Research Augmentation Hackathon: Supercharging AI Alignment

Join us to revolutionize AI safety research

Are you ready to reshape the future of alignment research? Join us for an exhilarating weekend at the Research Augmentation Hackathon, where we'll develop innovative tools and methods to accelerate progress in this critical field!

We're aiming to boost productivity in AI safety research by 5x or even 10x, to make transformative changes in how alignment research is done today.Join us if you're an AI alignment researcher, software engineer, UX/UI designer, or passionate about contributing to the safety of artificial intelligence.

Why research augmentation matters

For AI safety and alignment research to keep up with the developments in other fields of AI, we need to improve the productivity and quality of research. The potential of AI to accelerate alignment research is immense but largely untapped. By creating tools that can augment human researchers, we can:

• Dramatically speed up literature reviews and hypothesis generation in a pre-paradigmatic field
• Automate routine tasks, freeing researchers to focus on creative problem-solving
• Identify cross-disciplinary connections that humans might miss
• Scale up experimental design and data analysis for alignment-specific challenges

Successful research augmentation could lead to breakthroughs in AI alignment causing downstream insights that can safeguard the future of humanity as AI systems become more advanced.

What to expect

During this high-energy global hackathon, you'll:

• Collaborate with diverse teams of innovators, researchers, and engineers
• Gain insights from keynote speakers at the forefront of AI alignment and research tool development
• Develop prototypes for AI-powered research tools, primarily as VS Code extensions
• Tackle real research challenges provided by AI alignment organizations
• Network with potential collaborators, employers, and investors in the AI alignment sector

Problem Statement

We've identified several key challenges in AI alignment research that we'd like participants to address during this hackathon:

1. Proactive insight extraction from new research: How might we design an AI research assistant that proactively looks at new and existing papers and shares valuable information with researchers in a naturally consumable way? The goal is to present researchers with personally valuable insights without overwhelming them.
2. Improving the LLM experience for researchers: Many alignment researchers underutilize language models due to various bottlenecks. How can we make LLMs more useful by addressing issues such as prompt creation, project context, and keeping models up-to-date on the latest techniques within AI safety?
3. Accelerating the transition from initial experiments to full projects: How can we help researchers move more quickly from initial 24-hour experiments to complete sets of experiments tested with different models, datasets, and interventions?
4. Using AI agents to automate alignment research: As AI agents become more capable, how can we leverage them to speed up alignment research or unlock previously inaccessible research paths?
5. Nudging research toward better objectives: How can we ensure that researchers are working on the most valuable things and choosing the right projects and next steps throughout their research process?
6. Accelerating implementation and iteration speed: How can we help researchers gain the most information in the shortest time, avoid tunnel vision and make faster progress?
7. Connecting ideas in the field: How can we integrate open questions and projects in the field to help researchers develop well-grounded research directions faster and adjust throughout their research?

It is important during this hackathon that we develop tools that are specifically useful to AI safety and with the great involvement of everyone from the community, researchers and software engineers alike, we're hopeful that we can create something truly unique!

Judging criteria

Our panel of expert judges will evaluate your projects based on:

• Research Impact: How significantly does your project accelerate research processes or enhance researcher capabilities? Have you embedded AI and technology in a novel way to the research process?
• AI Safety: Is your tool better by focusing on the niché of AI safety and alignment? Is it aligned with tasks that are specific to AI safety compared to other disciplines, leveraging the specifics of the field?
• Tool Quality: How intuitive and researcher-friendly is your AI assistant? How well-designed is it? Does it cover all the described use cases?

Top teams will win a share of our $2,000 prize pool:

• 🥇 1st place: $1,000
• 🥈 2nd place: $600
• 🥉 3rd place: $300
• 🎖️ 4th place: $100

We're excited for these prizes to help you get engaged with the field of AI safety.

What is a research augmentation hackathon?

The Research Augmentation Hackathon is a weekend-long event where you participate in teams (1-5) to create innovative tools and systems that boost productivity for AI alignment researchers. You'll submit

• a working prototype (primarily as a VS Code extension)
• a brief report summarizing your project
• a 5 minute video demonstration of how your tool works using Loom (5 minute video with the free tier) or any other recording software

These submissions will be judged by our panel of experts, with the chance to win up to $1,000!

You'll hear fascinating talks about real-world projects tackling research augmentation, get the opportunity to discuss your ideas with experienced mentors, and receive feedback from top-tier researchers in the field of AI alignment to further your exploration.

Why should I join?

There are loads of reasons to join! Here are just a few:

• Experience firsthand how AI can revolutionize alignment research
• Network with people passionate about AI safety and research productivity
• Win up to $1,000 to support your future projects
• Gain practical experience in developing AI-powered research tools
• Showcase your skills to AI safety labs, potentially opening up amazing job opportunities
• Receive a certificate of participation
• Get proof of your innovative work to support future grant applications
• The best teams may be offered to participate in further programs to develop their tools
• And many more... Come along!

Do I need experience in AI alignment or tool development to join?

Not at all! This can be your first foray into AI alignment and tool development. We welcome participants from diverse backgrounds - whether you're an AI researcher, a software engineer, a UX designer, or simply passionate about improving research processes. We provide code templates and ideas to kickstart your projects, and you'll be surprised what you can accomplish in just a weekend – especially with your new-found community!

What are previous experiences from similar hackathons?

Cam Tice, Recent Biology Graduate, attended the Deception Hackthon: "The Apart Hackathon was my first opportunity leading a research project in the field of AI safety. To my surprise, in around 40 hours of work I was able to put together a research team, robustly test a safety-centered idea, and present my findings to researchers in the field. This sprint has (hopefully) served as a launch pad for my career shift.”
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Fedor Ryzhenkov, AI Safety Researcher at Palisade Research, attended the Deception Hackthon: "AI Deception Hackathon has been my first hackathon, so it was very exciting. To win it was also great, and I expect this to be a big thing on my resume until I get something bigger there.”

Lexley Villasis, Director at Condor Global SEA, attended the AI X Democracy Hackathon: "The hackathon was definitely one of the best ways to start digging into AI safety research! The mentors, participants, and organizers were all so encouraging while engaging deeply with each other’s ideas. Would definitely recommend this as a fruitful, non-intimidating way to get up to speed with some frontier AI safety research in a single weekend! Really encouraged and excited to upskill further.”

Siddharth reddy Bakkireddy, Research participant, attended the Deception Hackthon: "Winning 3rd place at Apart Research's deception detection hackathon was a game-changer for my career. The experience deepened my passion for AI safety and resulted in a research project I'm proud of. I connected with like-minded individuals, expanding my professional network. This achievement will undoubtedly boost my prospects for internships and jobs in AI safety. I'm excited to further explore this field and grateful for the opportunity provided by Apart Research.”

What if my research seems too risky to share?

Besides emphasizing the introduction of concrete mitigation ideas for the risks presented, we are aware that projects emerging from this hackathon might pose a risk if disseminated irresponsibly. Therefore, for all of Apart's research events and dissemination, we follow our Responsible Disclosure Policy.