I personally think the best outcome here could be FHI rebranding itself to be more distinct from the other institute - that might mean building up its other departments to be the 'existential risks' institute and associate less with AI.

I would hate to see the researchers/work being done at FHI be eliminated. that comes with $150 million and new humanities center.These things do happen - out with the old and in with the new. Unfortunately, Oxford might be reevaluating FHI in light of its new institute.

But FHI, despite being focused on existential risk studies, is largely associated with Bostrom who is publicly known for 'ethics in AI' (do you see where I'm going with this?). Seems a bit extravagant to have two philosophy-based centers devoted to AI right? Especially since FHI was housing the Centre for the Governance of AI, which spun off into its own non-University-affiliated organization. The Dept of Philosophy now has four institutes - Uehiro Ethics, Global Priorities, Future of Humanity and Ethics in AI. The money is to go to two main things - a new humanities college and. In 2021 Oxford University accepted a $150 million donation from American billionaire Stephen Schwarzman.

I have a different theory to consider - mostly because I don't like to have only one theory (largely driven by hearsay/subjective opinions) out in the wild (because that's how community drama builds up). So I don't want that point to be taken as an ominous 'FHI is in trouble with Oxford' (remember, he did say he was a bit disgruntled, and hearsay should always be taken with a grain of salt).įinally, JTM also mentioned that GPI hasn't been struggling as much as FHI and suggest it's because of senior leadership's relationship with the University. Third, the 'formal review' that JTM mentioned was probably a review being done on all depts - that's exactly what my task force did too! We had to re-evaluate the entire University in light of the new reality (and so we could give every department a fair chance for now very limited faculty seats). For those running to point out GPI is hiring - that's because the Forethought Foundation helps them circumvent the dept (which is what FHI was trying to do too). Based on some numbers I found, Oxford Phil dept has roughly <1,500 undergrad students per year and a faculty of almost 150 (that's a student faculty ratio of 7:1 which is very good compared to most schools) it was probably determined hiring for the Dept as whole could be postponed (note, its not just FHI the whole dept is still not hiring). A lot goes into the decision but it does means some departments get paused indefinitely until more money comes in. We used all sorts of stats for this (class enrollment, degrees granted, salaries of faculty, student ratings of faculty etc). Second, the first thing one does when money is tight is prioritize - and unfortunately that brings up an uncomfortable conversation about which departments are essential/priority to sustain. The university I worked for did the same thing just 4 years prior when it's endowment took a massive hit - hiring freezes are normal. As someone who worked for years at a University my immediate theory of why FHI may be in an uniquely challenging position is going to differ from JTM's subjective experience.įirst, the entire Oxford University had a hiring freeze - not just the Philosophy Dept., not just FHI - the whole school paused hiring when Covid hit. You have the right to lodge a complaint to the President of the Office for Personal Data Protection, if you believe that the processing of your personal data violates the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation.I want to provide a possible counter reason to JTM's response to this question based off my own research. You have the right to access your personal data and the right to: rectification, deletion, limitation of processing, objection, right to withdraw consent at any time. Data will not be made available to external entities, except for cases provided for by law (when data will be transferred to other entities, these entities should be indicated).The data will be stored for the period of active marketing purposes. Providing data is voluntary, but necessary to achieve the purposes for which they were collected. The basis for the processing of your personal data is for the direct marketing purposes of the administrator which is sending the information about the administrators activities regarding conference. The administrator of personal data can be contacted via e-mail: Your personal data will be processed in order to send you informations about administrator activities concerning conference issues. The administrator of your personal data is the European Institute for Education Development Limited Liability Company with its registered office in Warsaw, Poland.

Goodtask forum