When, in 2015, Open Philanthropy first donated over $1 million towards reducing the risks of advanced AI, few people took the threat seriously. That has changed.
Cari Tuna is the president of the nonprofit, which administers the philanthropic endeavors of her and her husband, Facebook and Asana co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. Under her leadership, the organization has made large donations to influential think tanks and researchers exploring ways to reduce the potentially catastrophic threats posed by artificial intelligence, among other causes like global health. In fact, Open Philanthropy’s grants and investments have drawn scrutiny for targeting the most extreme dangers of AI—like AI aiding terrorists or going rogue—in favor of more concrete current harms like bias. “Today’s AI biases foreshadow tomorrow’s critical risks,” Tuna wrote in an emailed statement. “I’m proud to support research to better understand how these systems work and how to make them reliable and safe.”
Of the $3 billion Open Philanthropy has donated, roughly $400 million has been to AI, making it one of the largest philanthropic funders of AI safety. Tuna’s and her husband’s drive to promote safer development of artificial intelligence has led her to engage with leading firms, including a $30 million grant to then-nonprofit OpenAI in 2017 and an investment in Anthropic in 2021.
