What is def/acc at @join_ef? What sorts of people and ideas do we want to fund? A quick answer in a thread…

tl;dr: I interpret def/acc very broadly: it’s about building the infrastructure for the future where our values win. Ok, so what does that mean…? 🧵 (1) The current moment is especially important; lots of unusually powerful technology is going to be built in the next decade, above all in AI

🚨🚨Today we’re announcing a new programme at @join_ef that I’ll run this July: “def/acc” at EF.

We want to fund the most ambitious founders to accelerate the technologies to make the future go well, starting with defensive AI (1/7) Some of the most important companies of our generation will be those that harness AI to protect us from the threats we face - including those created or exacerbated by AI itself (2/7)

I’m thrilled and honoured to be appointed the first Chair of @ARIA_research - and to have the brilliant @ilangur as our founding CEO. A quick thread on why I think this is so important…

gov.uk/government/new… 2/ Almost everything we value in society is downstream of scientific progress. Our species has achieved a great deal, but the challenges of this century will need new and profound breakthroughs…

😱 It annoys me every time I see an investor tweet that fundraising is trivial for founders in this market. It’s *way* more nuanced than that. Some observations from around ~100 deals this year… 🧵 1/ Yes, there are some wild, wild deals happening. We’re fortunate (I think?) to have several of these in the @join_ef portfolio. But reading Twitter you’d think any founder with a pulse walks into a VC office and walks out with a term sheet. That’s not true *at all*.

🧵Sunday reading from this week’s newsletter:

tib.matthewclifford.com/issues/tib-164…

1/ What Zuck and Facebook can learn from early modern monarchs 2/ Why “learning by doing” trumps IP in vaccine production, semiconductors and more (feat. @ATabarrok, @employamerica and others)