The original proposal was to focus our consulting support on assisting policymakers to in the US, UK, EU, and UN working on AI Safety, providing ad hoc research, developing communication strategies, and reasoning through strategic questions during critical decision-making moments.

The aim was to increase the capacity of constrained government departments, support policy officers, and support the drafting of policy measures to improve AI Safety policy development. This proved more difficult than expected, as there were some limitations due to lobbying regulations, and due to the significant growth in our work supporting organizations who are engaged in policy advocacy, which turned out to be the more impactful route, we think.

• We have not directly supported policymakers in the US, UK and EU, however, our consulting service has achieved this indirectly. Examples are as follows:

  • We worked with the former AI Safety Communications Centre to convene communications staff at U.S. and European advocacy nonprofits in the lead up to the UK AI Safety Summit, to discuss communications coordination and strategy around the Summit, identifying the key messages and how the advocacy community could unite to communicate effectively with policymakers

  • We provided extensive support over four months and two contracts to help The Future Society research and prioritize a high-impact campaign for the re-launch of their U.S. policy efforts. We ultimately helped them to select a campaign focused on increasing the U.S. government’s ability to respond to catastrophic, emergency AI hazards. We also supported them in launching a spin-off campaign to get policymakers between the EU AI Office and Congressional and Executive offices within the U.S. government to develop a rapid-response communications protocol to inform each other of an AI incident. This included preparing them for visits with Republican and Democratic Congressional offices.

  • Continuously supported AE Studio’s technical AI alignment work for over two years (they renewed their contract with us). This included preparing them for visits to policymakers in Washington DC by recommending which policymakers to meet with, explaining how to get meetings, recommending D.C.-based AI advocacy organizations they should meet with and make introductions

  • We currently support the AI Policy Bulletin to create a strategy to identify and target policymakers in the US, UK and EU, with an ultimate goal of influencing policymakers on AI risk and mitigation. This includes developing a communications and policymaker outreach strategy, as well as an impact evaluation framework.

These activities have directly supported organisations to have a higher impact on reaching and influencing policymakers.