i chose to mentor Jessica’s group to make AIS germany happen and i am in-the-trenches informing with battle-tested experiences / make tricky judgement calls.

• i think the team and theory of change is sound (experimentation required to know what uniquely works in germany, what works in other geographies might not apply there, the team’s operating on best guesses right now).
• there’s the hunch that Germany has many untapped engineering talents, and i liken this initiative’s value-add to be similar to AIS Australia and New Zealand, where cities / unis are physically spread-out, and there are promising mid-senior career professionals who want to engage but the nearest town is 20miles away. very-online good.
• another quick: Jessica is *very highly conscientious, ran Epoch AI Tier4 FrontierMath symposium with her; this is the second time we’re working together professionally.

I have been really impressed with the strategic thinking and level of agency Jessica brings to the fieldbuilding space! Looking forward to seeing SAIGE grow!

I do community building in Aachen, Germany and I'm both excited for local group support and coordination beyond what's currently happening through Kairos and the EA network as well as having someone taking the initiative to engage more senior people and provide a strong network for people form Germany that want to go into impactful AI Safety roles

I have known Jessica Wang, the director, for some time. I know that she thinks clearly, takes initiative, sets and achieves goals, responds well to feedback and is continuously adapting. I know that she has applied these successfully in a range of domains. With her now directing SAIGE, I am excited for everyone in Germany who is interested in a career in AI safety and governance!

I've contributed to AI Safety field-building in Germany over the past few years (ML4Good bootcamps, AI Safety Collab). The idea of centralized German AIS infrastructure has been discussed many times over the years - SAIGE is the most well-prepared and sensible attempt I've seen so far.

I've reviewed their planning documents and I'm impressed: thorough failure modes analysis, smart partnerships with existing orgs rather than reinventing the wheel, strong team with good connections to the international ecosystem. Jessica seems like a good leader for this.

No guarantees of success, but definitely worth a try - high expected value :)

I have a high expectation of good outcomes from this project if it is funded. Partnering cleverly with other actors in the ecosystem is a big green flag in my eyes.

This is a well prepared proposal, and the core team seem very well positioned to execute on this.

Disclosures: I helped with the budget a bit, and I know Tzu Kit Chan socially

I know Jessica Wang personally and I’m optimistic about SAIGE’s potential impact if funded. The proposal is thoughtful and well prepared, and the team appears well positioned to execute, especially given Germany’s leverage as a talent hub within Europe.

Speaking with Jessica about SAIGE makes me very excited and hopeful about the potential impact it might have. The description and ToC seem very well thought out, and I'm fully supporting this and hoping it gets the funding it needs. I'm also excited to see Manon be involved in this, who I've spoken to and think her track record in AI Safety Saarland (which was very impressive) is likely to transfer over well to SAIGE.

Update 02/02/2026: 1. Our designated tech lead has committed to working voluntarily for the start of SAIGE. I have rewritten the**[BASE] budget** accordingly. 2. We have confirmed collaboration with Impact Academy as well as HIP, and the Pivot Track (for career professionals) is live today. 3. As part of our incubator program (of which the call for mentors is also live), we are hosting biweekly talks aimed at incubator participants and also to a wider audience, provided there are spaces left. We have so far confirmed four speakers: Teun van der Weij, Ari Brill, Guillaume Corlouer and Naci Cankaya. 4. Our launch event with BlueDot has so far had 148 registrations.

Jessica is highly capable and has the energy to make this work!

I am bullish on increased field-building efforts within Germany. In my limited interactions with Jessica she seems conscientious and agentic, and I know Tzu more personally as someone being very high-energy, ambitious, and conscientious!

In my opinion we very much need a better network and more effective coordination in Germany! And this is likely the best German AI Safety fieldbuilding project right now, and one of the best in general that I know of.

Writing as a local group organizer: SAIGE would provide what the ecosystem needs so that we can address this problem (and approach people) at scale. Running a local group is good, but very often there's a gap between a reading group and actually connecting someone to the right people and changing their career. (And local university groups also just don't appeal to everyone.)

Germany/DACH has enough raw talent (top-tier engineering & STEM people) and also political relevance (EU AI Act), but often very much lacks execution and ecosystem coordination to channel this into AI Safety. Local groups can only do so much, and having a wider network is absurdly important & extremely high EV.

(Jessica is also really great and I fully support her as much as I can. Have not heard a single not-great thing about her.)

Fully agree with Jonathan. Writing as organizer of AI Safety Camp and having talked with Jessica, this is the most promising fieldbuilding project for AI Safety in Germany that I have seen to date.

I absolutely buy their assessment about the untapped STEM talent pool that Germany has to offer to technical AI Safety work. Since German culture disincentivizes risk taking in one's career, it is all the more important to have a strong and central organisation capable of connecting national talent into a community and offering them a clear perspective into career prospects in the field.

It also strikes me as an excellent platform for outreach about AI Safety topics to the general public in Germany.

After looking through SAIGE's plans and their theory of change, talking to Jessica, and reading the other comments here, I strongly recommend this project for funding.

