is already quite active, and the 2k "members" (discord members?) and 100 registered volunteers show some decent engagement
Some reservations
- When I look at the protest lists (https://pauseai.info/protests), it seems that there hasn't been that many protests in 2024 organized by PauseAI.
- I don't think any PauseAI protest has reached enough participation to have say 100+ people showing up at one location, which I think would be more impressive than what I've currently seen
Overall, I'm glad that PauseAI exists and appreciate all of the efforts that are being done in that space.
donated $150
Lucie Philippon
over 1 year ago
I think PauseAI is doing great work overall and would love for their reach to expans. However, I'm unsure of what to make of the very click-baity and somewhat misleading messages diffused by PauseAI France.
Liron Shapira
over 1 year ago
PauseAI member here, amazing organization and the Discord community is great - https://pauseai.info/join