“How I’m Evaluating Corrigibility Grant Applications” by Max Harms

I'm the sole manager of the newly created Corrigibility Research Fund. While I've been an alignment researcher for a long time, this is my first time doing grantmaking and I thought it would be valuable to write up my methods and experiences, as well as sharing some general thoughts about the state of corrigibility research and what sort of work I hope to see in the future. I’ve split out the announcement of the grant winners into its own post. Let's start with the basics: I set out to disburse between 50 thousand dollars and 150 thousand dollars this round. All funds must go to broad public benefit. This can include paying researchers for their time and effort, but it means that they must have a plan to (potentially) help the whole world. I can't fund someone to go to school or start a for-profit business or do political lobbying. My advantage is being a combination of a domain expert and a philanthropic micro-granter. Most donors don’t understand corrigibility, and most domain experts are not in a good position to evaluate and fund promising opportunities. I'm very averse to funding capabilities research, and moderately averse to funding [...] --- Outline: (06:42) Grantmaking Round 1 (12:46) The State of Corrigibility Research The original text contained 12 footnotes which were omitted from this narration. --- First published: September 3rd, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/q2YL7qKigC9QEEdsX/how-i-m-evaluating-corrigibility-grant-applications --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.