Project summary

Taiwan has a strong pool of AI research talent and plays an important role in the global AI ecosystem. However, there are currently limited formal pathways for people who want to contribute to AI safety, and not that many people are familiar with the field. As the first AI Safety student group in Taiwan, we believe that expanding our community and reaching more students is critical to building a stronger pipeline of talent for AI safety. To ensure the sustainability and continued growth of our organization, we are seeking funding to expand our programs and strengthen our organizational capacity.

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

In the upcoming semester, we plan to expand the original 2 tracks (Fundamental and Technical Paper Reading) into 3 tracks (Fundamental, Policy and Governance, Technical Paper Reading). Therefore, we need to recruit more organizers to sustain and expand NTU AI Safety.

This change is based on our last cohort experience. Previously, the Fundamental track covered technical AI safety (based on bluedot courses) and some debate or discussion on AI policy. We realized that there was not enough time to cover all of the topics and material in sufficient depth. The session became overwhelming for participants.

We also recognized that AI policy and governance in Taiwan remain relatively underdeveloped after discussing this with some members of our reading group with a legal background. Therefore, we plan to establish a separate Policy and Governance track and recruit more organizers.

Also, only four members were preparing for the weekly reading group last semester. The workload was heavy and stretched our capacity to the limit. To relieve this burden and ensure the sustainable operation of the reading group, we decided to expand our team. Furthermore, since those assisting us might use their rest or part-time work hours, providing them with a modest stipend helps compensate for their effort and reduces the need to work extra hours elsewhere to cover their expenses.

How will this funding be used?

The funding will be used to cover organizers’ stipends.

Core organizers:

Responsibility: Secure venues, apply for funding, and organize speaker events, connection dinners, and all other activities and logistics. The core organizers volunteered to build NTU AI Safety from scratch during the previous cohort.

Estimated time: 0.35 FTE

Stipend: 0.35 FTE x 40 hr/FTE x 10 USD/hr x 4 Core organizers x 13 Weeks = 7,280 USD

Communications:

Responsibility: Maintain the website, manage social media, and promote the organization through advertising and outreach.

Estimated time: 0.2 FTE

Stipend: 0.2 FTE x 40 hr/FTE x 10 USD/hr x 1 Communications x 13 Weeks = 1,040 USD

Track leaders:

Responsibility: Design the curriculum for each track, keep track members on schedule, and host reading group sessions.

Estimated time: 0.2 FTE

Stipend: 0.2 FTE x 40 hr/FTE x 10 USD/hr x 3 Track leaders x 13 Weeks = 3,120 USD

Track organizers:

Responsibility: Prepare weekly reading materials, host reading group sessions, and handle logistics and session records.

Estimated time: 0.1 FTE

Stipend: 0.1 FTE x 40 hr/FTE x 10 USD/hr x 3 Track members x 13 Weeks = 1,560 USD

Total: 7,280 + 1040 + 3,120 + 1,560 = 13,000

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Team

Core Organizers

The core organizers have been building NTU AI Safety from scratch as volunteers since last semester.

• Chia-Tai (Teddy) Chang — Kairos Pathfinder Fellow, 2026
• Tzu-Tsen (Christine) Hsieh — Master's graduate from NTU Electrical Engineering
• Leonardo Haw-Yang Foo — Master's student at NTU's Graduate Institute of Communication Engineering
• Yu-Chen Tsai — Bachelor's student in Math at NTU and currently a researcher at the HCI lab.

Communications

• Ting-Yu (Amice) Lin — SASH Visitor

Track Leads

• Fundamental Track: Meng-Heng (Jasper) Tsai — Bachelor's student in Computer Science and Information Engineering, NTU
• Technical Track: Yen-Shan (Lily) Chen — Master's student in Computer Science and Information Engineering, NTU
• Policy Track: David Sánchez García — AI Governance Researcher

**Track Organizers. **

• Fundamental Track: Tang-Yi (Jonathan) Wang — Master's student at the Graduate Institute of Electronics Engineering, NTU
• Technical Track: Hao-Tian (Ted) Lu — AI Research Engineer
• Policy Track: Leslie — Judicial Reform Foundation

Track record (from last cohort)

• Community growth: Our Discord community (launched in February) has grown from 20 members last year to 297 members today.
• Fundamentals & Policy Weekly Reading Group: An 8-week reading group based on the BlueDot Technical AI Safety course, supplemented with AI governance and policy articles, with around 13 stable, active attendees.
• Technical Paper Weekly Reading Group: An 8-week reading group covering a range of AI safety research papers, with around 14 stable, active attendees.
• Workshop: Our first NTU AI Safety Workshop attracted 69 applicants across two cohorts, with 48 final participants after screening.
• Speaker events: We have hosted three speakers, including a researcher at METR, a researcher at Anthropic, and an incoming DPhil student in AI safety at Oxford.

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

Cause: The main constraint is now organizer capacity. Currently, three of the organizers are master's students, and four are working adults. NTUAIS can continue to operate without additional funding, but this would require organizers to take on more of the financial and time burden themselves.

Outcome: This could reduce the time we can dedicate to our own learning, research, and other commitments, making it difficult to sustain our current level of activity in the long run. For example, the reading group may need to revert to two tracks or move to a biweekly format. Moreover, low momentum, time constraints, and workload may prevent us from applying for fellowships or attending EA events, limiting our ability to pass down AI safety experience to the reading group and to host career advising, which is one of the most important parts of this program. The funding would therefore help make our current level of programming sustainable without relying on an unusually high level of volunteer commitment.

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

In the last 12 months, we have secured:

• Kairos Pathfinder Support Grant, Spring 2026 — $1,980: Covered speaker fees and compute resources.
• Taiwan AI Center of Excellence (Taiwan AICoE) — $5,000: Local government sponsorship; however, strict per-meal spending caps mean only around $900 is practically usable for our activities, and it does not support stipends.
• BlueDot Rapid Grant, September 2026 workshop — $1,500: Covers workshop stipends and partial compute resources.

We also have the following funding requests pending or in preparation:

• Kairos Pathfinder, Fall 2026 — Pending: Would cover most expenses aside from stipends.