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Existential Risks Initiative

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Working to preserve the future of humanity.

What is existential risk?

Existential risks, or global catastrophic risks, are risks that could cause the collapse of human civilization. Prominent examples of human-driven global catastrophic risks include but are not limited to:

  1. nuclear war
  2. pandemics, bioterrorism, and other threats related to advances in biotechnology
  3. catastrophic accidents/misuse and other risks related to advances in AI
  4. effects of extreme climate change and environmental degradation

 

What we do:

The Stanford Existential Risks Initiative (SERI) hosts and promotes academic scholarship and cross-talk regarding existential risks.

Our work falls broadly into two categories:

  • Helping people engage with existential risk research through:
    • Postdoctoral Fellows
    • Summer Student Fellowship for both graduate and undergraduate students
    • Working groups that write literature on existential risks
  • Bringing together different disciplines in the goal of preventing existential risks
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