简体中文
EnglishHow to Get Involved With or Follow the Future of Life Institute
Updated
The simplest way to follow the Future of Life Institute (FLI) is to subscribe to its monthly newsletter, which the site says already reaches 70,000+ subscribers and covers the organization's work on safeguarding shared futures. From there, you can go deeper through four focus areas listed on the site — Policy & Research, Futures, Communications, and Grantmaking — and through featured projects and events such as The Pro-Human Assembly. These routes suit different goals: staying informed, contributing to research or policy discussion, applying for funding, or using FLI's educational materials in public discussion.
Start With the Newsletter
If your goal is simply to keep up with FLI, the newsletter is the lowest-effort entry point. The site describes it as a monthly update on "the work we're doing to safeguard our shared futures," and notes the 70,000+ subscriber base. Expect a roundup format rather than a single topic: recent updates referenced on the homepage bundle items such as a new AI litigation hub, EU AI Act enforcement, an AI Safety Index, and industry news.
What to do: Use the newsletter signup on the homepage. What you get: one monthly email summarizing FLI projects, policy developments, and media coverage. What it doesn't require: no application, no grant process, no membership tier is described on the page.
Choose a Focus Area That Matches Your Goal
FLI organizes its work into four areas. The table below maps each to what the site says it does and who it tends to suit.
| Focus area | What FLI says it does | Best if you want to… |
|---|---|---|
| Policy & Research | Policy advocacy and research across the United States, the European Union, and around the world | Follow or engage with AI governance debates and policy positions |
| Futures | Guide humanity toward beneficial outcomes made possible by transformative technologies; includes scenario work such as "Tomorrow's AI" | Explore research-backed scenarios of how AI could change the world |
| Communications | Produce educational materials to inform public discourse and encourage people to get involved | Use or share explainers and educational content in public discussion |
| Grantmaking | Provide grants to individuals and organizations working on projects that further FLI's mission | Seek funding for mission-aligned work |
Each area has its own "Learn more" path from the homepage. The Grantmaking route is the one that involves an actual application process; the page does not publish grant amounts, deadlines, or eligibility details, so treat those as things to confirm on the grantmaking page before planning a proposal.
Follow Projects and Convenings
Beyond the four areas, FLI's homepage highlights featured projects and events. The most prominent recent example is The Pro-Human Assembly, described as a one-day convening of leaders and advocates in Washington, D.C., that "makes headlines." The site also references its grantee community, including the inaugural conference of the IASEAI held in Paris in 2025.
If you want to track FLI's public-facing activity rather than its internal research, these project pages and the "In the media" section are the places to watch. They show what FLI is putting public weight behind at a given moment — useful context if you are deciding whether to align with, cite, or attend its convenings.
Use FLI's Educational Material in Public Discussion
FLI's stated Communications goal is to inform public discourse and encourage involvement. That makes its educational output a practical resource if you are preparing a talk, classroom material, or a community discussion about transformative technology risks. The site frames the underlying mission broadly: steering transformative technology "towards benefiting life and away from extreme large-scale risks," with artificial intelligence and biotechnology named as focus areas.
A concrete way to use this: if you need to explain why AI risk is treated as a governance problem rather than only a technical one, FLI's materials and its Asilomar AI governance principles (the work it says it is best known for) give you a citable framing. Check the specific page for the current wording rather than paraphrasing from memory.
What to Expect — and What Isn't Specified
- Language: the site is in English (en-US).
- Cost: the homepage does not state any price, membership fee, or payment requirement for following FLI or subscribing to the newsletter. Nothing on the page confirms these are free, so verify on the relevant signup or grant page if cost matters to your decision.
- Login: no account or login requirement is described for reading the site or its project pages.
- Response times and application outcomes: not published on the homepage; the grantmaking page is the place to check.
A Practical Sequence
- Subscribe to the newsletter to get a monthly baseline on FLI's work.
- Pick one focus area from Policy & Research, Futures, Communications, or Grantmaking based on whether you want to follow, learn, teach, or fund.
- Open the featured project pages (for example, The Pro-Human Assembly) if you want to track public convenings and media moments.
- If funding is your goal, go directly to the Grantmaking page and confirm eligibility and process there before drafting anything.
This order moves from lowest to highest commitment, so you can stop at whichever level matches your intent.