Last updated: March 4th, 2026
In 2024, SFF created two special tracks for S-Process applications that specifically target values we call fairness and freedom, explained below. These specialized tracks run with separate sets of Recommenders who are focused specifically on those values, roughly in parallel with our Main Track. All guaranteed eligible applications are qualified to be evaluated by Recommenders in all tracks (Main, Freedom, and Fairness).
For details on applying to the SFF-2026 S-Process Grant Round, see the SFF-2026 S-Process Grant Round General Information. To learn more about the Freedom and Fairness Tracks, keep reading below.
Fairness and freedom are values we consider crucial to humanity’s survival and flourishing in the era of AI technology, especially now that leading experts in AI have acknowledged that AI presents an extinction-level threat to humanity.
At different times and in different contexts, either fairness or freedom attract more support from particular political movements, to the extent that they are sometimes assumed to be in conflict. However, we think of them as truly global and mutually compatible values. A society is fair when morally arbitrary facts don’t avoidably determine people’s life chances. It is free when people can pursue their own goals, as individuals and as groups, without fear of arbitrary interference from those holding the reins of power.
Rapidly advancing artificial intelligence will inescapably affect both freedom and fairness. It could universalize access to opportunities making for a much fairer society, and could enable people and groups to better form and pursue their goals. But it may also enable those with advantage to cement their position and shift AI’s negative externalities onto the already-disadvantaged. And AI is a force-multiplier for those who wish to control others—it makes the practice of exercising authority much easier, thereby limiting people’s freedom.
Conversely, the degree to which we collectively prioritize freedom and fairness for humanity will inescapably affect how artificial intelligence is developed. Therefore, ensuring that advanced AI serves fairness and freedom is not only a moral imperative in its own right, but is an indispensable stepping-stone to mitigating future risks to humanity.
While applicants can flag their applications for evaluation by a specific track, every eligible applicant is eligible for evaluation by all three tracks.
In today’s political climate, certain human values inevitably end up being primarily championed by either left-leaning or right-leaning political perspectives. Such values can be difficult to represent through a bipartisan consensus, even if everyone would benefit from them. This can lead to under-representing certain values that would actually benefit everyone.
At SFF, we believe our values of fairness and freedom are both important for humanity’s future, and only happen to seem right-leaning or left-leaning within today’s political frameworks. In other words, these are values we wish to support on their own merits, irrespective of politics. By creating a special track for each value, we hope to support strong proponents of each value to apply for funding, and to be evaluated by a set of reviewers who specifically espouse that value.
Importantly, being a strong proponent of either fairness, freedom, or both does not necessarily mean being a strong proponent of left-leaning or right-leaning politics in general, and in fact might require the opposite: centrist or bipartisan consensus is often necessary to bring about deep and lasting changes in the world. So, neither of these tracks is meant to encompass broadly supporting left-leaning or right-leaning values. The fairness track is specifically about fairness, and the freedom track is specifically about freedom.