About Us
Who We Are
We are Formation Research, a nonprofit startup research organisation focusing on reducing lock-in risks from AI systems. Nick Bostrom first thought about AI and lock-in in 2005, but there has been almost no work on it since. Our mission is to reduce lock-in risks by researching fundamental lock-in dynamics and implementing high-impact interventions, with a view to reducing the likelihood that humanity ends up in a lock-in in the future.
A lock-in is where some feature of the world, typically a negative element of human culture, is held stable for a long time.
- Example 1: A powerful AI system may gain strategic control of humanity, enforcing a dystopian scenario where the AI system competently pursues some goal, preventing human intervention.
- Example 2: A human dictator may leverage AI systems to improve their own lifespan and implement mass worldwide surveillance, leading to a long-term stable totalitarian regime.
Our Vision
Our vision is twofold:
- Minimising lock-in risks: To minimise the likelihood that negative elements of culture become stable to the extent that they are harmful, oppressive, persistent, or widespread, either accidentally or deliberately, as a result of humans and AI systems. Or, more concisely, minimising lock-in risks.
- Promoting a dynamic future: We envision a future where lock-ins are prevented as having:
- Continued technological and cultural evolution
- Economic growth
- Sustainable competition
- Improved individual freedom
Lock-in may prevent any or all of these properties from being true in the future. The nature of lock-in prevents people from doing anything about it once it happens.
Our Approach
As we outline in the theory of change, the type of research our organisation will initially conduct is defined by the following values: first-principles, bottom-up, collaborative, scientific and technical research into the behaviours of AI systems and the potential usage of such systems.
First Principles
This is a nascent area of study, and in the spirit of rationality, we believe that thinking about lock-in risks from first principles is the best way to keep unhelpful biases from clouding our research. This is not the same as only using the knowledge we create, that is not realistic. It means forming our own conceptual and theoretical models of the world based on our understanding of the laws of physics and computation, and testing the assumptions borrowed from other fields before employing them.
Bottom-up Research
Building inside-view theoretical and conceptual models of lock-in based on simple facts about AI systems and game theory, rather than resting on the conceptual models of other fields or organisations. For example, we would not just implement existing risk management protocols, alignment strategies, or follow the s-risk template in our research.
Collaborative Research
We aim to be a collaborative organisation that works with AI safety research organisations with overlapping goals. We also expect to conduct interdisciplinary work with organisations that conduct other kinds of research, e.g., think tanks which conduct economic research who may approach lock-in from a different point of view.
Scientific Research
We plan to use the scientific method in our research with the goal of creating fundamental knowledge about lock-in risks. We plan to use:
- Conjecture with first principles, forecasting, and estimation,
- Criticism through feedback, peer review, and publication,
- Error-correction by updating our world models in light of feedback and review,
to make scientific progress on lock-in with good explanations.
Technical Research
We will also use the scientific method with real-world applications and interventions in mind. We want to create applicable knowledge that can be applied to solving problems. We want to use the existing and created knowledge to develop interventions and innovate mitigations for lock-in risks.
Validated Learning
We believe in the build, measure, learn approach to creating and scaling solutions to problems. In the context of lock-in minimisation, this means continuously updating our theory of change, research agenda, and interventions upon updates to our world models. We aim to always use evidence and reason to update those world models.