#159 - Transformative AI Policy, Meme Prizes, and Dark Stars!
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In The News
🔬 Newly discovered enzymes open up a back door that render certain cancers more susceptible to treatment
🦀 And MIT + Harvard researchers have re-engineered CAR-T cells into NK (natural killer) cells that are programmed to target specific cancers.
🌑 The James Webb telescope has captured images that hint at the existence of dark stars: stars that run on the annihilation of dark matter rather than fusion.
📉 Gun deaths in the US are at the lowest they’ve been in a decade
💉 In an extraordinary vaccination campaign, 9 million girls in Pakistan were protected from HPV and cervical cancer in just 15 days.
Opportunities
Dear friends of Impact Labs are starting Windfall Trust: a think tank and research organization dedicated to exploring the political, social, and economic questions that will be raised in an era of transformative AI. They’re looking for a comms director, and we attest that the members on the leadership team are extraordinarily bright, kind, and fun to work with!
The Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm and foundation that seeks to create a more equitable economy, promote responsible technology that improves lives, expand human capability, and discover the emergent issues that will shape the future. They have a tech journalism fund and will offer between $5,000 and $25,000 to journalists (or aspiring journalists!) who pitch them on a compelling story.
Relatedly, we’d like to highlight two programs that aim to support new media around flourishing futures: The Future of Life Media Accelerator, and the Keep the Future Human Creative Contest! Both are interesting opportunities for digital creators and storytellers interested in crafting narratives around how technology can influence the future for the better. And while you’re thinking about your submissions, check out the $10k Existential Hope Meme Prize from the Foresight Institute too!
The Centre for Long-Term Resilience is an independent think tank focused on global resilience to extreme risks. They currently focus on artificial intelligence and biosecurity. They’re currently looking for a junior-level researcher or contractor for their microbial forensics team.
The Council on Foreign Relations is one of the most influential foreign policy think tanks in the United States. The offer a range of fellowships working in international affairs and security. They’re seeking an AI research fellow to join their team.
What We’re Watching
Switching to renewables isn’t just good for the planet, it’s good for the 100+ nations that have collectively saved over $500B in imported fossil fuel costs.
China built an underwater data center that uses seawater for cooling. Neat!
The petabytes of publicly available biological data about DNA, RNA, and protein structures that were famously hard to search through and parse are now searchable!
Google’s Flood Hub and GiveDirectly’s unconditional cash transfers are helping people who live in flood-prone regions adapt and survive.
Quotes We Love
“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms.”
— Muriel Rukeyser
That’s all for now! See you in your inbox in another two weeks! ❤️