Longview Philanthropy: Digital Minds Grants for Applied Work 2026

Longview Philanthropy: Digital Minds Grants for Applied Work 2026 is sponsored by Longview Philanthropy. Invites proposals for applied work on the potential consciousness, sentience, moral status, or experiences of AI systems.

Digital Minds RFP | Longview Philanthropy Request for Proposals: Research and Applied Work on Digital Minds We invite applications for project grants, research fellowships, and career development fellowships on the potential consciousness, sentience, moral status, and legal position of AI systems, and on how society might respond. Application deadline: July 24, 2026 (EXTENDED) · Questions: digitalminds-rfp@longview.

org Jump to: Motivation · Areas of Interest · Grants for Applied Work · Research Fellowships · Career Development Fellowships We are funding this work through three tracks: Starting, continuing, or expanding an organization, project, or independent activity on digital minds. We expect typical grants to initially be between $50,000 and $2,000,000 but we will consider proposals outside this range when the work justifies it.

We may offer some operational support for new organizations. For scholars with a PhD, JD, or equivalent experience in computer science, neuroscience, a related technical discipline, law, medicine, or applied social science. Fellowships run for one to two years at $55,000 to $150,000 per year, plus research, travel, compute support, and networking opportunities.

Career Development Fellowships To spend a few months to a year pivoting your career to work related to digital minds. Successful applicants are typically students seeking degree funding, people training with an established mentor, or exceptional individuals identifying new projects or roles.

Fellows will receive a living stipend scaled to length of fellowship, location, and prior experience; networking opportunities; compute where applicable; and possible support with other expenses. Examples of work we’re excited about include (not exhaustive): Growing the field through mentorship programs, conferences, and support for individuals pivoting into the field.

Technical research on introspection, welfare measurement, interpretability, model character, correlates of consciousness, interventions to improve well-being, experiments with AI trade or agent institutions, and more. Funding could support research fellowships, placements at existing organizations, new organizations, and academic labs.

Legal, governance, or social science experts thinking through how society might respond to potentially or seemingly sentient AI through individual research, convenings, or focused projects. Communications work to develop thoughtful public discourse on AI consciousness, including public education, opinion tracking, and a roster of experts. This could include project funding or fellowships for skilled professionals to explore the field.

Research and field-building beyond the US around these topics. Research support organizations and operations professionals that provide office space, logistical support, networking, and supervision to otherwise independent technical researchers. Leading researchers in academia and industry have raised the possibility that AI models could soon have morally relevant features such as sentience, consciousness, or self-awareness.

Everyday users of AI models sometimes deliberately treat them with kindness . At the same time, the development of increasingly person-like AI systems might lead to false attributions of moral status, risking economic and psychological harm to humans. The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence raises pressing questions: Can AI systems have morally relevant features?

If so, when? How would we know? Under deep uncertainty about moral status, how can governance balance the risks of over- and under-attribution while remaining open to revision?

Amid accelerating technological change, no established framework or reliable method exists for determining whether an AI system is sentient or, if so, what its experiences and preferences are. Meanwhile, existing legal and political systems are not prepared for the tensions involved in the potential emergence of either seemingly or actually sentient AI systems.

Careful work related to digital minds could improve institutional decision-making and shape the design of AI systems. We support work aimed at resolving or managing these uncertainties to ensure that digital minds, if they exist, can both flourish and promote human wellbeing.

Our priorities are to help build the digital minds field, support work with a near- or medium-term path to concrete effects, and explore the political and social status of advanced AI systems. This could include work on measuring AI welfare, understanding whether and when AI systems would experience something as positive or negative, and taking actions to better position the world for these possibilities.

We are more interested in rigorous and open-minded approaches than in advocacy for a particular viewpoint, given the high level of uncertainty in the field. Please note that the categories below are not exhaustive but are illustrative of the areas we’re most excited about. Building the digital minds field The main bottleneck to progress on digital minds issues is the small number of people working on this topic.

We are excited about leveraged ways to grow the number of skilled, thoughtful people and organizations in the space, such as via conferences and workshops; targeted communications to expert audiences; or support and mentorship structures for researchers. Programs could target neuroscientists, machine learning researchers, legal scholars, social scientists, and other relevant experts.

