Creative Contest

The past few years have seen a revolution in AI. We now have systems that can do many of the things humans can. They are developed and deployed by some of the world's largest corporations.

They’ve learned to do many things that, until recently, we thought only humans could do: create life-like images and videos, write computer code, control robots, discover new treatments for disease, win maths and science contest, and more. It's amazing.

But though the promise of this technology is enormous, so are it’s potential risks. These same capabilities can be used to develop bio-weapons, conduct cyberattacks, interfere in elections, generate deepfakes for fraud or non-consensual pornography…

And yet these risks mean nothing relative to what might be coming next.

We are on the brink of developing human-level AI, or “artificial general intelligence” (AGI). As we approach this point, how we choose to develop AI will largely decide our fate as a species.

And yet, Big Tech is racing to develop and release ever more powerful AIs without meaningful guardrails or oversight. Despite admitting the risks, they aggressively lobby against regulation. Policymakers are out-of-the-loop, and wildly under-equipped to handle what is coming.

Our future as a civilization, and a species, is on the line.

It's time to close the gates on AGI and superintelligence... before we lose control of our destiny.

Keep The Future Human is an attempt to lay out these arguments in clear and plain language. It is a proposal for what we can and must do to ensure our very survival in a world with human-level AI. And it is an invitation to join us in tackling the most important issue facing humanity today.

We need to create visions of a positive future for humanity in a world with AI, and ideas for how to get there. We each need to share our perspective on what a human future with AI should look like, while its trajectory is still undecided.

We need to inform the people around us about the dangers of human-level AI, and the fact that AI companies actually trying to build it.

‘Keep The Future Human’ is a message that our world desperately needs to hear. It is an antidote to the out-of-control AI race that companies and countries are locked in today.

We hope you will join us in making the call to keep the future human.

To enter the competition, you must submit a creative piece of digital media that explores or illustrates the key messages within Keep The Future Human. Please review the Judging Criteria before deciding on your submission piece.

Submission Materials

Your submission must include:

• Your creative piece in a digital format.
  • This must be supplied as a URL. This could be a website, or a Google Doc, or a cloud storage folder containing your materials.
• A completed submission form, including:
  • Title of your submission;
  • Short blurb for your submission;
  • A ‘featured image’ for your submission (for examples of this, see the Superintelligence Imagined contest webpage) which presents your creative piece in a compelling way;
  • Information about you / your team;
  • An explanation of how your submission delivers on the intentions of this contest, and engages with the core ideas of Keep The Future Human;
  • AI usage statement: Rate on a 0-10 scale the extent that AI was used in the production of your submission (where 0 = "not even spellcheck", and 10 = "submission is entirely AI-generated content"), and describe your use of AI in one sentence. AI use is allowed, but you should be thoughtful about how and when you use it.
• (Optional) A distribution plan for your submission. We encourage all entrants to develop a plan, and if you submit it as part of your entry you’ll be considered for a $500 mini-grant for the distribution of your submission. Your plan might include:
  • Audience: Who is the target audience for your creative piece? Please be as specific as possible—a broad audience is much harder to target and reach than a specific audience.
  • Publishing channel: On which channel(s) will your creative piece be published? Is it an existing channel or a new channel? If you don’t have a channel with an existing following, could you identify other channels that might publish your work?
  • How do you intend to distribute your creative piece to your intended audience? How will they find out about your creative piece?
  • How would you spend a $500 mini-grant for distribution if you were to receive it?

Inspiration

Here are some ideas for the sort of submissions that we would be excited to receive:

• A 10-15 minute video essay summarizing all of the essay’s main arguments.
• A set of short live-action or animated videos that each explain or visualize a key insight from the essay, or summarise one of the essay’s chapters.
• A detailed proposal for a "Keep the Future Human" plank of a political party platform – or perhaps the platform for a new political party!
• A 3,000-word fictional story of a person living in the year 2050, reflecting on how a flourishing future for humankind was achieved.
• An infographic or interactive webpage conveying all the essay’s appendixes.
• A digital interactive demo that puts users face-to-face with some impressive present-day capabilities of AI, and how they might be used for good and for harm.
• An animated explainer for Keep the Future Human.
• A set of figures and diagrams that Keep the Future Human should have had but didn't.
• An illustrated or comic book version of Keep the Future Human.
• A demo for a digital gathering space or forum, and a plan for how to engage and mobilise online communities in this space for positive action on AI safety.
• A tycoon-style video game to simulate human society and how it handles the development of superintelligence.
• An anthology or collection of submissions created during a workshop that you hosted.

Your submission does NOT need to be one of these items—you are free to make any type of creative piece that you like so long as it meets the judging criteria. In fact, we are eager to receive a wide range of submissions in a variety of formats.

Publishing Your Submission

We hope that your contest submission will be widely seen and enjoyed by many people. However, you must NOT publish your submission before the contest has concluded.

You should prepare to publish your submission (according to your ‘distribution plan’ submitted as part of your entry) in the 48-hour window leading up to the contest results announcement date.

Your submission will be disqualified if it is published online before this window.

If your submission does not win a prize, you are free to publish it however and whenever you like.

Submission Guidelines & Criteria

• Original works: Submissions should consist of original works authored by the submission author / team.
• Use of AI is allowed but must be transparently disclosed in your "AI usage statement."
• Unpublished works: Submissions should NOT be works that are already published. You will be required to publish your work during the publication window indicated in the section “Publishing your submission”.
• Medium: No limitations, but you should be mindful of the ‘Accessibility & Portability’ criteria.
• Length: There are no particular requirements for the length / duration of your submission, except that it should take no more than 20 minutes to enjoy (for written pieces, this equals around 3500 words).
• Multiple submissions: Applicants are welcome to make multiple submissions, but they can only win a prize for one of their submissions.

Teams

Teams are allowed to submit collaborative projects. Cash prizes will be divided according to the arrangement decided by the team members.

Eligibility

Eligibility requirements are very relaxed, allowing basically anybody to submit:

• Submissions must be provided in English (or at least an English version).
• Entrants can be from anywhere in the world (though to receive prize money they must be located somewhere we can send them money).
• Entrants can be of any age, but cash prizes can only be transferred to those over the age of 18. Anybody younger than 18 who wins a cash prize will need to assign a 'sponsor' to receive the prize money on their behalf.

Submissions will be evaluated by Anthony (author of Keep The Future Human) and colleagues at the Future of Life Institute according to the following criteria:

1. Engaging with Keep The Future Human, and delivering on contest objectives — Your submission must demonstrate an understanding of the key ideas within the essay ‘Keep The Future Human’, and seek to explore or engage with them (we recommend that all applicants set aside 2-3 hours to read the full essay before deciding on your creative piece). Your submission must also contribute to our goals for the contest: To help the essay’s key ideas reach a wider range of people; to inspire others to think about and engage with the ideas more deeply; to spark public discussion about the ideas; to motivate action in the real world to further the ideas.
2. Creative Execution — Quality of craft and creative execution in your piece.
3. Accessibility & Portability — How easily a piece of creative content can be accessed and enjoyed by a wide range of people. This also considers the strength of your ‘distribution plan’.

NOTE: Your submission will be evaluated as a complete package, including the creative piece, title, description, thumbnail, and distribution plan. You should dedicate some time to ensuring that all elements of your of your submission are strong.

For any questions about the contest, please contact taylor@futureoflife.org