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MATS Research Inc. is the US 501(c)(3) nonprofit behind the ML Alignment & Theory Scholars (MATS) program, the largest AI safety research fellowship and talent pipeline. The program was originally launched in late 2021 as SERI MATS, a joint initiative of the Stanford Existential Risks Initiative and the Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative. It incorporated as an independent nonprofit in 2024, having previously been fiscally sponsored by BERI.
MATS runs twice-yearly 12-week intensive research fellowships in Berkeley, California and London, UK. Each cohort pairs approximately 100-120 fellows with leading mentors from organizations including Anthropic, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, MIRI, ARC, and others. Fellows receive a $15,000 stipend, a $12,000 compute budget, housing, catered meals, office space, travel support, and weekly one-on-one research management. At the conclusion of the research phase, fellows present their work at a Research Symposium, and approximately 75% continue into a fully funded 6-12 month extension program…
MATS operates on the premise that AI alignment research is pre-paradigmatic, with diverse potentially promising research agendas. The program's theory of change centers on identifying exceptionally talented individuals, pairing them with established alignment researchers as mentors, and accelerating their development into independent researchers capable of pursuing original agendas. By supporting many different alignment research agendas simultaneously, MATS aims to decorrelate failure across approaches. The pipeline from fellowship to extension to full-time positions creates a sustained talent flow into AI safety organizations and labs. At scale, MATS functions as the primary feeder program for the AI safety research ecosystem, with 80% of alumni going on to work in the field and 10% co-founding new safety organizations.
Manifund funding goal
Closed Nov 19, 2023
$500 minimum · $1M ideal
Fundraising data from grantmaking.ai, updated .
View on grantmaking.ai# Project summary
Machine Alignment, Transparency, and Security \(MATS\) Research is an educational seminar and independent research program that aims to provide talented scholars with talks, workshops, and research mentorship in the field of AI alignment and connect them with the Berkeley AI safety research community\.
MATS helps expand the talent pipeline for AI safety research by empowering scholars to work on AI safety at existing research teams, found new research teams, and pursue independent research\. To this end, MATS connects scholars with research mentorship and funding, and provides a seminar program, office space, housing, research coaching, networking opportunities, community support, and logistical support to scholars\. MATS supports mentors with logistics, advertising, applicant selection, and complementary scholar support systems, greatly reducing the barriers to research mentorship\.
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