# SIAI’s Short-Term Research Program

One of the reasons that I am skeptical of contributing money to the SIAI is that I simply don't know what they would do with more money. The SIAI currently seems to be viable. Another reason is that I believe that an [empirical approach](http://opencog.org/) is required, that we need to learn more about the nature of intelligence before we can even attempt to solve something like friendly AI.

I bring this up because I just came across an [old post](http://intelligence.org/blog/2007/07/31/siai-why-we-exist-and-our-short-term-research-program/) (2007) on the SIAI blog:

> We aim to resolve this crucial question by simultaneously proceeding on two fronts:
> 
> 1\. Experimentation with practical, contemporary AI systems that modify and improve their own source code.  
> 2\. Extension and refinement of mathematical tools to enable rigorous formal analysis of advanced self-improving AI’s.
> 
> \[...\]
> 
> For the practical aspect of the SIAI Research Program, we intend to take the [MOSES probabilistic evolutionary learning system](http://metacog.org/doc.html), which exists in the public domain and was developed by [Dr. Moshe Looks](http://metacog.org/research.html) in his PhD work at Washington University in 2006, and deploy it self-referentially, in a manner that allows MOSES to improve its own learning methodology.
> 
> \[...\]
> 
> Applying MOSES self-referentially will give us a fascinating concrete example of self-modifying AI software – far short of human-level general intelligence initially, but nevertheless with many lessons to teach us about the more ambitious self-modifying AI’s that may be possible.
> 
> \[...\]
> 
> We are seeking additional funding so as to enable, initially, the hiring of two doctoral or post-doctoral Research Fellows to focus on the above two areas (practical and theoretical exploration of self-modifying AI).
> 
> \[...\]
> 
> Part of our goal is to make progress on these issues ourselves, in-house within SIAI; and part of our goal is to, by demonstrating this progress, interest the wider AI R&D community in these foundational issues. Either way: the goal is to move toward a deeper understanding of these incredibly important issues.
> 
> \[...\]
> 
> SIAI must boot-strap into existence a scientific field and research community for the study of safe, recursively self-improving systems; this field and community doesn’t exist yet.

Some questions:

*   Has any progress been made on the points mentioned in the announcement above?
*   Is the SIAI still willing to pursue experimental AI research or does it solely focus on hypothetical aspects?
*   What would the SIAI do given various amounts of money? 

I also have some questions regarding the hiring of experts. Is there a way to figure out what exactly the [current crew](http://intelligence.org/aboutus/team) is working on in terms of friendly AI research? Peter de Blanc seems to be the only person who has done some actual work related to artificial intelligence.

I am aware that preparatory groundwork has to be done and capital has to be raised. But _why is there no timeline? Why is there no progress report?_ What is missing for the SIAI to actually start working on friendly AI? The Singularity Institute is 10 years old, what is planned for the decade ahead?