Oxford University has closed its 19-year-old Future of Humanity Institute, led by Nick Bostrom, a Swedish-born philosopher known for his writings on the long-term threat of artificial intelligence replacing humanity and who has made lists of top global thinkers.
In 2015, SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk donated £1 million to the institute through a sister organization to research the threat of artificial intelligence.
Bostrom told the Guardian that he resigned from his post at Oxford following the closure of the institute. Bostrom issued an apology last year after a decades-old email surfaced in which he claimed that "blacks are dumber than whites" and used a racist slur.
Bostrom, who popularized the theory that humanity may be living in a simulation that Musk has often repeated, spoke about the institute's closure in a lengthy final report posted on its website this week. While praising the center's work, he also said it faced "administrative obstacles" from Oxford and the philosophy department.
A statement on Future of Humanity's website claimed that Oxford froze fundraising and recruitment in 2020 and that in late 2023 the philosophy faculty decided not to renew the contracts of staff remaining at the institute.
