Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI)

What it does

Originally the founding technical alignment research organisation; since 2024 pivoted almost entirely to communications and policy advocacy for an international halt on frontier AI development. Its site states: 'Our survival depends on some form of globally coordinated and collectively enforced moratorium on the development of ASI, as soon as we can, for as long as necessary.' Outputs are now books, essays and briefings rather than alignment papers.

What they ask for — in their own terms

A globally coordinated and collectively enforced moratorium on the development of artificial superintelligence, because on current methods the most likely outcome is human extinction.

What they do

Since 2024 primarily a communications and advocacy organisation rather than a technical lab: the book 'If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies', the AI StopWatch daily news service, a documentary, and a contact-your-representative tool run off the book's site.

Honest assessment

Reads its mail but is highly selective about engagement, and is not interested in concerns outside its narrow thesis. If your concern is anything other than existential risk from superintelligence, this is the wrong door. Note: the user's list includes 'Machine Intelligence Research' separately — that is MIRI's own name, not a distinct organisation.

What a newcomer can do

Use ifanyonebuildsit.com/act to call, email or post a letter to your representative asking them to push for an international pause; add your name to the pledge to march in Washington DC (the march is contingent on reaching 100,000 pledges).

Worth knowing

MIRI's stated position is that building superintelligence with current techniques most likely kills everyone. That is the strongest claim on this list; endorsing it publicly has social and professional costs in some workplaces. The DC march is conditional and may never happen.

Concerns it covers

Pure loss-of-control / misalignment extinction risk, and the strongest version of it — MIRI's public position is that technical alignment has failed to keep pace and that a moratorium is the only remaining lever. Zero emphasis on near-term harms.

Government channel

Moderate and growing — MIRI staff brief policymakers and its arguments circulate widely in Washington and Westminster, but it has no formal advisory seat.

Tips

no

Where they work

United States primarily (the contact tool finds US representatives); global readership.

Size

Small research-and-comms nonprofit, long-established (founded 2000), donor-funded.

Spending

Not disclosed on the pages checked; accepts donations.