Recap
🦊 Manifund Essay Content
Congratulations to the winners of the Manifund Essay Contest featuring the questions:
- What systems might manage the coming torrent of funding?
- How to create a flourishing EA & AI safety scene in San Francisco?
- How can we leverage forecasting into better decisions?
“San Francisco is quickly becoming the capital of the world. This is a small city of 800,000 people where billions of dollars are flowing every day. There is a narrow period here where we can influence the people and culture of this city to get them to care, but we are missing that boat. The companies here are gobbling up more and more industries, and this would be true even if AI didn’t keep getting better. But AI systems are getting better, and things are about to get monumentally more crazy and unequal.”
⭐ EA SF Coworking Day
Last Friday, we hosted an EA SF Coworking Day. Check out our document (tinyurl.com/easf-cowork) on what people are working on, what they might need help on, and connect with others. Feel free to add yours too.
Upcoming
💻 AI Safety Coworking Day + Obsolete Book Launch
Thurs, May 7 | Hosted by Mox, join the AI Safety community for a coworking day this week, followed by Garrison Lovely’s Book launch talk.
🕊️ Protopian Prize: Brainstorm & Discussion Salon on a plausibly better future
Wed, May 27 | We are hosting a discussion salon based on the Protopian Prize, a 2026 fiction contest. “Protopian” means an achievable, optimistic future characterized by continuous, incremental progress rather than revolutionary leaps or a static, perfect state.
Future events in the works: Alex Bores Campaign Phone Booth, Opus 4.7 Red-Teaming, and Women+Non-Binary Dinner. (Reach out if you’re interested in co-hosting.)
Adjacent Events (On the Calendar)
Thurs, May 7 | 💸 FAR.Labs x Ai Salon: The AI Safety Funding Landscape
Sun, May 10 | 📝 [Due] Dwarkesh Patel Blog Contest
Wed, May 13 | 🔥 Mox Movie Night #5: Burning
Wed, May 20 | 🤖 AI Salon: Where is AI in 2026 and Where is it Going?
Fri, May 29 | 🔮 MC0001: Machine Consciousness Conference
Sun, June 7 | 🐔 National Animal Rights Day 2026
Resources & Opportunities
Time Sensitive! Urgent! Animal Welfare Action (5 min)
EA Forum | Take 5 minutes to call your representatives to vote NO on the upcoming farm bill that would make it illegal for states to pass animal welfare laws that apply to products produced out of state.
“It would be the worst law for animal welfare ever passed.”
Opportunities in the SF Bay Area
🟢 Hiring: Longview Philanthropy
80,000 Hours has a slew (yes, based in the Bay Area):
🫵 Carve your own path! Expression of Interests: BlueDot, Constellation, Evitable, AI Futures Project, CivAI, Goodfire
⚡ Fellowships & Residencies: Sentient Futures Residency
Community member spotlight
Meet Aryan!
Captain Aryan
http://aryansuri.co
💭 What do you care about?
Building a future of abundance, where no one is limited by scarcity or mortality.
🎲 Fun fact
I love playing Coup, it’s always in my backpack.
🛠️ What’s a tool or resource that’s been a game changer?
Notion Calendar. For someone who makes a Notion page for everything, this is a gift from heaven.
🍦 Favorite ice cream flavor
Salted Caramel Brownie.
Toodles!
“We need to broaden our sympathies both in space and time, and perceive ourselves as part of a long heritage and stewards for an immense future.” - Sir Martin Rees
The World to Come
Pantheon S2 E7, 2023