Swiss AI Safety Summer Camp

The Swiss AI Safety Summer Camp is a free, in-person educational bootcamp designed to introduce students and early-career researchers to the field of AI safety. The inaugural edition ran September 4-16, 2023, at juhui Melchtal near Lucerne, Switzerland, hosting approximately 20 participants alongside a team of eight volunteer organizers and teachers. The camp offers a multidisciplinary curriculum spanning technical and conceptual AI safety. Technical tracks include deep reinforcement learning, convolutional neural networks and interpretability, transformer architecture, and GPU and compute governance. Conceptual tracks draw on AI safety fundamentals readings and explore the alignment problem from philosophical and strategic angles. Researchers give conferences on AI risks including Q&A sessions. Participants are expected to have a background in linear algebra, calculus, probability, Python, and basic deep learning, and the organizers provide preparation resources for those needing support. The camp explicitly prioritizes diversity, strongly encouraging applications from women, racialised people, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people. All costs including housing, meals, and optional transportation assistance are covered for participants. The 2023 edition was funded by a CHF 45,165 (~$51,000) grant from Open Philanthropy. Similar camps with related content run in France, Germany, and Denmark.