Jaan Tallinn

Last updated
Jaan Tallinn
Jaan Tallinn.jpg
Born (1972-02-14) 14 February 1972 (age 52) [1]
Tallinn, Estonia
Education University of Tartu (BSc)
Occupation(s)programmer, investor, philanthropist
Known for Kazaa
Skype
Existential risk

Jaan Tallinn (born 14 February 1972) is an Estonian billionaire computer programmer and investor [2] [3] known for his participation in the development of Skype and file-sharing application FastTrack/Kazaa. [4]

Contents

Jaan Tallinn is a leading figure in the field of existential risk, having co-founded both the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at the University of Cambridge, in the United Kingdom [5] [6] and the Future of Life Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. [7] [8] [9] [10] Tallinn was an early investor and board member at DeepMind (later acquired by Google) and various other artificial intelligence companies.

Life

Jaan Tallinn graduated from the University of Tartu in Estonia in 1996 with a BSc in theoretical physics with a thesis that considered travelling interstellar distances using warps in spacetime.

Tallinn founded Bluemoon in Estonia alongside schoolmates Ahti Heinla and Priit Kasesalu. Bluemoon's Kosmonaut became, in 1989 (SkyRoads is the 1993 remake), the first Estonian game to be sold abroad, and earned the company US$5,000 (~$12,290 in 2023). By 1999, Bluemoon faced bankruptcy; its founders decided to acquire remote jobs for the Swedish Tele2 at a salary of US$330 (~$604.00 in 2023) each per day. The Tele2 project, "Everyday.com", was a commercial flop. Subsequently, while working as a stay-at-home father, Tallinn developed FastTrack and Kazaa for Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (formerly of Tele2). Kazaa's P2P technology was later repurposed to drive Skype around 2003. Tallinn sold his shares in Skype in 2005, when it was purchased by eBay. [11] [6]

In 2014, he invested in the reversible debugging software for app development Undo. [12] He also made an early investment in DeepMind which was purchased by Google in 2014 for $600 million (~$761 million in 2023). [13] Other investments include Faculty, a British AI startup focused on tracking terrorists, [14] and Pactum, an "autonomous negotiation" startup based in California and Estonia. [15]

According to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal , Tallinn loaned Sam Bankman-Fried about $100 million (~$120 million in 2023), and had recalled the loan by 2018. [16]

He is married,[ citation needed ] with five children. [17]

Other tenures

Tallinn is a participant and donator to the effective altruism movement. [21] [22] He donated over a million dollars to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute since 2015. [23] His initial donation when co-founding the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk in 2012 was around $200,000 (~$262,438 in 2023). [6]

Views

Tallinn strongly promotes the study of existential risk and has given numerous talks on this topic. [24] His main worries are related to artificial intelligence, unknowns coming from technological development, synthetic biology and nanotechnology. [25] [26] He believes humanity is not spending enough resources on long-term planning and mitigating threats that could wipe us out as a species. [27] He has been a supporter of the Rationalist movement. [28] He has also contributed to Chatham House, supporting their work on the nuclear threat.

His views on the AI alignment problem have been influenced by the writings of Eliezer Yudkowsky. Tallinn recalls that "the overall idea that caught my attention that I never had thought about was that we are seeing the end of an era during which the human brain has been the main shaper of the future". [29] He says he's yet to meet anyone working at AI labs who thinks the risk of training the next-generation model "blowing up the planet" is less than 1%. [30]

When employees of OpenAI left to form Anthropic, primarily out of concerns that OpenAI was not focused enough on AI safety, Tallinn invested in the new company. However, he was unsure if he had made the right decision, arguing that "on the one hand, it’s great to have this safety-focused thing. On the other hand, this is proliferation". Tallinn praised Anthropic for having a greater safety focus than other AI companies, but said "that doesn’t change the fact that they’re dealing with dangerous stuff and I’m not sure if they should be. I’m not sure if anyone should be”. [31]

In March 2023, Tallinn signed an open letter from the Future of Life Institute calling for "all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4", [32] [33] and in May, he signed a statement from the Center for AI Safety which read "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war". [34] [35]

Related Research Articles

Kazaa Media Desktop. was a peer-to-peer file sharing application using the FastTrack protocol licensed by Joltid Ltd. and operated as Kazaa by Sharman Networks. Kazaa was subsequently under license as a legal music subscription service by Atrinsic, Inc., which lasted until August 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niklas Zennström</span> Swedish entrepreneur (born 1966)

Niklas Zennström is a Swedish entrepreneur and technology investor. He is co-founder of the charity organization Zennström Philanthropies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nick Bostrom</span> Philosopher and writer (born 1973)

Nick Bostrom is a philosopher known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, whole brain emulation, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. He was the founding director of the now dissolved Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford and is now Principal Researcher at the Macrostrategy Research Initiative.

