AI that can accelerate research could drive a century of technological progress over just a few years. During such a period, new technological or political developments will raise consequential and hard-to-reverse decisions, in rapid succession. We call these developments grand challenges. These challenges include new weapons of mass destruction, AI-enabled autocracies, races to grab offworld resources, and digital beings worthy of moral consideration, as well as opportunities to dramatically improve quality of life and collective decision-making. We argue that these challenges cannot always be delegated to future AI systems, and suggest things we can do today to meaningfully improve our prospects. AGI preparedness is therefore not just about ensuring that advanced AI systems are aligned: we should be preparing, now, for the disorienting range of developments an intelligence explosion would bring.

MIT's move signals two trends in higher education: growing investment in sophisticated technology research and increased fundraising from the private sector. Last year, the university announced plans to partner with IBM on a 10-year, $240 million AI research effort. The resulting MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab is co-located with an IBM research facility in Boston and brings together faculty members and students as well as IBM and university researchers to enhance AI's impact across industries. More recently, IBM partnered with Columbia University to develop research competency in blockchain technology through the Columbia-IBM Center for Blockchain and Data Transparency. Public institutions are nabbing corporate funding, too.