Visualizing AI Safety Risks for German Decision Makers

Mentor: Inken Paland
Project area: AI Safety Communication

Bewirb dich!

Project Language

English and German.

Forschungsmanagement ist oft ein Engpass: Diese Rollen sind schwer zu besetzen, da sie sowohl Vertrautheit mit der AI Safety-Forschung als auch starke zwischenmenschliche Fähigkeiten und Managementerfahrung erfordern. Zudem wollen wirkungsorientierte Menschen, die sich für AI Safety interessieren, meist selbst forschen – anstatt die Forschung anderer zu managen! Entscheidend ist jedoch: Du musst oft selbst nicht in der Forschung brillieren, um exzellent im Forschungsmanagement zu sein. Menschen mit Erfahrung als Projektmanager:innen, People Manager:innen und Executive Coaches eignen sich oft hervorragend dafür.

Es mangelt an Führungskräften: Das technische Feld der AI Safety könnte sehr von mehr Menschen mit Hintergrund in Strategie, Management und Operations profitieren. Wenn du Erfahrung darin hast, ein Team von mehr als 30 Personen zu leiten und weiterzuentwickeln, könntest du in einer führenden AI Safety-Organisation einen großen Unterschied machen – auch wenn du wenig direkte Erfahrung mit KI hast.

Wir brauchen Gründer:innen, Gestalter:innen des Ökosystems und Kommunikator:innen: Es gibt viel Raum, um neue Organisationen zu gründen und das Ökosystem zu erweitern. Zudem gibt es viel verfügbare Finanzierung, besonders im gewinnorientierten Bereich für AI Interpretability und Sicherheit. Unsere Arbeit am Job Board profitiert ebenfalls davon, wenn Leute neue Organisationen starten: Sie schaffen neue Rollen, auf die wir unsere Nutzer:innen vermitteln können!

Wir brauchen mehr Berufserfahrene: Da immer mehr Arbeit an KI delegiert wird, sind wir zunehmend auf erfahrene Manager:innen angewiesen. Sie können KI-generierte Ergebnisse (Outputs) überwachen, andere im Umgang mit KI-Tools schulen und Teams aus Menschen und KIs koordinieren.

Wir brauchen Menschen, die sich für „Support“-Rollen begeistern: Es mag weniger aufregend wirken, nicht direkt an den Kernproblemen zu arbeiten. Doch gerade in Rollen wie Operations und Management vervielfachst du den Impact anderer. Diese Bereiche werden oft vernachlässigt, obwohl sie sehr wirkungsvoll sind. Und als jemand, dessen Job es ist, anderen zu Jobs zu verhelfen, finde ich diese Art von Arbeit ziemlich spannend!


Minimum Time Commitment

15 hours per week.

Project Abstract

The primary objective of this project is to close the critical communication gap between high-level AI safety research and the intuitive understanding of German decision-makers. As transformative AI systems advance, technical alignment challenges remain largely invisible to the political sphere. We aim to translate these abstract risks into legible, high-impact visual narratives.

Methodologies:
Research: Deep-diving into technical safety papers, such as those regarding Deceptive Alignment or Sleeper Agents.

Translation: Utilizing Design Thinking to simplify complex concepts without compromising scientific accuracy.

Production: Creating a series of professional short videos and digital assets specifically tailored for politicians and industry leaders.

Contributions: The project will deliver a modular video campaign designed for the German political landscape. By providing "epistemic clarity" through visual evidence, we empower leaders to make informed decisions on AI governance and the EU AI Act. Simultaneously, we train a new generation of science communicators fluent in both technical safety and strategic media.

Theory of Change

Bad frameworks produce bad decisions. The question of machine moral status will increasingly affect AI development and governance. Currently, most people reasoning about it lack adequate conceptual tools. This matters for catastrophic risk in several ways.

Under-reaction: if AI systems develop welfare-relevant internal states and we lack frameworks to recognize this, we may create systems with misaligned interests while dismissing their signals as "mere computation." A system that experiences something like suffering under certain conditions, and whose operators dismiss this, is a system with reason to deceive.

Over-reaction: anthropomorphizing systems that lack morally relevant properties wastes attention and resources, and may constrain beneficial AI development without corresponding benefit.

Poor discourse: without shared conceptual foundations, public debate about AI consciousness polarizes between dismissive and credulous positions. Neither serves good governance.

The primer addresses these by training researchers and practitioners to reason carefully across multiple frameworks, recognize what each assumes, and navigate uncertainty without false confidence. The German focus (incorporating European philosophical traditions, piloting with German-speaking users) builds SAIGE's national infrastructure while contributing to the broader field.

Conceptual clarity is infrastructure. This project builds it.

Desired Mentee Background

Any or all, it's more about skills and resourcefulness than a field of study.

No specific requirements. Creativity is most important. Team members with diverse backgrounds are ideal.

Desired Mentee Level of Education

Any level.

Other Mentee Requirements

Applicants should possess a foundation in basic video editing and visual design tools to ensure high quality production standards. It is essential that mentees arrive with a solid understanding of core AI Safety concepts so that we can focus on strategic communication. You certainly do not need to be an expert, but you should have a basic understanding of AI safety and what the field encompasses. While we will definitely work together as a group to reach a shared understanding, starting entirely from scratch would take up too much of our limited time.

I am looking for individuals who can apply creative methodologies like Design Thinking to translate complex scientific research into accessible narratives. A high degree of autonomy is required because the mentees will function as an independent production unit under my strategic guidance. Furthermore, fluency in German is necessary as the project specifically targets decision makers and the public within the German political landscape.

I am also open to including team members who are not fluent in German, provided that the majority of the production unit speaks the language fluently to ensure the project remains deeply rooted in the German context.