Mario Gibney on introducing people to the AI safety field

Get to know AI Safety Foundation's partners for the inaugural AI Safety Week, Nov. 9-13 in Toronto.

Our Only Human series spotlights the real people working on AI safety.

Mario Gibney is the founder and executive director of Trajectory Labs, Toronto's AI safety co-working space. With a humanities education and a career that began as a schoolteacher, Mario became increasingly interested in technological development throughout his twenties, largely due to the growth of the bitcoin and AI sectors. Now, Mario most enjoys introducing new people to the field of AI safety and communicating technical concepts in simple, clear terms.

1. Why does AI safety matter to you?

I believe the creation of smarter-than-human artificial intelligence will be the most impactful thing that humans ever do, and it appears that it may happen quite soon. It's hard for me to imagine working on anything else.

2. What's one thing you're proud of in your work in AI safety?

Back in 2022, when I first got interested in working on reducing AI x-risk, I would have loved to find an in-person community of people focusing on this issue. I'm proud my efforts have contributed to that existing today.

In hindsight, I was able to transition into the field faster than I expected. It's easy to overestimate the difficulty of switching careers, especially for people who've been in one field their entire working life.

3. Who do you look to for data or advancements in AI safety?

These days, speaking with the rest of the community at Trajectory Labs. I also have a very long list of blogs I read. Today I feel like shouting out Don't Worry About the Vase and EpochAI's publications.

Check out 80000 Hours, Bluedot Impact and AIsafety.com (The hub for AI existential safety, providing resources to help you learn about and help mitigate the risks from advanced AI.)

If you're in Toronto, come join us for an event at Trajectory Labs.