Liveblogging the SV Gives Fundraiser

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SVGives logo lrgToday MIRI is participating in a massive 24-hour fundraiser called SV Gives. Strategy details here, donate here.

This blog post will be updated many times throughout the day.

Total donated to MIRI: $110,245.

Total prizes & matching won for MIRI: $61,330.

 

12:12am Pacific: That’s a wrap, folks! Our thanks once again to SVCF for putting together a thrilling fundraiser with a neck-and-neck race toward the end. Our thanks to everyone who participated in SV Gives. And of course many thanks to our dedicated, well-organized donors who made this such a surprising success for MIRI. And finally, my thanks to the MIRI staff who worked very long hours to run the fundraiser, especially Malo Bourgon, who worked 38 hours straight, and now must go to sleep. 🙂

12:07am Pacific: For the last hour, MIRI once again won both the $2,000 prize and the $150 prize! Total raised is $110,245 plus $61,330 in prizes and matching funds!

12:04am Pacific: Fundraiser complete! $7.9M raised for local nonprofits. Congrats to SVCF for a rather thrilling fundraiser, and to leaderboard winners Sankara Eye Foundation and Burlingame Community for Education!

11:58pm Pacific: With two minutes to spare, we passed 2000 total donations today!

11:06pm Pacific: Another $2,000! And also another $150 for a random winner, Samuel Brooks!

10:10pm Pacific: And another $2,000!

9:22pm Pacific: MIRI has won $2,000 again!

8:07pm Pacific: MIRI wins $2,000 again!

7:57pm Pacific: Wow, MIRI and Sankara are still neck-and-neck for Total Unique Donors! Right now Sankara has a 5 person lead.

7:09pm Pacific: MIRI won another $2,000 for unique donors last hour, plus $6,980 in matching! But in other news, Sankara Eye Foundation has now overtaken us in the race for the Grand Prize!

6:21pm Pacific: MIRI won $3,030 in matching at 6pm. Thanks, everyone!

6:05pm Pacific: MIRI won another $2,000 for unique donors last hour. Great job everyone! Get ready for more matching funds being avilable at 7pm sharp!

5:54pm Pacific: Hurray! MIRI was one of 50 organizations to win $1,000 from the 5pm matching funds. The 6pm matching funds are coming up, so try to send your donation in the first ~2 seconds after the hour!

5:11pm Pacific: We won the hour again ($2,000), and we also won a 2nd randomly chosen $150 Golden Ticket, courtesy of a donation by Simon Safar!

4:36pm Pacific: Amazingly, MIRI is now 12% of all donations so far during SV Gives day.

4:27pm Pacific: We’ve reached 250 unique donors for the day; thanks so much! As it happens, there’s a MIRI research workshop going on right now, so here is a photo of what you’re all funding (several times over)!

4:06pm Pacific: Another $2,000 for MIRI. Note that we’re coming up on the 5pm matching opportunity, so you should try to donate in the first 5 seconds after 5pm to try to win the match!

3:16pm Pacific: KFOX will be covering SV Gives between 5-7pm today.

3:06pm Pacific: Another $2,000! The strategy is still working!

2:10pm Pacific: MIRI won the hourly $2,000 again. Thanks, everyone!

1:36pm Pacific: Noon matching results have been released. MIRI got $2910 of the $50,000 in matching, which was apparently all taken in less than 4 seconds!

1:11pm Pacific: Another $2,000 prize won. Our deep and sincere thanks to SVCF for organizing SV Gives, and to MIRI’s donors for being so dedicated and well-organized!

12:06pm Pacific: And we won the $2,000 again! Many thanks to our astoundingly well-coordinated donors.

11:07am Pacific: We’ve won the $2,000 Most Unique Donors Each Hour prize again. Who will break MIRI’s winning streak?

10:34am Pacific: We’ve hit the 200 unique donors (for the whole day) mark!

10:08am Pacific: And yet another $2,000 prize for Most Unique Donors Each Hour! I bet the very gracious Sobrato Family Foundation wasn’t expecting to be one of MIRI’s largest donors of the year so far.

9:29am Pacific: On Twitter, SVCF asked us: “What’s your secret? You’ve just got the 9 a.m. $2,000 Golden Ticket prize for a sixth time! Congrats!” We replied: “Our secret is: 70+ person-hours of planning and donor coordination, 10+ energy drinks, and many enthusiastic supporters!” Seriously, I think our participation in SV Gives should be sponsored by Rockstar energy drinks, given how many of them we are consuming over here!

9:07am Pacific: MIRI wins another $2,000. Three cheers for donor coordination!

8:22am Pacific: $1,970 more in matching came in at the beginning of this hour! (The first 14 seconds of this hour, to be precise.)

8:10am Pacific: Another hour, another $2,000 prize for MIRI! Thanks again, everyone.

7:48am Pacific: In the first ~30 seconds after 7am, we captured $2,340 in matching. Thanks, everyone!

7:07am Pacific: MIRI wins the $2,000 prize once again! (For the 6am-7am hour.)

6:16am Pacific: 150 unique donors today so far.

6:08am Pacific: Excellent work, everyone! MIRI won the $2,000 prize for “Most Unique Donors Each Hour” for a third time! (For the 5am-6am hour.)

5:27am Pacific: According to SV Gives’ twitter account, NBC will be covering the SV Gives fundraiser in 3 minutes.

5:18am Pacific: Our thanks to Mick Porter, whose donation won the $150 prize for “random winner” during the 4am hour! We also won the $2,000 “Most Unique Donors Each Hour” again for the 4am-5am hour!

4:41am Pacific: So far we’ve won the $2,000 prize for Most Unique Donors Each Hour once, but not yet twice, so it looks like marginal donors giving as little as $10 each hour can make a difference!

3:50am Pacific: If you’re visiting this page due to MIRI’s SV Gives participation, and would like to know what it looks like to do technical work on ensuring good outcomes from future self-improving AI programs, check out our just-released new working paper, “Problems of self-reference in self-improving space-time embedded intelligence.”

3:04am Pacific: Here’s a live feed of MIRI HQ. Louie, Malo, myself, and Nate are there now.

2:23am Pacific: We won the $2,000 Golden Ticket for the 1am-2am hour! We also won the $2500 “Local Area Code Prize” by way of Patrick LaVictoire making the 408th donation (to any charity) of the day! Our thanks to the Sobrato Family Foundation and the Shackleton Family Foundation, respectively.