80,000 Hours
80,000 Hours provides research-backed career guidance, a podcast, and free advisory services to help professionals and students identify where they can make the greatest contribution to addressing urgent risks from advanced AI. The organization publishes detailed problem profiles and career reviews covering paths such as AI governance, technical safety research, and biosecurity, and offers one-on-one advising that connects individuals with experts in relevant fields.
- Content & Publishing
Funding
Founders
Founder details are not available yet.
Product
Problem
Advanced AI systems may be developed before adequate control mechanisms exist, potentially leading to catastrophic outcomes including loss of control, authoritarian misuse of surveillance and persuasion technologies, and AI-enabled biological weapons. Many individuals who want to address these urgent risks lack clarity on where their skills could be most effective or how to transition into high-impact roles.
Solution
80,000 Hours provides research-backed career guidance, a podcast, and free advisory services to help individuals understand AI-related risks and identify where they can make the greatest contribution. The organization publishes detailed problem profiles ranking global issues by scale, neglectedness, and tractability, along with career reviews covering paths such as AI governance, technical safety research, and biosecurity. Advisors work one-on-one with individuals to review their options, suggest opportunities, and introduce them to experts at the forefront of technical research and policy. The organization emphasizes that meaningful contributions do not require a technical background, as policymakers, managers, and communicators are also needed to prepare for advanced AI and improve its trajectory.
Target Audience
Primary users are professionals and students considering career changes who want to work on the world's most pressing problems, particularly those interested in AI safety, governance, and related existential risk fields.
Features
- Research-based problem profiles ranking pressing global issues, including loss of control, extreme power concentration, engineered pandemics, and great power conflict
- Career reviews covering AI-focused paths such as AI governance and policy, AI safety technical research, AI security, AI hardware, and China-related AI safety
- Free one-on-one career advising that helps individuals decide whether to shift focus and connects them with experts in relevant fields
- A podcast and extensive library of articles on career planning, impact measurement, and problem prioritization
- A job board listing opportunities across AI safety, policy, and other high-impact areas
- Guidance for non-technical professionals, including roles in policy, management, communications, and operations