# 16 Concrete, Ambitious AI Project Proposals for Science and Security

The [Institute for Progress](https://ifp.org/) released a collection of essays by guest authors on how AI could be used to accelerate progress in science and defend against its major risks. You might find a few familiar names among the authors, including [Miles Brundage](https://www.milesbrundage.com/), [davidad](https://www.alignmentforum.org/users/davidad), and [Sella Nevo](https://www.sellanevo.com/).    
  
Here's the list of essays:

### **Introduction**

*   [**Preparing for Launch**](https://ifp.org/preparing-for-launch/) — An introduction to The Launch Sequence: Why shaping AI progress matters, and how to go about it.

### **AI for Security**

*   [**Scaling Pathogen Detection with Metagenomics**](https://ifp.org/scaling-pathogen-detection-with-metagenomics/) — How to generate the data necessary to reliably detect new pathogen outbreaks with AI. By Simon Grimm
*   [**Operation Patchlight**](https://ifp.org/operation-patchlight/) — How to leverage advanced AI to give defenders an asymmetric advantage in cybersecurity.
*   [**The Great Refactor**](https://ifp.org/the-great-refactor/) — How to secure critical open-source code against memory safety exploits by automating code hardening at scale
*   [**A Sprint Toward Security Level 5**](https://ifp.org/a-sprint-toward-security-level-5/) — How to protect American AI from nation-state level threats
*   [**The Infinity Project**](https://ifp.org/the-infinity-project/) — How to use AI and mathematics to prove and improve science and security
*   [**Preventing AI Sleeper Agents**](https://ifp.org/preventing-ai-sleeper-agents/) — How to ensure American AI models are robust and reliable via a DOD-led red- and blue-teaming effort
*   [**Faster AI Diffusion Through Hardware-Based Verification**](https://ifp.org/faster-ai-diffusion-through-hardware-based-verification/) — How to use privacy-preserving verification in the AI hardware stack to build trust and limit misuse

### **AI for Science**

*   [**Benchmarking for Breakthroughs**](https://ifp.org/benchmarking-for-breakthroughs/) — How to incentivize AI for national priorities through a strategic challenge and evaluations program
*   [**Using X-Labs to Unleash AI-Driven Scientific Breakthroughs**](https://ifp.org/using-x-labs-to-unleash-ai-driven-scientific-breakthroughs/) — How to adapt our science funding mechanisms to the unique infrastructure needs of large-scale AI projects
*   [**The Replication Engine**](https://ifp.org/the-replication-engine/) — How to build automated replication infrastructure for better, faster science
*   [**Teaching AI How Science Actually Works**](https://ifp.org/teaching-ai-how-science-actually-works/) — How block-grant labs can generate the real-world data AI needs to do science
*   [**A Million-Peptide Database to Defeat Antibiotic Resistance**](https://ifp.org/a-million-peptide-database-to-defeat-antibiotic-resistance/) — How to build a large peptides database to train the AlphaFold for new antibiotics
*   [**Biotech’s Lost Archive**](https://ifp.org/biotechs-lost-archive/) — How to fuel AI by unlocking the FDA’s knowledge of biotech failures
*   [**Scaling Materials Discovery with Self-Driving Labs**](https://ifp.org/scaling-materials-discovery-with-self-driving-labs/) — How to close the gap between AI-guided material design and real-world validation
*   [**Mapping the Brain for Alignment**](https://ifp.org/mapping-the-brain-for-alignment/) — How to map the mammalian brain’s connectome to solve fundamental problems in neuroscience, psychology, and AI robustness