Lone Pine Games, LLC is an independent game development studio founded by Conor Sullivan in 2019. Its best-known title is NewCity, a city-building simulator released on Steam in 2020. In July 2022, the studio received a $100,000 grant from the EA Funds Long-Term Future Fund (LTFF) to develop and market a video game designed to explain the Stop Button Problem — a core AI safety concept about ensuring AI systems remain corrigible and can be shut down. The grant was intended to make AI alignment concepts accessible to the general public and to STEM professionals. A retrospective EA Forum review noted that limited public output resulted from the grant, and the fund manager acknowledged the grant was high-variance. Sullivan has experimented with AI-driven game mechanics, including an AI social deduction game called Enmeshed.
Funding Details
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- Funding Goal
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- Funding Raised to Date
- $100,000
- Fiscal Sponsor
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Theory of Change
Lone Pine Games' theory of change for the LTFF-funded project was that creating an engaging video game around the Stop Button Problem could effectively communicate AI safety concepts to audiences who might not engage with technical papers or YouTube explainers. By making alignment concerns accessible and memorable through interactive entertainment, the studio aimed to broaden public awareness of AI risk and potentially influence the attitudes of STEM professionals who may work on AI systems. The implicit assumption is that increased public and professional understanding of AI safety reduces x-risk by building a larger coalition of informed stakeholders who support safety-conscious AI development.
Grants Received
from Long-Term Future Fund
Projects
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People
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Details
- Last Updated
- Apr 2, 2026, 9:53 PM UTC
- Created
- Mar 19, 2026, 10:43 PM UTC