Welcome to the Future of Life Institute newsletter! Every month, we bring 70,000+ subscribers the latest news on how emerging technologies are transforming our world.

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Today's newsletter is an eight-minute read. Some of what we cover this month:

• 🤝 Pro-Human AI Declaration

• 🧬 How AI can, and can’t, cure cancer

• 📝 Sanders and AOC propose data center moratorium

• 📰 Military AI in the news

And more.

If you have any feedback or questions, please feel free to send them to [email protected].

→ Pro-Human AI Declaration: A remarkably broad coalition is behind the new Pro-Human AI Declaration, with endorsers spanning from Steve Bannon and Glenn Beck to Susan Rice and Ralph Nader; Yoshua Bengio and Stuart Russell; SAG-AFTRA; the American Federation of Teachers; faith groups; conservative media voices; AI researchers; and more. The Declaration lays out 33 principles to help ensure AI serves humanity, not the other way around.

As Siliconversations outlines in the video below, the principles are organized into five themes:

1. Keeping Humans in Charge

2. Avoiding Concentration of Power

3. Protecting the Human Experience

4. Human Agency and Liberty

5. Responsibility and Accountability for AI Companies.

Read the Pro-Human AI Principles, and results from polling about them.

→ Data center moratorium proposed: A new bill from Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would halt AI data center construction across the U.S. until Congress acts to put federal safeguards in place for workers, consumers, and the environment. The proposed Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act would follow 100+ local communities who’ve enacted similar moratoriums, pointing to existential risks from AI, environmental damage, and electricity costs (which jumped nearly 7% last year) as reasons for urgency.

→ AI vs. Cancer: FLI's Futures Program Director Emilia Javorsky, MD, MPH, has published a new essay, AI vs. Cancer, examining why the current trajectory of AI development hasn't delivered on promises such as a cure for cancer - despite billions of dollars invested and many claims from AGI company CEOs. Instead, Emilia offers an alternative vision for how AI could actually help us get there. Check out the video from Looking Glass Universe below for another summary!

After reading, turn the essay’s key ideas into a meme for a chance to win! We’re offering a $100 gift card to any meme that hits 1,000+ likes on Instagram or X before April 20, plus $500 to the most-liked meme overall, and $250 to our team's favorite. See full contest details below:

→ Military AI in the news: It was a big month for military AI news, with growing opposition to the reported use of AI-based decision support systems to plan strikes in the ongoing Iran war. Airwars and The Independent also revealed the first instance of a government having officially accepted killing a civilian in an AI-enabled attack: a 20-year-old student who was killed by US forces in a February 2024 strike in Iraq. Additionally, The Guardian and The Financial Times both came out with respective calls for countries to negotiate a global agreement on autonomous weapons.

→ SXSW: FLI’s Executive Director Anthony Aguirre and Emilia Javorsky were at SXSW last month, joined on a panel by filmmaker Daniel Kwan and Center for Humane Technology co-founder Tristan Harris:

→ FLI partners with Florida state agencies: We’re honored to share that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed state agencies to partner with FLI on two initiatives addressing the psychological and social harms of AI chatbots and companion apps. This marks the first formal partnership of its kind between a governor's office and a leading AI safety organization.

FLI President Max Tegmark and co-founder Meia Chita-Tegmark, alongside families of children harmed by AI chatbots, also joined Gov. DeSantis’ most recent AI policy roundtable. You can find the full recording of it below:

→ We’re hiring: FLI is hiring two US Policy Team Members to support our policy work and government engagement, helping to build bipartisan networks on the Hill. Based in Washington, DC, the roles offer $85,000-$195,000 plus benefits. Apply here by April 3rd.

→ Report from our Foreign Policy simulation: As mentioned in the last edition, we teamed up with Foreign Policy at the Munich Security Conference to host participants for an exercise simulating how advanced AI agents deployed for military and dual-use applications could result in a catastrophic loss of human control. The synthesis report is now out - read it here.

→ On the FLI Podcast, host Gus Docker was joined by:

• Zak Stein, child development researcher, to discuss how AI hacks your brain’s attachment system.

• Emilia Javorsky, FLI’s Futures Program Director, to discuss what AI companies get wrong about curing cancer.