Janus Friis is a Danish entrepreneur best known for co-founding the file-sharing application Kazaa, and the peer-to-peer telephony application Skype. In September 2005, he and his business partner Niklas Zennström sold Skype to eBay for $2.6B. Friis has maintained ownership interest in Skype through Silver Lake Partners, which sold Skype to Microsoft for $8.5 billion, in May 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AI takeover</span> Hypothetical outcome of artificial intelligence

An AI takeover is an imagined scenario in which artificial intelligence (AI) emerges as the dominant form of intelligence on Earth and computer programs or robots effectively take control of the planet away from the human species, which relies on human intelligence. Stories of AI takeovers remain popular throughout science fiction, but recent advancements have made the threat more real. Possible scenarios include replacement of the entire human workforce due to automation, takeover by a superintelligent AI (ASI), and the notion of a robot uprising. Some public figures, such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, have advocated research into precautionary measures to ensure future superintelligent machines remain under human control.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human extinction</span> Hypothetical end of the human species

Human extinction is the hypothetical end of the human species, either by population decline due to extraneous natural causes, such as an asteroid impact or large-scale volcanism, or via anthropogenic destruction (self-extinction), for example by sub-replacement fertility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reid Hoffman</span> American internet entrepreneur (born 1967)

Reid Garrett Hoffman is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking. He is also Chairman of venture capital firm Village Global and a co-founder of Inflection AI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Future of Humanity Institute</span> Defunct Oxford interdisciplinary research centre

The Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) was an interdisciplinary research centre at the University of Oxford investigating big-picture questions about humanity and its prospects. It was founded in 2005 as part of the Faculty of Philosophy and the Oxford Martin School. Its director was philosopher Nick Bostrom, and its research staff included futurist Anders Sandberg and Giving What We Can founder Toby Ord.

Effective altruism (EA) is a 21st-century philosophical and social movement that advocates "using evidence and reason to figure out how to benefit others as much as possible, and taking action on that basis". People who pursue the goals of effective altruism, sometimes called effective altruists, often donate to charities or choose careers with the aim of maximizing positive impact.

The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) is a research centre at the University of Cambridge, intended to study possible extinction-level threats posed by present or future technology. The co-founders of the centre are Huw Price, Martin Rees and Jaan Tallinn.

MetaMed Research was an American medical consulting firm aiming to provide personalized medical research services. It was founded in 2012 by Michael Vassar, Jaan Tallinn, Zvi Mowshowitz, and Nevin Freeman with startup funding from Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel. MetaMed stated that its researchers were drawn from top universities, as well as prominent technology companies such as Google. Many of its principals were associated with the Rationalist movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Priit Kasesalu</span> Estonian programmer and software developer

Priit Kasesalu is an Estonian programmer and software developer best known for his participation in the development of Kazaa, Skype and, most recently, Joost. He currently works for Ambient Sound Investments and lives in Tallinn, Estonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Future of Life Institute</span> International nonprofit research institute

The Future of Life Institute (FLI) is a nonprofit organization which aims to steer transformative technology towards benefiting life and away from large-scale risks, with a focus on existential risk from advanced artificial intelligence (AI). FLI's work includes grantmaking, educational outreach, and advocacy within the United Nations, United States government, and European Union institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plumbr</span> Company based in Estonia

Plumbr was an Estonian software product company founded in late 2011 that developed performance monitoring software. The Plumbr product was built on top of a proprietary algorithm that automatically detected the root causes of performance issues by interpreting application performance data. In October 2020, Plumbr was acquired by Splunk.

Existential risk from artificial general intelligence refers to the idea that substantial progress in artificial general intelligence (AGI) could lead to human extinction or an irreversible global catastrophe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Effective Altruism Global</span> Recurring effective altruism conference

Effective Altruism Global, abbreviated EA Global or EAG, is a series of philanthropy conferences that focuses on the effective altruism movement. The conferences are run by the Centre for Effective Altruism. Huffington Post editor Nico Pitney described the events as a gathering of "nerd altruists", which was "heavy on people from technology, science, and analytical disciplines".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longtermism</span> Philosophical view which prioritises the long-term future

Longtermism is the ethical view that positively influencing the long-term future is a key moral priority of our time. It is an important concept in effective altruism and a primary motivation for efforts that aim to reduce existential risks to humanity.

On May 30, 2023, hundreds of artificial intelligence experts and other notable figures signed the following short Statement on AI Risk:

Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Toivo Annus</span> Estonian engineer and investor (1972–2020)

Toivo Annus was an Estonian engineer and investor. He was one of the founders of Skype, an early internet telecommunications application. Skype became the first unicorn business founded in Estonia, and was sold to eBay for $2.6bn in September 2005. In 2010, Annus' contribution was recognised with the award of the Order of the White Star, 5th Class, by the president of Estonia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Émile P. Torres</span> American philosopher, historian, and author

Émile P. Torres is an American philosopher, intellectual historian, author, and postdoctoral researcher at Case Western Reserve University. Their research focuses on eschatology, existential risk, and human extinction. Along with computer scientist Timnit Gebru, Torres coined the acronym "TESCREAL" to criticize what they see as a group of related philosophies: transhumanism, extropianism, singularitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and longtermism.