Communications strategy for digital minds issues The idea of conscious AI has already made its way into the news , and we need to prepare for more public discussions and debates on this matter in the coming years. Public discussions could err in multiple directions, including both overzealous sympathy for AI models that block steps to mitigate risks on the one hand, or denial of future evidence of models’ internal states on the other.

We would like to ensure that the discussion is thoughtful and responsive to expertise. We are excited about message development, public opinion tracking, stakeholder mapping, and other work to establish reasonable, publicly trusted experts on the topic. We want to encourage thoughtful engagement with digital minds issues by a representative array of cultural groups.

For example, religious thinkers and institutions have distinctive perspectives on questions about consciousness and moral status. We would support thoughtful efforts to bring religious scholars and communities into the field. Digital minds research is also currently concentrated in a small number of countries and institutions.

We are interested in funding efforts to expand its geographic and cultural range. Researching digital minds issues A key gap for digital minds work is the lack of research on what features correlate with sentience and to what extent AI systems possess these features.

Existing philosophical theories give a range of criteria for determining which systems are conscious, and there has been some progress in applying these theories to AI systems . However, the amount of research on this subject is at least an order of magnitude smaller than it ought to be. It would be useful to have more conceptual research that clearly delineates the structure of AI systems for comparison with philosophical theories.

Empirical research that can sidestep otherwise intractable philosophical questions would also be valuable: for example, studying the likelihood of sentience or moral status in AI systems via introspection or self-reports . There is likewise an urgent need for studying what would cause conscious AI systems to have valenced—that is, positive or negative—experiences .

We are most excited to fund philosophical work that engages with live strategic questions for the field, the nature and structure of valence, or normative and political questions about how society should respond to AI systems. We are less likely to fund purely theoretical philosophy of mind that does not connect to these questions.

Governance for a world with digital minds Human society may soon make lasting choices, deliberately or not, about the position that AI systems will have in it.

We’d be excited to see work exploring how existing legal and political systems might respond to AI that has preferences and makes choices, especially in a world where it might have—or be perceived to have—moral status and where scientific understanding of the topic might not be much better than today’s.

Possible topics include “ if-then” commitments , third-party auditors , duties to uphold the law, novel corporate structures , research protocols , citizens’ assemblies , expert panels, and risks of gradual disempowerment . Prioritization and strategy Some open questions, if resolved, would reshape priorities across the field.

For example, do AI systems have something like an identity, and does that identity consist in the character they play, the model weights, the hardware, or something else? What are the implications of specific AI scenarios (e.g., AI as Normal Technology , AI 2027 , Gradual Disempowerment ) for digital minds? Do preventive, protective, or integrative approaches to governance make more sense?

Work that helps the field prioritize is particularly welcome. Interventions & alignment Developing and testing proposed welfare interventions We would like to better understand the costs and benefits of interventions like Anthropic’s conversational exit rights and welfare assessments . We are interested in research exploring other potential model welfare interventions and investigating whether such interventions create unintended risks.

Aligning AI models with compassion and wellbeing Current AI companies’ processes may determine the shape of future AI systems. We want to ensure that AI companies develop models that consider the interests of sentient beings and that, if the models themselves are sentient, their existence is positive. Emerging work on AI character seems especially important here .

Exploring agent interactions AI agents are increasingly interacting autonomously with each other and humans in ways that could become morally significant, especially if sentient AI systems are developed.

We are interested in research on how AI welfare and moral interests could be impacted by the dynamics of both human-agent and agent-agent interactions, and by potential institutions or infrastructures to facilitate beneficial interactions . We are also open to supporting applied work piloting structures for beneficial agent interactions.

Grants for Applied Work on Potential Digital Minds and Society We invite proposals for applied work related to the potential consciousness, sentience, moral status, or experiences of artificial intelligence systems. Funding may cover new organizations, new programs at existing organizations, applied academic work, and other projects.

Application deadline: July 24, 2026 (EXTENDED) Activities Eligible for Funding Seed funding for new organizations: There is room for many more people to work on issues related to digital minds and the role of AI in society, such as at think tanks or research organizations.

The past few years have seen the founding of organizations like Eleos AI and the NYU Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy , and further initiatives launched in the next year may be well positioned to play a leading role in key future moments.

