In the Cold War, philanthropists became the glue that held the world together. We’re poised to do it again today in the age of AI. By being laser focused on the problem, philanthropists to date have done as much for AGI safety and preparedness as governments and AI companies have with a tiny fraction of their resources, creating a more secure foundation layer on which society can build. But with a problem of this magnitude we’re going to need everyone, and more resources, approaches, and talent than ever before.

In this report I make the case that there is a meaningful chance of AI that can do everything that humans can do in just a few years. This leads to civilization-scale threats: loss of control, the development of powerful new dual-use technologies like novel bioweapons, and the radical concentration of power. These problems have mostly clear, tractable solutions: machine learning research, defensive technologies, and governance approaches. But we have limited time to get them in place.

With ordinary technologies, we can iterate gradually over decades to create a society resilient to its impacts. But AI is not an ordinary technology. It is achieving faster progress and faster uptake than any technology before, with a much higher ceiling on what is possible, under weak institutions with limited technological expertise, and backed by 7 companies that account for 24% of global GDP. It is a technology that we interface with in natural language, that increasingly designs itself, and that has a real chance of automating all human decision-making in mere years.

We need all hands on deck: Republican donors and Democrat donors, EU donors and Chinese donors, risk-taking donors and cautious donors, tech-friendly donors and tech-adversarial donors, empiricist donors and theorist donors, patient donors and impatient donors, private donors and public donors.

If you are interested in philanthropy for the AGI transition, this is your guidebook — synthesized from five years of advice I've provided to dozens of philanthropists.

Included is everything you need to get started. In Appendix A, you'll find numerous examples of funds and philanthropic advisors who can help you begin thoughtful deployment.

If you’d like to contribute or are already doing so, please get in touch.

Tyler John, February 2026