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Laude Institute Launches Slingshots Grant Program to Accelerate AI Research and Evaluation
The Laude Institute announced its first Slingshots grants program, providing fifteen AI research projects with funding, compute resources, and engineering support. The initial cohort focuses heavily on AI evaluation challenges, including projects like Terminal Bench, ARC-AGI, and new benchmarks for code optimization and white-collar AI agents.
Skynet Chance (-0.03%): Investment in rigorous AI evaluation and benchmarking infrastructure strengthens our ability to assess AI capabilities and limitations, contributing marginally to safer AI development. The focus on third-party, non-company-specific benchmarks helps maintain transparency and reduces risks of unmonitored capability advances.
Skynet Date (+0 days): Enhanced evaluation frameworks may slow deployment of inadequately tested AI systems by establishing higher standards for capability assessment. However, the impact on timeline is modest as this is primarily infrastructure building rather than direct safety intervention.
AGI Progress (+0.02%): The program accelerates AI research by providing compute and resources typically unavailable in academic settings, with projects targeting key AGI-relevant challenges like code optimization and general reasoning (ARC-AGI). Better evaluation tools also help identify and address capability gaps more effectively.
AGI Date (+0 days): By removing resource constraints for promising AI research projects and focusing on capability evaluation that drives progress, the program modestly accelerates the pace of AI development. The emphasis on benchmarking helps researchers identify and pursue productive research directions more efficiently.