@Austin Oh, whoops - typing in haste. The original budget submitted to AISTOF had about $10k USD per month for my costs in total (salary plus super, dependent on whether I could route it efficiently through my Australian NGO). I can DM you the link to the original budget if that's convenient and JueYan doesn't mind.

@sheikheddy Thank you, although I don't recall being particularly helpful other than some reading suggestions. I hope you're doing well!

I've encountered Pip at an EAG conference and can vouch for him.

@Austin I appreciate you flagging it'd be subject to more scrutiny, offer was removed.

@Austin thanks, yes, I'm hoping the backdating etc will happen in time, I am just a little cash flow crunched and suffering stress and burnout now-ish due to other emergent goings-on.

Noted on the exec assistant / PA thing - I'm hoping once I am drawing a salary and have some backpay I'll be able to at least partially solo fund someone or fund them in combination with Beacon if they have split duties. We'll figure something out - but, yes, it seems silly to have me be doing things like calendar management and travel bookings when my utility is much higher engaging into the community.

Clarity on 2: we are mostly Model A, but I am willing to consider other models as well. I'd probably rather spin up different entities for those to manage portfolio risk, though.

@PipFoweraker appreciate the quick response; best of luck with recovery, and just ping me if you'd like to arrange that chat (but only if it seems helpful).

I'm not sure what the $10-12k is sized to, or what you and AISTOF worked out, but fwiw I would encourage you to draw a standard ~$100k+/y salary and backdate that to whenever you started working on Beacon; not legal advice obviously, but I expect this would be fully fine by the law, your board and AISTOF.

(And FWIW I've considered a similar question on an Exec Assistant or Personal Assistant; I did have an exec assistant for a bit, contracted through Manifund for Manifund & Mox work, but I also feel a similar need for personal non-Manifund affairs, and don't have a general solution either. Maybe, I would initially recommend having Beacon pay for a part-time Beacon EA, and/or having the board approve a salary bump so you could feel financially comfortable to hire a PA and free up your own focus.)

Thanks! If it wasn't for all the criminal stuff, I would probably be OK for now. In response to your questions:
1. Not yet. The board is working on arranging compensation for me. About US$10-12k was earmarked in the initial proposal to AISTOF for my budget, however, we were not able to receive the money until recently due to needing 501(c)(3) status, which took several months longer than expected despite being expedited.
2. It is fully functional.
3. The Board and Lisha Chai, my Head of Operations, will be best placed to answer that now. I have full confidence in them. I can get into more detail on a private call after a few day's rest.

I am keen to hire an EA or PA, and I'm not sure whether I should fund that privately or do it through Beacon, given I am advising other orgs and have my own private affairs to also manage?

Hi Pip! Sorry to hear about this. I don't think I know you super well but we've definitely crossed paths professionally, and I want to echo that Ashgro and now the fledgling Beacon seem like they're trying to address an urgent need in the EA & AI safety space, of good fiscal sponsorship.

I'm making a small initial donation as a sign of support. In the meantime, some questions (and apologies if these seem harsh):

1. Could you just draw a salary from Beacon, out of the $250k AISTOF provided? Or is that $250k earmarked for something else?

2. What is the state of Beacon's fiscal sponsorship program? Is it still held up on 501c3 approval, or anything else? (Increasingly, I feel like this is a thing that many orgs and individuals need; historically Manifund has done a lot of Model C fiscal sponsorship, but we're excited for strong options that we can refer others to for which are higher-touch, cheaper, or reputationally different)

3. In addition to funding, what are the ways that you and/or Beacon most need help? (Some examples I could imagine: connections to individuals/orgs who need fiscal sponsorship; endorsements of your work; leads for people to work with on Beacon, ie cofounders or employees)

I encourage you to continue writing your thoughts in public, but am also happy to hop on a private call sometime next week if that helps; best wishes!

I'm making a small offer as well, because I think the problem area is important, given recent events -- I'd love to see this expanded beyond just the OpenAI incidents too! Also, I think Elvis might have the technical and product skills execute well on this; I don't know Elvis super well, but we have met several times through Carolina (who currently works with me at Mox).

FWIW, @ollive I'd recommend that you withdraw your funding offer here. I understand it's a small amount mostly meant as a show of support, and Manifund is open to donors to fund others they know personally, given proper disclosure. But especially in the case of partners we would expect to apply significantly more scrutiny/diligence; I think it's just not worth the hassle here. Instead, I'd just recommend writing more about why you're excited for this project specifically, and then forwarding the Manifund page to others who might like to support this!

i think this is worthy/important infra if done very well, and trust Elvis is thrilled by data & reports enough that he’ll do so.

