Nonlinear

Nonlinear is a nonprofit AI safety organization founded in March 2021 by Kat Woods and Emerson Spartz. The organization describes itself as dedicated to ensuring that transformative AI systems remain safe, beneficial, and aligned with human values. It takes a means-neutral approach, employing a variety of tools including grantmaking, advocacy, incubation, and research to identify and implement the highest-impact opportunities for reducing existential risk from AI. Kat Woods previously co-founded Charity Entrepreneurship (an OpenPhil-funded charity incubator), Charity Science Health (which vaccinated over 200,000 children in India), and Charity Science Outreach. Emerson Spartz is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree who founded the digital media company Dose and created MuggleNet, one of the largest Harry Potter fan sites, at age 12. Drew Spartz serves as Head of Incubation and also founded the Superlinear prize platform. Nonlinear's most prominent program is the Nonlinear Network, which functions as a common application platform for AI safety funding. Applicants submit a single application that is sent to over 60 funders simultaneously, most of whom do not have a public presence. The Network's first two rounds distributed approximately $2.7 million combined ($1.5M in Round 1 and $1.2M in Round 2), with applications accepted on a rolling basis every several months. The Nonlinear Library is another key initiative, using text-to-speech technology to convert written content from the EA Forum, Alignment Forum, and LessWrong into podcast format, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other major podcast platforms. This project launched in 2021 to address the lack of audio content in the effective altruism community. Other projects have included Superlinear, a prize competition platform for effective altruists that is currently on hiatus; the Nonlinear Support Fund, which provided productivity grants of up to $5,000 annually for AI safety workers but is currently dormant; EA Houses, a housing network connecting EAs with affordable accommodations; and emergency fast grants for charities affected by the FTX collapse in 2022. The organization operates remotely with a nomadic team. Its co-founders travel internationally, living in various locations including the Caribbean and Europe. LinkedIn lists the organization as having 2-10 employees. In September 2023, Nonlinear faced significant controversy when Ben Pace published an investigation on the EA Forum alleging exploitative workplace practices toward former employees. Nonlinear published a detailed rebuttal in December 2023 disputing the claims. The controversy generated substantial community discussion and remains a notable part of the organization's history. Nonlinear has received approximately $600,000 from the Survival and Flourishing Fund, $250,000 from the Future Fund (before its shutdown), and $15,000 from Open Philanthropy for a personal assistant hiring agency project. Emerson Spartz also personally funds some of the organization's activities.