CASI Core Membership

Join our most dedicated community members

CASI Core Membership recognizes and supports our most active, enthusiastic members who have demonstrated potential to make an impact on AI safety. As CASI interacts with many people across different programs and events, we created core membership to deepen our connections with those who are most committed to our mission.

Core Membership Applications Closed — closed 5/2 EOD

For the full terms and norms of the program, see the CASI Core Member Constitution.

Core Membership Benefits

Community & Space

  • Bi-weekly invite-only socials at the Nest — catered food, games, movies, discussions, and occasional special guests
  • 24/7 personal access to the Nest: co-working space with monitors and adjustable desks, a quiet reading room, and stocked snacks and drinks
  • Regular one-on-one chats with other Core Members and Exec

Guests & Retreats

  • Priority access to special guest events — e.g. a researcher dinner with Stephen Casper (MIT), a meal with Nathan Lambert (Ai2), coffee chats with Nikola Jurkovic (METR), and dinners with CMU PhD students and faculty
  • Fully-paid AI safety retreats (referral- and invite-based) — e.g. Action Potential, AISST/MAIA workshops, and OASIS

Funding & Research Support

  • Eligibility for conference and travel funding
  • Eligibility for compute and other research expense funding
  • Application sprints for programs like MATS and Astra

Growth & Perks

  • Propose and run your own events with CASI's logistical and financial support
  • Optionally contribute to our existing programming
  • Free merch

Core Membership Expectations

Core Members make a written commitment at the start of the semester to at least 1 activity from (Category A OR Category B) and an ongoing presence commitment from Category C.

Note that the options listed below for Categories A and B are non-exhaustive. If you have a different activity to which you would like to commit (that you believe reasonably satisfies the intent of our Categories), we encourage you to talk to us.

We believe that setting expectations will be good for both CASI and good for you. It's a two-way relationship.

Category A

Intended to help Core Members grow in domains such as facilitation, mentorship, and teaching.

Pick at least 1:

  • Help facilitate a reading group (alignment, governance, or future tracks). Support the primary facilitator, help lead a session, shadow the facilitator with the intent of facilitating in the future, etc.
  • Mentor or advise a current project group, sharing lessons from your own project group experience, help scope problems, give feedback on outputs.
  • Lead or help run a workshop or skill-share session on something you know well (a technical topic, a research method, etc.).
  • Help organize a hackathon, creative contest, or external event.
  • Propose and run a new event with CASI's logistical and financial support.

Category B

Intended to help Core Members grow in roles such as researchers, thinkers, or practitioners.

Pick at least 1:

  • Independent research with periodic updates shared at the Nest or in paper-swap sessions (if we do get around to organizing these).
  • Present at one of the sessions in our seminar series, as approved by the exec leading the series' organization.
  • Attend a conference, workshop, or external AI safety event and present a debrief.
  • Contributing writing to the CASI blog.
  • Apply to further AI Safety programs (MATS, Astra, etc.) with CASI's application sprint support.

Category C

Intended to ensure Core Members are present in CASI's community life and actively engaged in improving it.

Ongoing commitments:

  • Attend a meaningful share of Nest socials. Target is roughly 50%, where the goal is that core members are visibly part of the community.
  • Attend at least one hackathon, seminar, lunch-and-learn, or major event during the semester.
  • Be reachable. Respond to CASI communications in a reasonable timeframe (by the deadline indicated, or 48 hours otherwise).
  • Show up literally and metaphorically!

Realistically, core membership should be a 2–5 hour/week commitment, spread across attending socials, working on projects, coworking in the Nest, and chatting with other core members. We know that this can be a high bar, but we truly believe that this program has meaningful mutual benefits. We ask that you honestly reflect on your availability and only apply if this is a plausible commitment for you to undertake.

Core Membership Renewal

Core membership is an active title, renewed each semester.

If you were active in the current semester, you'll be renewed for next semester. You must still reapply.

Frequently Asked Questions

Applications to become a core member open every semester. Keep an eye on our announcements for application links and deadlines, or apply here if applications are currently open.

If you are an active member of any one of our regular programming (such as a reading group), that alone is enough to become a core member. We're looking for dedicated and enthusiastic students who are interested in AI safety. We encourage applications and err on the side of accepting.

Core membership is an active title, renewed each semester. If you were active during the current semester, you'll be renewed for the next — but you must still reapply.

Units 1M and 1E of the Craig-Henry Building, located at 201 South Craig Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.

Core members gain access to a special Discord channel where they can ping a bot that will open the office door. 24/7 access to the office space is restricted to core members.