Yes. You can submit an application as a team. Both of you should be present during calls related to the application. After that, it's ok if only one person can do the reporting/communication, even though it's better if you can both attend. There would be 2 grant contracts (one for each person individually, with the total split between the two)
I didn't get the feeling that lesswrong is the right place for such a post. Is it? What tag should I use? Anything else I should know when posting there for these this kind of content?
You can send a regular email, I'm happy to chat about it.
I consider it outside the intended scope of the grant because your project (as I understand it) is about applying existing techniques to build a product. What I'm looking for is work that tries to understand or improve on them, or create new ones.
I'm interested in anything that can help us get a better understanding of ML-related topics: generalization, tranformers, optimization...
So I have a bias in favor of experimentation and theoretical stuff, and less so about practical applications (eg AlphaFold as you mention). With the caveat that sometimes these applications do lead to discovery.
I want to get involved in the design/prototyping. My skills are Deep Learning, a bit of statistics, finance and frontend dev, and I played a lot of games. I'd say if I spent a few years on it myself, I eventually could make a prototype, but I feel given my position I have more leverage if I just act as an investor + co-designer. I also know this is a very risky investment and I understand that the most likely scenario is that nothing comes out of it (I made other similar investments in the past)
I said noita is the closest I found, but it's still pretty far from what I envision.
I also understand that this idea is probably not enough to make a game compelling. It's more a mechanic that could be added to a broader game. There are many possibilities there which should be mostly chosen by an experienced team or studio and not by me.
Yea one plan would be to start with some kind of prototype, which should be possible in the 5-50k range I expect (could be a very small minimalist prototype by a single dev). Then if this looks fun, spec together a bigger project & fund it.
I just don't have the right connections to game developers / studios.
I like the idea of finding experienced people. Do you have any pointers to find Discord channels with such people and/or having similar ideas?
One thing is that i'm willing to discuss and change my mind. So I think my best bet is to find a studio or people who are already having similar ideas and iterate from there
It’s quite hard because there is a strong dichotomy between private industry spaces and public but largely hobbiest or less experienced folks. One of the biggest I’ve found in the past is Game Dev League. My other suggestion would be to approach some of the small/one man consulting places and see if they want to help with their network.
It’s one of these things where networking is the real route IMO.
AI Research Residency Program (1 year) | Zug/Zurich area | Full time | On site | 100-200k CHF/annum
I am launching a new AI research organisation in the Zug/Zurich area. The goal of the organisation is to make a meaningful contribution towards solving AGI.
I am looking for employees number no. 1 and 2. This will ideally be someone with a history of interesting research and a clear agenda for future research. I am personally interested in LLM's, MuZero (https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.08265), Dreamer (https://arxiv.org/pdf/2301.04104v1.pdf) and DreamCoder (https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.08381), and think there are some interesting systems to be found by interpolating between these existing areas (however, please still apply even if your research isn't in these areas).
The project will be financed by my current company which has made extensive use of deep learning for the past 4 years. You will have access to the >100 top-end GPUs owned by this company.
The job will be structured as a research residency program in the first year, with the hope of transitioning successful candidates into full-time roles.
In your application, please include a high-level research proposal stating what you would work on.
To apply, email me at : not_a_cat at fastmail. co[m].
Subject: Application for the AI Research Residency Programme
Dear Director of the new AI Research Residency Program,
I am writing to express my strong interest in your AI Research Residency Program, which I recently discovered on a job board. As a person with a deep passion for artificial intelligence and a strong background in quantum computing, I am excited by the opportunity to contribute to the solution of AGI and to expand my skills and knowledge in Deep Learning and Machine Learning.
During my previous work and education, I have gained extensive knowledge and skills in using Python, specific AI frameworks such as Qiskit, and complex tasks in quantum computing. My background in quantum computing has given me a deep understanding of complex systems and algorithms, which provides a solid foundation for exploring and applying deep learning methods.
With regards to your specific interest in LLMs, MuZero, Dreamer and DreamCoder, I am keen to expand my skills in these areas and contribute to discovering innovative systems by interpolating between these existing fields. I see great potential in exploring the interface between quantum computing and these technologies, and I believe that I can contribute to making significant progress in this direction.
As my high-level research proposal, I would like to explore the application of deep learning methods in quantum computing, with the aim of developing new techniques and algorithms that improve the performance and efficiency of quantum computers. I believe that this research direction could be of great value to both the field of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, and I am very interested in exploring this possibility further.
I welcome the opportunity to learn more about your programme and the opportunities for collaboration. I am willing to fully engage and expand my skills and knowledge in your programme to make a meaningful contribution to solving AGI.
Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.
AI Research firm | Zug/Zurich area | Full time | On site | 100-200k chf/annum | 1 year research residency program.
I am starting a new AI research team funded by applying ML to crypto algo trading.
Over the last three years years, the ML-based trading operation turned 5 digits into 9 digits, trading a volume of around 1-4B per day, with a team that has grown to 7 engineers. The crypto markets are a bit more calm now, so things don’t look as good as before, but still good enough to move on with the plan of using trading profits to fund the research operation.
To be clear, I did start the trading operation with the intention to fund fundamental AI research (capability and safety) since the very beginning. In the meantime, both AI and crypto markets went through boom and bust cycles, and I expect there will be many more to come. We need to build an operation that can go through many such cycles which is why I want to grow the research team slowly and cautiously.
This is the first role for the research team. It includes studying and doing research together with me. The contract will last 1 year by default and end. If the research is promising, and if finances allow, it can be extended into a full-time research role.
The compensation for the initial residency program will depend on the person applying and can be higher for exceptional candidates.
The high-level research agenda is whatever might help to get to AGI in the long run, with safety in mind. My own research interests are the following: deep learning, probabilistic programming, world models, self-play, and more recently LLMs. With regards to LLMs, I’m interested in studying their inner workings, for example how optimising for a simple objective (predicting the next token) gives rise to “emergent behavior” such as the ability to count, or theory of mind.
If interested, contact me at not_a_cat at fastmail. co[m].
