AI Safety Quest

Many people want to help with AI Safety, but don’t know where to start. AI Safety Quest is designed to help new people more easily navigate the AI Safety ecosystem, connect with like-minded people and find projects that are a good fit for their skills.We offer help in 3 main ways:

Learn more about us or volunteer with us.

Tavern Time (Office Hours)

Come to AI Safety Quest Tavern Time to meet us and others in the community, ask questions, get advice, share your work, and anything else that's on your mind. Drop in for a few minutes or stay the whole hour.Why Tavern Time?
In a role-playing game, a location where characters gather to share stories, progress, questions, and hints is often called a "tavern" or "inn." These social hubs are typically found in towns or cities within the game world and serve as places for adventurers to rest, meet new companions, obtain information, and pick up quests or rumors about nearby events or locations.
We feel this is a great description of the type of community we hope to build around these events and we hope you'll help us build it by joining.

Our events are available through our calendar on AddEvent. You can join individual events or subscribe to the entire calendar.

Navigation Calls

AI Safety Quest offers advising calls to people who are committed to reducing catastrophic risk around the development of AI. In these calls, we learn about your interests and background. We aim to understand the unique challenges you are facing. Based on that information, we direct you to the most relevant resources and communities in the ecosystem.We target these calls at people who:

  • Believe AI may pose a catastrophic risk (lead to harm on a large scale including widespread damage, loss of life, and suffering)

  • Have a basic understand of what is meant by AI Safety and AI Alignment

  • Are planning on volunteering or working in the field

For those newer to AI Safety or not necessarily thinking about working in it, please stop by our tavern time.

To apply for a 1 on 1 call please fill out the form below

Volunteer with Quest

AI Safety Quest is a fully volunteer-based organization. We are excited about our ambitious mission of providing infinitely scalable onboarding, advising, and group learning coordination to promote AI Safety.Skills and requirements
Our volunteer needs are changing rapidly as we scale up, so it's better to let us know what you're good at. Generally, our work can benefit from project management, product management, and operations skills. Ideally, we want volunteers to be able to commit to 3+ hours volunteering per week for at least a few months.
How to get started
Please come meet with us by attending our fortnightly Volunteer with AI Safety Quest! meeting or coming to tavern time. You can find both on our calendar at AddEvent.

We need skilled and courageous adventurers

Will you take up this quest?If you are interested in volunteering, please fill out the form below.

About us

We are a team of volunteers who believe we need many more people working on reducing the risk around AI. We gathered around Alignment Ecosystem Development and started Quest in early 2023.Please feel free to email us at hello at aisafety dot questTeam members

  • Alex - previously a management consultant, but now switched to helping grow the alignment ecosystem. Also interested in AI governance/policy.

  • Chris - works part-time in IT and cybersecurity. He is interested in AI governance, making vegetarian Indian dals, and inline skating.

  • Eric (plex) - free agent working on many projects in the alignment ecosystem.

  • Jonathan - a previous mechanical engineer with 7 years of experience. Also passionate about AI governance, forecasting, and GPR (Global Priorities Research).

  • Sophia - a writer and editor who wants to solve alignment so she can be eternally youthful and travel the galaxy.

Quest Parties

Want to improve your understanding and skills? Learn more about Technical AI Safety with the AI Safety Quest team.

Quest Parties are currently in their pilot phase. Thank you for your patience while we refine the processes.

We believe that peer led spaces that promote community, mutual exploration and skill building will be critical for reducing the existential risk posed by artificial intelligence. Quest Parties are an opportunity to participate in and lead groups focused on relevant topics in AI Safety. Over the course of a Quest Party, the hope is that you’ll discover opportunities and ideas for how you can contribute to AI Safety and develop the skills you need to help save the world!In the pilot program, you‘ll work through the AI Safety Fundamentals Technical syllabus created and maintained by Richard Ngo. (This is the same curriculum used in BlueDot Impact’s Alignment Course.) The pilot Quest Parties will be led by members of the AI Safety Quest team. In the future, we plan to run more Quest parties and cover reading groups, workshops, and real-life projects where people can collaborate to make much-needed contributions to the field.We are planning for the pilot Quest Parties to begin their journey the week of July 24 and continue for 12 weeks, covering both the core curriculum and a capstone project.If you’d like to be part of the pilot, sign up here.Want to know more? Check out the Quest Parties FAQ.

Quest Parties FAQ

Who is AI Safety Quest?AI Safety Quest is a team of volunteers who are working to reduce existential risk from artificial intelligence through community building and education. We provide one on one “Navigation Calls” to provide people with AI Safety Resources, and are now expanding into “Quest Parties” to help more people improve their understanding of AI Safety. See also About us.What is a Quest Party?Quest Parties are small groups of people who are participating in a shared activity over the course of a few months. For the pilot program, we’ll be going through the AI Safety Fundamentals alignment curriculum, which runs for 12 weeks, which includes 8 weeks of cohort-based reading and 4 weeks of capstone-project.Do Quest Parties only cover the AGI-SF Syllabus?In the future, Quest Parties will explore a wide variety of topics related to AI Safety (e.g., maybe a group runs through the governance curriculum, or somebody decides to lead a series of Mechanistic Interpretability workshops.) Quest Parties should meet for 1-2 hours each week, with 2+ hours of reading and/or activities in between each meeting. We anticipate that the average Quest Party will last around 8 weeks.Why should I join a Quest Party?Although there are lots of resources available for learning AI Safety, finding the time and motivation to go through them between school, work, and social commitments can be challenging. Quest Parties give you structured time to go through this content, as well as a community with whom you can discuss the ideas to improve and challenge your own understanding of the content and enjoy some mutual accountability.Can I lead a Quest Party?Absolutely! We are still in a pilot phase, but please let us know if you’re interested in forming a Quest Party in the future. We’d love to have a general idea of what topic you’d like to lead, and then we can help you form a syllabus and handle the logistics of forming a party.I want to learn more about AI Safety, but I don’t come from a technical background/don’t feel like I’d be able to keep up with the course. What should I do?If you’re interested in contributing to AI Safety, we want to help you make that happen! If the more technical side isn’t your thing, there are still many ways you can help. AI Safety is critically short of operations people (the people who do the admin, organizing and generally make sure that stuff happens.) AI Safety Quest is always up for new people joining and helping us run navigation calls and keep everything running smoothly with our admin, etc. If you want to learn at your own time and pace, we can send you a list of learning resources to help get you started. Get in touch with us for a Navigation call and we’ll discuss how your unique skills can help the field.