References

  1. ↑ "Jaan Tallinn, Curriculum Vitae". Tartu Ülikool Sihtasutus. May 2012. Archived from the original on 6 December 2013. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Jaan Tallinn at Ambient Sound Investments". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  3. ↑ "Billionaires bet on Brussels to save them from AI singularity". Politico. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  4. ↑ "'Building AI is like launching a rocket': Meet the man fighting to stop artificial intelligence destroying humanity". ZDNET. Retrieved 2023-08-20.
  5. ↑ Lewsey, Fred (25 November 2012). "Humanity's last invention and our uncertain future". Research News. University of Cambridge . Retrieved 28 January 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 Hvistendahl, Mara (28 March 2019). "Can we stop AI outsmarting humanity?". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  7. ↑ "Future of Life Institute".
  8. ↑ "Elon Musk Donates $10M To Make Sure AI Doesn't Go The Way Of Skynet". Mashable. 2015. Retrieved 21 Jun 2015.
  9. ↑ "Elon Musk spends $10 million to stop robot uprising (+video)". Christian Science Monitor. 2015. Retrieved 21 Jun 2015.
  10. ↑ "Elon Musk: Future of Life Institute Artificial Intelligence Research Could be Crucial". Bostinno. Retrieved 5 Jun 2015.
  11. ↑ ""How can they be so good?": The strange story of Skype". Ars Technica. 3 September 2018. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  12. ↑ "Skype Co-Founder Jaan Tallinn Backs Reversible Debugging Startup Undo Software". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  13. ↑ Shead, Sam. "The Skype Mafia: Who Are They And Where Are They Now?". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-09-10.
  14. ↑ Field, Matthew; Boland, Hannah (29 November 2019). "Guardian venture arm invests millions in terrorist tracking AI start-up". The Telegraph. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  15. ↑ Williams, Joe (2020). "Walmart is about to let machines negotiate contracts with some suppliers, and it's a glimpse into the future of supply chains in a post-coronavirus world". Business Insider. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
  16. ↑ Zuckerman, Patricia Kowsmann, Vicky Ge Huang, Caitlin Ostroff, and Gregory (31 December 2022). "Troubles at Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda Began Well Before Crypto Crash". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2023-01-02.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ↑ Kleeman, Jenny (2024-05-25). "America's premier pronatalists on having 'tons of kids' to save the world: 'There are going to be countries of old people starving to death'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-05-26.
  18. ↑ "Office of the President press announcement". Archived from the original on 2011-05-14.
  19. ↑ Weber, Harrison (1 March 2013). "Peter Thiel-backed MetaMed thinks you should have your own on-demand medical research team". TheNextWeb. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  20. ↑ Clarke, Liat (24 April 2015). "The solution to saving healthcare systems? New feedback loops". Wired.co.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2015. Tallinn learned the importance of feedback loops himself the hard way, after seeing the demise of one of his startups, medical consulting firm Metamed.
  21. ↑ "Jaan Tallinn - Effective Altruism". Effective Altruism. Archived from the original on 2021-08-25. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  22. ↑ "Skype inventor Jaan Tallinn wants to use Bitcoin technology to save the world". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  23. ↑ "Machine Intelligence Research Institute".
  24. ↑ "Jaan Tallinn on the Intelligence Stairway". YouTube .
  25. ↑ "A Skype founder on biomonitors, existential risk and simulated realities". The Wall Street Journal. 31 May 2013. Retrieved 2014-05-02.
  26. ↑ "Existential Risk: A Conversation with Jaan Tallinn". Edge Foundation, Inc. 16 April 2015.
  27. ↑ "Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn on surviving the rise of the machines". Marketplace. 26 December 2012. Retrieved 2014-05-02.
  28. ↑ "I'm Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype, Kazaa, CSER and MetaMed. AMA". Reddit. 7 June 2013.
  29. ↑ Pinkerton, Byrd (2019-06-19). "He co-founded Skype. Now he's spending his fortune on stopping dangerous AI". Vox. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  30. ↑ Barten, Otto; Meindertsma, Joep (2023-07-20). "An AI Pause Is Humanity's Best Bet For Preventing Extinction". TIME. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  31. ↑ Albergotti, Reed (Apr 28, 2023). "The co-founder of Skype invested in some of AI's hottest startups — but he thinks he failed". Semafor.
  32. ↑ "Tech chiefs call on scientists to pause development of AI systems". The Independent. 2023-03-29. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  33. ↑ "Pause Giant AI Experiments: An Open Letter". Future of Life Institute. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  34. ↑ Lomas, Natasha (2023-05-30). "OpenAI's Altman and other AI giants back warning of advanced AI as 'extinction' risk". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  35. ↑ "Statement on AI Risk | CAIS". www.safe.ai. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
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