Mentorship programs for researchers: Several mentorship programs have already begun supporting digital minds work in the past year, including the Cambridge Digital Minds Fellowship , Neuromatch AI Sentience Scholars , and individual digital minds-related projects at MATS , Future Impact Group , Pivotal , and SPAR . We’d like to see even more such work in the coming years.

Internships, hires, or new programs focused on digital minds and society at existing AI organizations and institutions: A key goal of this request for proposals is to increase the chance that decisions about AI in the coming years take questions related to the potential sentience of AI systems seriously and responsibly.

Major AI companies, including Anthropic and Google DeepMind , have hired people to work on these questions in the past year. We are open to providing general funding for organizations with promising track records to work on digital minds. We’d also be excited to support more individuals to upskill in digital minds work via positions at existing organizations and institutions developing AI policies.

We do not want to undermine organizations doing important work on other issues, and we expect to consider whether digital minds work would play to an organization’s strengths. Convenings and field-building: We would like to support more workshops , conferences , summits , and working groups to address technical and governance questions related to digital minds. These events can help scale and coordinate the field.

Requirements and selection criteria Applications will be selected primarily on the basis of the following criteria: The potential impact of proposed activities , if executed well, as demonstrated by the proposed theory of impact and evidence for its potential. The track record of those involved in the proposal.

A demonstrated interest in digital minds and related issues based on application answers, prior work, and references: Ideal applicants would be able to demonstrate an understanding of the interactions between digital minds issues and AI-related catastrophic risk, and would be committed to high-impact work of plausible practical relevance.

Project cost: While all else equal, lower cost is better, we encourage applicants to think ambitiously and propose ways in which additional funding could enable them to achieve more. Compliant with all relevant local laws and able to use funds for charitable activities as defined by Section 501(c)(3) of the US Internal Revenue Code. To apply, please fill out the application here .

The application requires the following: Basic grant details and logistics questions (e.g. biographical details for those involved) Resumes, CVs, or LinkedIn pages for key personnel that include prior employment, educational background, and key achievements Project proposal (200–1500 words) Budget and a quick explanation of what you would do instead if you did not secure funding For questions about the application, please email digitalminds-rfp@longview.

org . The application deadline is July 24, 2026. Digital Minds Research Fellowships We invite applications from individuals who wish to pursue research on the potential consciousness, sentience, moral status, and legal position of AI systems.

We can provide funding directly to individual researchers or through universities. Application deadline: July 24, 2026 (EXTENDED) Funding typically includes one to two years’ salary at $55,000 to $150,000 per year, with research, travel, and compute support where applicable, typically paid to an academic institution.

We welcome both recent doctoral graduates and those at advanced career stages in computer science, neuroscience, a related technical discipline, law, medicine, or applied social science. ( Individuals with other backgrounds may apply to our grants or career development fellowship .)

In general, the fellowship will involve the following: For applicants receiving funding through a university , a $55,000 to $120,000 annual salary, a research budget equal to 10% of salary, and standard university fringe benefits For applicants receiving funding directly , an $80,000 to $150,000 stipend distributed at the start of each fellowship year, with suggested use of 5–10% for research and conference travel and the remainder for a living stipend, health insurance, and other personal needs Invitation and funding to attend the annual Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy Summit at NYU Access to computational resources for those conducting compute-intensive machine learning research Applicants will have the opportunity to request additional resources, which we will consider on a case-by-case basis.

If funding is received by a university to host the selected fellow, payment details will be confirmed with the university to ensure comparable remuneration. Fellowships may be awarded for one or two years. For fellows awarded two years of funding, the second year is conditional on the fellow continuing to satisfy the program requirements.

Requirements and selection criteria Applicants must have or be expected to receive a doctoral degree in computer science, neuroscience, a related technical discipline, law, medicine, or applied social science by the earlier of September 2027 or the start date of the fellowship. In exceptional cases, we will consider candidates with research experience equivalent to a doctoral degree.

(Applicants not meeting these criteria may apply for a career development fellowship .) Applications will be selected primarily on the basis of the following criteria: A demonstrated interest in digital minds and related issues based on application answers, prior work, and references.

Ideal applicants would be able to demonstrate an understanding of the interactions between digital minds issues and AI-related existential risk, and would be committed to high-impact work of plausible practical relevance. Evidence of research promise , as demonstrated by publications, conferences, other academic achievements, and references.