COI: this is my partner’s project; am gifting through Manifund for a few reasons, centrally tax deductions.

Thank you, @Austin. Very kind.

@tessafyi thanks for hosting an awesome event! I sadly didn't make it, but heard about it through Joey. Hope to have many more biosec lightning talks at Mox!

thanks for hosting our meetup!

I@Austin Unfortunately no though I did take some steps i thought would help. I completely hid the previous pitch for the idea then filled out the form on this site without bringing in any text for any source including my notes. As I thought pasting from them may have been the issue. I am willing to send the notes if need. Idk if thats of any use to you. I even paraphrased them just in case as well though. Thank you for the reply Im happy to help any way I can

Hey! Making a partial donation, to encourage you to also seek funding from other funders too.

Also consider https://bluedot.org/grants/rapid !

@hessy121212 hm thanks for the feedback, we want to make sure Pangram is returning proper results. I don't suppose you have any way of verifying that you did type this proposal yourself (eg a Google Docs edit history screenshot?)

i'm having a real issue with this pangram ai detection scoring, I swear I typed every single word in this, I didn't even use spellcheck or grammar helpers so it honestly feels a little less polished than I truly feel it deserves to be. with that said please check out the project for yourself I do have a live demo at aicraftcyberforge.com I sincerely hope that the the false positive on the ai detection doesn't prevent the right people from seeing this project. I feel AI development is advancing much faster than the tools out there to ensure security and safety for us all. im hoping this project is a step in the right direction.

My text is flagged as "Likely AI-generated. Pangram flags 100% of this text as AI-written." Let me tell you with all due respect for Pangram, that it is a nonsense. I have written this text by myself and ran it through a spell checker. There is a lot of AI jargon, that is a fact, as it is 100% AI related. The kind reader should not be distracted from reading the text attentively, and the generous donor should not be discouraged from trusting its accuracy.

Hi Layla, this looks like one of the better applications I've seen for Ai x Animals, want to call about it?

Chris is cracked. commiting to donate $100 when Chris reopens accepting funding ;)

@Austin Oh, whoops - typing in haste. The original budget submitted to AISTOF had about $10k USD per month for my costs in total (salary plus super, dependent on whether I could route it efficiently through my Australian NGO). I can DM you the link to the original budget if that's convenient and JueYan doesn't mind.

@sheikheddy Thank you, although I don't recall being particularly helpful other than some reading suggestions. I hope you're doing well!

I've encountered Pip at an EAG conference and can vouch for him.

@Austin I appreciate you flagging it'd be subject to more scrutiny, offer was removed.

@Austin thanks, yes, I'm hoping the backdating etc will happen in time, I am just a little cash flow crunched and suffering stress and burnout now-ish due to other emergent goings-on.

Noted on the exec assistant / PA thing - I'm hoping once I am drawing a salary and have some backpay I'll be able to at least partially solo fund someone or fund them in combination with Beacon if they have split duties. We'll figure something out - but, yes, it seems silly to have me be doing things like calendar management and travel bookings when my utility is much higher engaging into the community.

Clarity on 2: we are mostly Model A, but I am willing to consider other models as well. I'd probably rather spin up different entities for those to manage portfolio risk, though.

@PipFoweraker appreciate the quick response; best of luck with recovery, and just ping me if you'd like to arrange that chat (but only if it seems helpful).

I'm not sure what the $10-12k is sized to, or what you and AISTOF worked out, but fwiw I would encourage you to draw a standard ~$100k+/y salary and backdate that to whenever you started working on Beacon; not legal advice obviously, but I expect this would be fully fine by the law, your board and AISTOF.

(And FWIW I've considered a similar question on an Exec Assistant or Personal Assistant; I did have an exec assistant for a bit, contracted through Manifund for Manifund & Mox work, but I also feel a similar need for personal non-Manifund affairs, and don't have a general solution either. Maybe, I would initially recommend having Beacon pay for a part-time Beacon EA, and/or having the board approve a salary bump so you could feel financially comfortable to hire a PA and free up your own focus.)

