New Executive Team & Board —  PIBBSS

post by Nora_Ammann · 2024-07-01T19:30:45.261Z · LW · GW · 1 comments

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TLDR: PIBBSS is changing its core team. Nora is stepping down as director due to joining ARIA, and Lucas Teixeira and Dusan Nesic are taking over her leadership role. Nora joins the board, alongside Tan Zhi Xuan, Alexander Gietelink Oldenziel, Ben Goldhaber and Gabriel Weil.

I (Nora) have recently accepted an offer to join ARIA’s Safeguarded AI Programme as Technical Specialist under davidad. As such, I am stepping back as Director at PIBBSS, after co-founding and leading PIBBSS since 2021. 

It wasn’t an easy choice to make! I deeply care about and believe in the mission of and the people at PIBBSS. Before davidad encouraged me to apply for the role, I hadn’t considered leaving PIBBSS. I believe PIBBSS is playing an important role in terms of fostering theoretically ambitious and empirically grounded AI safety research. I am very excited about the directions the team and I have been forging, and extremely impressed by the quality of talent we've recently been able to attract. I strongly believe that PIBBSS is in the position to make important and neglected contributions in both research and field-building for AI safety.

The team and I have been reflecting on and preparing for this transition for a while. Thanks to that, I am confident that Lucas & Dušan will do a great job at shepherding PIBBSS through this transition, and beyond! We have done our homework, and I feel grateful about being able to put so much my trust into this team.

As such, Lucas & Dušan will collectively form the new Executive Team. Dušan has been leading PIBBSS’ operations for the last ~2 years and has developed a deep familiarity with everything involved in making the organization run smoothly. Lucas, who joined us a bit over 8 months ago, has been acting as research manager and collaborator for our research affiliates. Going forward, Dušan continues to be in charge of all operational matters, and Lucas will be leading the research activities. Together, we have made significant progress in clarifying and moving towards our updated research & field building vision over the last number of months. 

In order to further support this transition, and strengthen PIBBSS in pursuing its ambitious plans, we have also set up a board. We’re pleased to have the following people join the board (in addition to myself): 

• Tan Zhi Xuan
• Alexander Gietelink Oldenziel
• Ben Goldhaber 
• Gabriel Weil

I am immensely grateful to my team, our affiliates, our current and past fellows, and all the many wonderful collaborators and 'friends of PIBBSS' over the years! And I am excited to be able to continue supporting PIBBSS from my new position on the board.

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