The Cosmos Institute, a new philanthropic organization, today detailed four initiatives through which it hopes to advance artificial intelligence research.
The Cosmos Institute is a nonprofit focused on exploring how AI and philosophy can be combined in positive ways. Its founding fellows include Oxford University professor Philipp Koralus, former U.S. Defense Department technologist Brendan McCord and Anthropic PBC co-founder Jack Clark. Anthropic competes with OpenAI in the large language model market.
The first initiative that the Cosmos Institute detailed today will see it set up a new research hub at Oxford University. It will be known as the Human-Centered AI Lab, or HAI Lab for short. The hub is set to be led by Cosmos Institute founding fellow Philipp Koralus, a professor of AI and philosophy at Oxford. Stanford University also has a human-centered AI lab it calls HAI, but it’s a separate endeavor.
The HAI Lab’s goal is to explore how researchers can “crucial concepts such as reason, decentralization, and autonomy into the planetary-scale AI systems that will shape our future,” Cosmos Institute Founding Fellow and Chair Brendan McCord wrote in a blog post today.
A second initiative announced today will see the nonprofit roll out a collection of educational resources exploring AI and philosophy. As part of the project, the nonprofit will host a seminar at Oxford on how the two topics intertwine. The Cosmos Institute will also organize reading groups, workshops and public debates.
For individuals who wish to dive deeper into the topic, the group is launching a program called the Cosmos Fellowship. “The intersection of AI expertise and deep philosophical insight remains largely unexplored. This limits the kind of unconventional synergies needed to build technology that truly advances human flourishing,” McCord wrote. “The Cosmos Fellowship aims to identify and nurture individuals capable of mastering both domains.”
Fellowship recipients will carry out research at Oxford’s new HAI Lab or other academic institutions for up to a year. According to the Cosmos Institute, participants will have an opportunity to “collaborate with Cosmos mentors or pursue independent projects within an interdisciplinary network of leaders.” The nonprofit has already awarded several fellowships to technologists from companies such as Apple Inc. and Quantinuum Ltd., a quantum computer startup.
The Cosmos Institute is also launching an investment arm called Cosmos Ventures. According to McCord, the goal is to “support a new generation of brilliant thinkers and builders at the intersection of AI and human flourishing.” The group plans to back projects spanning areas such as philosophy, computer science, political theory, economics and natural science.