Thanks! If it wasn't for all the criminal stuff, I would probably be OK for now. In response to your questions:
1. Not yet. The board is working on arranging compensation for me. About US$10-12k was earmarked in the initial proposal to AISTOF for my budget, however, we were not able to receive the money until recently due to needing 501(c)(3) status, which took several months longer than expected despite being expedited.
2. It is fully functional.
3. The Board and Lisha Chai, my Head of Operations, will be best placed to answer that now. I have full confidence in them. I can get into more detail on a private call after a few day's rest.

I am keen to hire an EA or PA, and I'm not sure whether I should fund that privately or do it through Beacon, given I am advising other orgs and have my own private affairs to also manage?

Hi Pip! Sorry to hear about this. I don't think I know you super well but we've definitely crossed paths professionally, and I want to echo that Ashgro and now the fledgling Beacon seem like they're trying to address an urgent need in the EA & AI safety space, of good fiscal sponsorship.

I'm making a small initial donation as a sign of support. In the meantime, some questions (and apologies if these seem harsh):

1. Could you just draw a salary from Beacon, out of the $250k AISTOF provided? Or is that $250k earmarked for something else?

2. What is the state of Beacon's fiscal sponsorship program? Is it still held up on 501c3 approval, or anything else? (Increasingly, I feel like this is a thing that many orgs and individuals need; historically Manifund has done a lot of Model C fiscal sponsorship, but we're excited for strong options that we can refer others to for which are higher-touch, cheaper, or reputationally different)

3. In addition to funding, what are the ways that you and/or Beacon most need help? (Some examples I could imagine: connections to individuals/orgs who need fiscal sponsorship; endorsements of your work; leads for people to work with on Beacon, ie cofounders or employees)

I encourage you to continue writing your thoughts in public, but am also happy to hop on a private call sometime next week if that helps; best wishes!

I'm making a small offer as well, because I think the problem area is important, given recent events -- I'd love to see this expanded beyond just the OpenAI incidents too! Also, I think Elvis might have the technical and product skills execute well on this; I don't know Elvis super well, but we have met several times through Carolina (who currently works with me at Mox).

FWIW, @ollive I'd recommend that you withdraw your funding offer here. I understand it's a small amount mostly meant as a show of support, and Manifund is open to donors to fund others they know personally, given proper disclosure. But especially in the case of partners we would expect to apply significantly more scrutiny/diligence; I think it's just not worth the hassle here. Instead, I'd just recommend writing more about why you're excited for this project specifically, and then forwarding the Manifund page to others who might like to support this!

i think this is worthy/important infra if done very well, and trust Elvis is thrilled by data & reports enough that he’ll do so.

COI: this is my partner’s project; am gifting through Manifund for a few reasons, centrally tax deductions.

Thank you, @Austin. Very kind.

@tessafyi thanks for hosting an awesome event! I sadly didn't make it, but heard about it through Joey. Hope to have many more biosec lightning talks at Mox!

thanks for hosting our meetup!

I@Austin Unfortunately no though I did take some steps i thought would help. I completely hid the previous pitch for the idea then filled out the form on this site without bringing in any text for any source including my notes. As I thought pasting from them may have been the issue. I am willing to send the notes if need. Idk if thats of any use to you. I even paraphrased them just in case as well though. Thank you for the reply Im happy to help any way I can

Hey! Making a partial donation, to encourage you to also seek funding from other funders too.

Also consider https://bluedot.org/grants/rapid !

@hessy121212 hm thanks for the feedback, we want to make sure Pangram is returning proper results. I don't suppose you have any way of verifying that you did type this proposal yourself (eg a Google Docs edit history screenshot?)

i'm having a real issue with this pangram ai detection scoring, I swear I typed every single word in this, I didn't even use spellcheck or grammar helpers so it honestly feels a little less polished than I truly feel it deserves to be. with that said please check out the project for yourself I do have a live demo at aicraftcyberforge.com I sincerely hope that the the false positive on the ai detection doesn't prevent the right people from seeing this project. I feel AI development is advancing much faster than the tools out there to ensure security and safety for us all. im hoping this project is a step in the right direction.

My text is flagged as "Likely AI-generated. Pangram flags 100% of this text as AI-written." Let me tell you with all due respect for Pangram, that it is a nonsense. I have written this text by myself and ran it through a spell checker. There is a lot of AI jargon, that is a fact, as it is 100% AI related. The kind reader should not be distracted from reading the text attentively, and the generous donor should not be discouraged from trusting its accuracy.

Hi Layla, this looks like one of the better applications I've seen for Ai x Animals, want to call about it?

Chris is cracked. commiting to donate $100 when Chris reopens accepting funding ;)