LessWrong

Berkeley, CA

https://www.lesswrong.com/

Actively Fundraisingestablished8 peopleFounded 2009

LessWrong is a community blog and discussion forum founded by Eliezer Yudkowsky in 2009, dedicated to improving human reasoning, rationality, and decision-making. The platform hosts in-depth discussion on cognitive biases, AI alignment, epistemology, and existential risk, and also serves as the home of the AI Alignment Forum. Operated by Lightcone Infrastructure, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, LessWrong is best known for 'The Sequences' (also published as Rationality: A-Z), a foundational series of essays on Bayesian reasoning and avoiding common failure modes of human cognition. The site has played a pivotal role in the development of both the rationalist community and the effective altruism movement.

Funding Details

Annual Budget: $2,000,000
Monthly Burn Rate: $167,000
Current Runway: -
Funding Goal: $3,000,000
Funding Raised to Date: -
Fiscal Sponsor: -

Theory of Change

LessWrong's theory of change rests on the premise that improving the quality of human reasoning and public discourse is upstream of virtually all efforts to reduce existential risk, particularly from advanced AI. By providing a high-quality platform where researchers, thinkers, and concerned individuals can rigorously discuss AI alignment, existential risk, and rational decision-making, LessWrong aims to cultivate the epistemic standards and intellectual community needed to navigate humanity's most critical challenges. Many people who ended up working on AI safety at major labs were influenced by AI safety discourse on LessWrong in their career choices and initial orientation. The AI Alignment Forum specifically serves as a focal point for technical alignment research discussion, enabling rapid knowledge sharing between researchers. More broadly, LessWrong functions as essential epistemic infrastructure for the rationality and AI safety communities, fostering idea generation, knowledge dissemination, talent pipeline development, and community coordination around the goal of ensuring AI development goes well for humanity.