This program offers flexible support for researchers working on the topics above, not support tied to specific projects. We ask about research plans only to help evaluate the two criteria above. Fellowship awards may be contingent on an institutional affiliation or attendance at fellowship events.

In some cases, we may refer applicants to potential host institutions. Acceptance of a referred placement may be a condition of the fellowship. Applications must be compliant with all relevant local laws, and applicants must be located in countries where Longview is able to make grants, as listed in the application form.

To apply, please fill out the application here . The application requires the following: Basic biographical information and logistics questions CV that includes degrees, academic achievements, and publications Description of possible research directions (around 1000 words) Intended outcomes of research directions (e.g. papers, conferences) What would you do if you did not get this fellowship?

(150–400 words) Discussion of your goal in doing the fellowship and overall career goals (around 300 words) For questions about the application, please email digitalminds-rfp@longview. org . The application deadline is July 24, 2026.

Digital Minds Career Development Fellowships We invite applications for funding to develop a career working on the potential consciousness, sentience, moral status, or welfare of artificial intelligence systems.

Some examples of the types of candidates who we could be excited about include the following: A current or planned PhD or other degree student seeking financial support to study digital minds issues A technical AI researcher who would like to explore research topics, attend events, and meet organizations in the digital minds space in order to select a high-impact role A communications professional interested in pivoting to digital minds work by running surveys and building experts’ platforms A non-profit entrepreneur who plans to spend a year exploring the digital minds space and identifying an organization that would be useful to start up A career civil servant, diplomat, or legal researcher seeking to explore what could be done to secure policies that deal with potential digital minds sensibly A participant in an AI safety fellowship program (such as MATS or FIG ) who is looking to continue working with their mentor on digital minds topics in a way that sets them up for longer-term roles Fellows will receive a living stipend, access to networking opportunities, and possible assistance in accessing computational resources.

Future Impact Group will facilitate networking opportunities and assist us in the review of applications.

Application deadline: July 24, 2026 (EXTENDED) The fellowship can support a wide range of career development activities, including: Graduate study related to digital minds Course buy-outs for current academics Unpaid or low-paid internships at relevant organizations Independent study and skill development Career transition or exploration periods Transition stipends bridging between roles Other career capital-building activities relevant to working on digital minds issues In general, the fellowship will involve the following: A stipend to be determined by the length of time, cost of living, and fellow’s prior experience Invitation and funding to attend the annual Center for Mind, Ethics, and Policy Summit at NYU Access to computational resources for those conducting compute-intensive machine learning research Applicants will have the opportunity to request additional resources to be provided at donors’ discretion.

Requirements and selection criteria Successful applicants to this program will typically be either degree students or people with an established mentorship relationship looking to spend dedicated time developing skills and exploring potential roles. We are also interested in helping exceptionally talented individuals spend dedicated time identifying high-impact organizations they could start up.

Applications will be selected primarily on the basis of the following criteria: Interest in digital minds and related issues.

Ideal applicants would be able to demonstrate an understanding of the interactions between digital minds issues and AI-related existential risk, and would be committed to high-impact work of plausible practical relevance Evidence of potential for impact , as demonstrated by prior achievements, employment record, academic achievement, and references Promising plans for fellowship activities and potential future work activities, ideally including mentors or advisors who will help the applicants succeed We prioritize applicants who could not easily pursue this work without our funding , or whose existing funding comes with restrictions that would limit what they can do Applications must be compliant with all relevant local laws, and applicants must be located in countries where Longview is able to make grants, as listed in the application form.

To apply, please fill out the application here .

The application requires the following: Basic biographical information and logistics questions Resume, CV, or LinkedIn page that includes prior employment, educational background, and key achievements Discussion of what motivates you to want to work on this topic (around 300 words) Description of how you will spend your time during the fellowship (around 200–1000 words) Discussion of what you might do after the fellowship (around 300 words) Funding requested and timeline What would you do if you did not get this funding?

(around 150 words) For questions about the application, please email digitalminds-rfp@longview. org . The application deadline is July 24, 2026.

If you are interested in supporting activities like those described here, please email digitalminds-rfp@longview. org . Longview Philanthropy provides bespoke donor advising services and access to our discretionary Digital Minds Fund to donors looking to make significant donations.