SAIGE looks like a promising way to improve Germany’s AI safety talent pipeline. After talking with Jessica, I’m optimistic about the team and the overall approach.

Background: I'm a community builder in Berlin contracting with AI Safety organizations and had a call with Jessica about SAIGE.

Various local groups exist across Germany that could benefit from a national entity. E.g. A German AI Safety day is hard to realize without an organization behind them.

Beyond this proposal, I'd also like to see German-language resources and outreach.

A national organization that understands local idiosyncrasies and opportunities could also make the AI Safety pipeline in Germany more efficient.

Seems valuable. Lots of talent in Germany and few ways to get them engaged thus far.

Making a personal donation in support of this initiative. While I haven't spoken with Jessica, her track record seems solid, and I'm familiar with a couple of the folks who will be involved. Moreover, I'm impressed with the breadth of people who have come to express support on this project, which also provides some evidence that Jessica and SAIGE will do well at fieldbuilding. Best of luck!

@Austin raising an issue: I've received messages from people (who wanted to upvote and comment on this post) since 5 days ago, that they have trouble creating an account on Manifund. Seems to be a system error. Please could you look into it?

Also Update: 1. 5 more speakers confirmed: Joschka Braun (MATS), Alan Chan (GovAI), Cristian Trout (Artificial Intelligence Underwriting Company), Robert Kralisch (AI Safety Camp), Simon Skade (indep. researcher supported by LTFF);

2. We have so far received:
- 194 registrations for our Launch event - 43 Pivot Track applications for career professionals - 22 mentorship applications (deadline: 26th Feb) to the SAIGE Incubator Program

3. Three more city chapters are getting the support to start their initiatives: Frankfurt (which is great for transitioning career professionals), Bonn, and Kassel.

4. A new resources tab (Feedback welcome!)

Willing to donate a lot more if this helps get AIS in Germany off the ground. About time as well! Brain drain has been massive lately.

And this seems to be a pure funding issue, the talent is there!

This is a great initiative, the website is epic, and Jessica is a powerhouse of energy that makes me watch this space with excitement! \o/

I've been incredibly impressed by Jessica's agentiness and drive. The team she has on board is great and she is quite well coordinated with the relevant other stakeholders in Germany and Europe. Given the clear plan for the future, I would be quite excited if we could get this off the ground.

Great to finally see such a national organization forming. Germany really needs a platform helping STEM researchers organize, learn and build.

This project has potential for enabling copius amounts of AI safety research that counterfactually wouldn't happen. The current lack of infrastructure around the field in Germany causes some to move away to pursue work abroad. However, there are many others who simply "move on" to other work they can do where they already live, or are never informed that AI safety or alignment is an option. SAIGE could help address those issues.

In the short term, I'm optimistic about the incubator program both introducing new people to AI alignment work and eventually enabling them to continue it. I have applied to the program as a mentor for projects in agent foundations related to my research at MATS.

This is filling a gap in the German market and needs to succeed!

AI safety is a rapidly growing global concern, especially with the rapid commercial development of models with seemingly little concern for safeguarding; however, I believe that with good guardrails, AI holds immense potential for innovation. This proposal identifies a clear gap: a mismatch between potential talent in Germany and a lack of infrastructure to encourage this talent towards this emerging and important field of AI safety. I have faith in Jess, I sincerely hope that SAIGE succeeds because it would be a shame otherwise, as the statement of risk makes clear.

Full disclosure: I know Jess personally and she's always shown a relentless drive and immense conscientiousness.

Germany needs a stronger AI safety community and this is the strongest effort I'm currently aware of!

Germany has several local AI safety groups, but AI safety lacks a national presence. SAIGE could be a key organization in tying these groups together to create a more coordinated German approach to making AI safer.

Germany has raw resources that could be used to make an impact in AI safety, but needs more field building efforts like these to tap into that potential.

Fantastic initiative — donating a small amount to show support. I know Gergő really well and trust his judgement, and it was great meeting Jessica in SF recently. Go SAIGE!

Approving this project! (And per Jessica's request, I've lowered the minimum funding bar from $50k to $5k.)

I've been doing fieldbuilding in the EA/AI safety space for 7+ years, and imo the team behind a project is one of the strongest predictors of whether it will work. Jessica who is leading SAIGE has consistently impressed me — with execution and with the ability to learn and adapt rapidly. In roughly two months, she has assembled a team of volunteers that launched an incubator with a strong mentor lineup for a first-time unfunded program, secured notable experts on AI safety as speakers, and hit nearly 200 registrations for a launch event. All of this while the project is entirely self-funded and volunteer-run.

SAIGE is still figuring out exactly what role it should play. But what I've seen so far is a team that iterates fast, partners smartly, and builds real momentum.

The underlying thesis is strong: Germany has an enormous pool of STEM and engineering talent that is almost entirely disconnected from AI safety work. There's no national infrastructure to change that. SAIGE is the most serious attempt I've seen to build it.

In my mind, this Manifund round isn't about fully funding a mature organisation. It's about giving SAIGE the runway to show other grantmakers that this team can deliver. From what I've seen so far, they can.