Do you know of specific people who would be excited about this community? Do you have a sense of specific people you'd reach out to? I think that having a sense of the latent demand would make evaluating how promising this is much easier.

thanks for writing this up!

(1)

[I] stay up to date with global AI safety communities

could you explain what this concretely means? for example — do you read the Alignment Forum, the EA Forum, or LessWrong? do you read AI-safety-relevant papers? do you attend EAGs, or alignment-related events? do you regularly schedule calls with people in the AI safety community?

and more specifically, how much have you connected with existing AI safety community builders (particularly those in the SF Bay Area, London, and Boston)?

(2)

Currently, there are no ... collaborators.

i would strongly suggest finding some collaborators! makes everything more motivating & fun, and also straightforwardly multiplies how much work you can do.

(3)

All work to date has been volunteer driven.

what work is that? it'd be great to see any work you've done as a volunteer!

(4)

How will this funding be used?

[... full section ...]

it'd be useful if, in this section, you gave a broad breakdown of how you expect to split the money between the different expense categories. additionally, i think you should be a bit more detailed about the stipend you intend to pay yourself/your collaborators. (tbc, it seems totally reasonable & likely the right call to pay yourselves, but having more detail about this would be good.)

(5)

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

Kristina Vaia: Connector, networker, and passionate advocate for AI safety. Excited to build a community around what I care about more than anything: connecting people and making AI safety accessible and actionable in Los Angeles.

i'd love to see more concreteness here. some more-specific prompts (but please try to answer the general "lacks specificity" more than over-indexing on these particular questions):

• what have you worked on in the past? particularly stuff that's AI-safety- or community-building-related, but also just cool/interesting/ambitious things you've done.
  • what's your professional background?
  • what projects have you led or centrally organized in the past?
  • have you ever led a team of people? how did that go?
• what's your level of knowledge about AI safety?
• are there people who could talk about your past work (i.e. references)? if so, maybe drop their names?
• where can we learn more about you (e.g. LinkedIn, personal website, blog, etc)? [note: consider hyperlinking to your LinkedIn in this section.]
• etc

(6)

what is the current landscape of AI safety work in Los Angeles? to what extent are you plugged into it?

you said in a different comment:

There was an AI Safety Event in Marina del Rey last month. ... AE Studio in Venice, CA is an AI product development company with an active alignment team. ... There is also significant crossover between members of the Effective Altruism LA, LA Rationality, and AI safety communities. ... UCLA hosts an AI safety research club ... USC has an org for AI alignment and safety ...

i'd be keen for more details about (a) your understanding of the AI safety community in LA; (b) the extent to which you're currently plugged in.

some example prompts for concreteness (again, don't index too hard on these exact questions):

• are you in contact with the university club organizers at USC and UCLA? to what extent?
• to what extent are you in contact with the university club organizers at USC and UCLA? or to AE studios?
• have you been to any AI safety events in LA? how many?
• etc

(7)

Amount Raised: $0

have you applied for grants elsewhere (& in particular, the LTFF)? what's the current status of those applications?

• if you've applied & heard back, what was the response?
• if you haven't applied, why not?

I have (from afar) co-organized/sponsored the LA event you mentioned (127 registrations, featured in the LA Luma cal, rated 4.9/5). I did some outreach to our community + LA-EA (student) groups (which aren't super active/out of town for the summer) but overall invested no more than 30mins into organizing.

Our main goal with these events is to provide start-up momentum for (hopefully more longterm) local infrastructure. AE Studios and AISAP have been great partners doing the on the ground work (and are both keen to do more). I think having a dedicated local organizer would be great - both to build the talent pipeline but also for outreach to industry/creative/movie/film communities! Seconding @saulmunn's point on more specifics wrt your plans here.

Fyi, we are co-organizing another meet-up on Thursday, August 7 (https://lu.ma/crcyjurj) at AE Studios in Del Rey (currently at 25 registrations). I think it would be great if you could attend to discuss how to scale up LA AIS community building efforts!

Approving this grant under our portfolio of AI safety fieldbuilding; thanks to Ryan Kidd for funding it!

[Progress update]

Hi everyone, I just posted a major update to AISLA that reflects how the project has evolved over the last six months. The biggest change is a shift from academic-style discussions toward a more social, community-first model, which has already led to stronger engagement and a more diverse group of attendees. I also addressed earlier feedback around team strength, programming structure, and long-term vision. I'd really appreciate you taking a look at the updated proposal - especially the new format and next phase plan. Thanks so much!

[Progress update]

Hi everyone. I just posted a major update to AISLA reflecting how the project has evolved over the past six months.

The biggest shift is moving away from academic style discussions toward a more curated, high signal, community driven model. This change has already led to stronger engagement, better conversations, and a more interdisciplinary group of researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and operators.

More importantly, the update clarifies AISLA’s direction as early-stage infrastructure for the AI ecosystem in Los Angeles, not just a meetup, but a coordination layer for talent, ideas, and collaboration in a currently fragmented landscape.

I also incorporated earlier feedback around team strength, programming structure, and long-term vision.

I’d really appreciate you taking another look at the updated proposal, especially the new model, recent validation, and next phase.

Thanks so much!