Details
To enter, you must be a student (grade-school, undergraduate, or graduate) aged 13 to 24, read The Precipice, and submit an essay of up to 1,500 words on one of the prompts below by midnight Pacific Time on June 15, 2024.
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13-18 Age Bracket
Pick a transformative technology you think will be created someday. Imagine that you are in a position of responsibility for it. For example, you could be a scientist developing this technology, a government official regulating it, or a corporate executive selling it to the public. How would you approach your job to have the greatest chance of preserving humanity’s potential? What are the risks you face?
19-21 Age Bracket
If the ideas in this book are correct, what does that imply about what a group you are familiar with should be doing differently? What could incentivize them to do that? You may talk about a group like a research lab, a government body, a nonprofit, a media company, a corporation, or an international organization.
22-24 Age Bracket
What, according to you, is missing from this book? This missing piece can be data, analysis, or an argument. The missing piece can either strengthen or weaken a conclusion from the book.
FAQs
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Full-time and part-time students are eligible if they are either (1) enrolled during the 2023-24 school year OR (2) will be enrolled during the 2024-25 school year.
Example 1: If you are a currently a high school student who is taking a gap year next year, you are eligible.
Example 2: If you are currently working but enrolling in a graduate school next year, you are eligible.
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You are eligible to enter if you are a legal resident of the fifty (50) United States or the District of Columbia (but not Puerto Rico), Canada (excluding the province of Quebec), or the United Kingdom.
For other countries, you are eligible to enter as long as there are no laws in your country that prohibit you from entering.
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You can enter the contest once per year. If you made a mistake in your essay, you can resubmit your essay. Only your latest essay will be graded.
If you entered the contest in a previous year, you may enter again with a new essay. You should not submit the same essay that you submitted in a previous year; such essays will be disqualified. However, we would like to gently discourage you from entering the contest again because your time is precious, and might be better served by exploring how to reduce existential risks than entering this contest again. Entering the contest again will have diminishing returns for your knowledge acquisition and skills development, while exploring a new opportunity might have greater returns.
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Essays generated with AI will be disqualified. You may use AI to brainstorm and refine ideas, but the final product must be your own.
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Yes! Students who cannot otherwise access the book can request a copy by completing this form.
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Citations are not included in the word count. Your essay should cite all sources that you used. You may use any citation format.
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Finalists will be alerted by the end of August. Winners will likely be made public by the end of October.
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If you want to talk about these ideas with others, you can join a virtual reading group for The Precipice.
Here are some resources for people interested in working on reducing existential risk.
Non-Trivial hosts a fellowship for EU-based students.
Pivotal is another essay contest on existential risks with $25k in prizes and a package of other benefits.
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The $15,000 first place winner will be selected from all entrants.
The three $5,000 second place winners will be selected one from each age bracket.
The six $2,000 third place winners will be selected two from each age bracket.
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We have received a grant from Open Philanthropy to run this contest.
I read the book but can’t submit an essay…
…because [I have writer’s block / I am too busy / a dog ate my essay]. If you read the book because of this contest, but you won’t be entering for some reason, please still let us know. This will help us measure our impact.