LATAM Research Fellowship

By Fernando Avalos, Jose Gelves @ 2024-11-12T05:17 (+12)

One-Sentence Summary

The LATAM Research Fellowship aims to support Latin American students in advancing their AI safety research skills (governance and alignment) while propelling their careers towards producing high-impact research aimed at reducing catastrophic AI risks.

The Problem

While AI safety is one of our era's critical challenges, there's a clear disparity in research contributions between the Global North and South. Most opportunities and resources concentrate in the Global North, potentially sidelining valuable talent from Latin America.

Our Solution

We're creating a 12-week mentorship program connecting Latin American talent with researchers in AI safety. Our hypothesis: there's significant untapped potential in Latin America that could enhance the field, but lacks traditional access points to established programs.

Program Structure

Target Audience

• Latin American students and professionals interested in AI safety careers.
• Individuals with foundational knowledge seeking expertise development.
• Commitment to pursuing work in catastrophic AI risk reduction.

For Mentors

• Who We're Looking For: Moderate to advanced experience in AI safety research or policy.
• We expect mentors to be enthusiastic about mentoring individuals who, while potentially not as experienced or traditionally trained as peers from the Global North, show significant potential and a strong commitment to contributing to AI safety.
• What You'll Do: Develop and provide well-defined project ideas tailored to a 3-month timeline. Lead teams in executing these projects, organizing and facilitating weekly one-hour meetings over the course of 12 weeks.
• Program Language: The mentorship and research will be conducted primarily in English. Knowledge of Spanish or Portuguese is not required.
• Support Provided: Administrative support by our team, flexibility to select mentees based on your specified criteria, and a structured framework for feedback and collaboration.

MVP Goals

• 5 Governance mentors.
• 2 Alignment mentors.
• Weekly mentorship meetings.
• Regular feedback collection.

What Sets Us Apart

Unlike existing programs (SPAR, FIG, Pivotal, MATS, ERA), we:

• Focus exclusively on Latin American talent.
• Look beyond traditional credentials.
• Provide culturally relevant support and networking.
• This is not confirmed yet, but the program may include an emphasis on community-building activities among participants to foster a lasting peer network.

Next Steps

We're currently seeking:

1. Mentors for both tracks.

2. Community feedback on our approach.

3. Potential collaborators and supporters.

Interested in mentoring? Express your interest in here.

This is an early-stage idea and we want to get it right. If you see problems with our approach or assumptions, or know of similar initiatives that failed - we want to hear about it. Don't hold back!