Emergency travel funding to attend EA Global: New York 2026

Sheikh Abdur Raheem Ali

created Oct 1, 2026

Project summary

Travel support to attend EA Global: New York 2026.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

My purpose for attending the event is to learn, talk to people working on compute verification and security, and increase global coordination to enforce a bilateral agreement to pace the frontier of AI development.

How will this funding be used?

FlixBus round trip: $495.23
- Friday 8:05 a.m. from Scarborough, arriving in NYC at 9:35 p.m., direct
- Monday 9:00 a.m. from NYC, arriving in Scarborough at 10:30 p.m., direct
US border fee: $30.00
NYC transit: $44.69
Toronto rides to and from the bus: $42.02
Meals: $60.07
US SIM and top-up: $45.44
Accommodation, 3 nights, shared room: $317.66

Who is on your team?

Just me. This is a solo travel grant.

What's your track record on similar projects?

Manifund funded my trip to EA Global: New York 2025 ($500, granted by Austin Chen). This fell short of the actual trip costs by about $250, which I needed to cover out of pocket. I also stayed with a family friend instead of at a hotel, but do not have confirmation that they would be available to host this year. I held 47 one-on-one meetings at last year's event, plus some serendipitous conversations. The trip led to preliminary research on stated vs. revealed preferences in language models, technical feedback on evaluation work, and new connections across AI safety, policy and infrastructure. All of this is documented in my final report:

https://manifund.org/projects/emergency-travel-funding-to-attend-ea-global-new-york-2025-bj3r848lruc

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

Not reaching the funding minimum before October 16. I don't have an employer or institutional travel budget, so without this grant I won't be able to attend.
Logistics. Bus fares for that weekend are rising as seats sell out, and border delays could cut into the Friday program. If there is no land or air transportation available, I will skip this event and participate in this half-marathon instead: https://www.torontowaterfrontmarathon.com
Low follow-through. The meetings might not turn into concrete collaborations, feedback or research progress. I expect this year's activities to be more focused and goal-directed.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

I haven't raised money in the last 12 months. I am on sabbatical, with living costs supported by family. Compute for research experiments is provided free of charge by Lucid Computing and Amodo Design.

Likewise, small support to encourage others. Let us know if the Bluedot grant comes through!

@dwks it did come through, thanks!

but i'm giving it back to them

@sheikheddy Oh! You no longer need the money?

@dwks The BlueDot grant was specifically for trip-related expenses. I'm close to being eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship, and international travel pushes that date back due to the physical presence requirement. After talking it over with my family, we agreed it'd be best to skip EAG this year.

On the bright side, staying in Toronto meant I could run the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, which was an important personal milestone, and hear Ibtihal Aboussad speak at Yaqeen Institute’s 10th anniversary. She’s a former Microsoft Canada colleague who spoke out against unrestricted military use of AI, much as Alex Turner did when he left GDM.

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

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

Thank you, @Austin. Very kind.

@Austin I routed the ask to bluedot rapid grants, thanks for the redirect.

@Austin, a quick update: the BlueDot rapid grant came through, and I’d booked my Porter flight to New York, but a personal scheduling conflict has come up and I’m no longer able to make the trip. I’m declining the BlueDot grant and returning those funds.

Since your donation was part of the same ask, I’d like to return it to you as well. Let me know the best way to do that on Manifund’s end. Thank you again for the support and for the redirect, I really appreciate it.

@sheikheddy I closed the project, so the funds are now returned to the donors!