“New Funding Round on Hardware-Enabled Mechanisms (HEMs)” by aog, Longview Philanthropy

Longview Philanthropy is launching a new request for proposals on hardware-enabled mechanisms (HEMs).

We think HEMs are a promising method to enforce export controls, secure model weights, and verify compliance with international agreements on AI. We’d like to fund the development of designs, prototypes, and secure enclosures for various kinds of HEMs, as well as complementary red-teaming and field-building efforts.

We plan to distribute $2M - $10M through this RFP. If you’d like to apply, please submit an expression of interest. Below is the text of the request for proposals.

Table of Contents

• Motivations
• Areas of Interest
  • Designs and prototypes of HEMs
    • Location Verification
    • Offline Licensing
    • Bandwidth Limiters for Accessing Model Weights
    • Analog Sensors for Workload Verification
    • Other HEMs
  • Tamper Resistance Measures
    • Threat model
    • Funding priorities
  • Adversarial Testing
    • Funding priorities
    • How should adversarial testing be structured?
  • Focused Research Organization (FRO) for FlexHEGs
  • [...]

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Outline:

(00:50) Motivations

(07:05) Areas of Interest

(07:43) Designs and prototypes of HEMs

(08:23) Location Verification

(11:16) Offline Licensing

(12:41) Bandwidth Limiters for Accessing Model Weights

(14:03) Analog Sensors for Workload Verification

(15:13) Other HEMs

(17:37) Tamper Resistance Measures

(17:56) Threat model

(19:28) Funding priorities

(21:02) Adversarial Testing

(21:34) Funding priorities

(22:49) How should adversarial testing be structured?

(24:00) Focused Research Organization (FRO) for FlexHEGs

(26:01) Field-Building for HEMs

(26:43) Evaluation Criteria

(30:53) Application Process

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First published:
April 30th, 2025

Source:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/aiStCBjfutWqwsxx4/new-funding-round-on-hardware-enabled-mechanisms-hems

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