Struggling to come up with a gift for your AI policy friends? Do your own friends keep asking for your wishlist? Never fear: inspired by the Institute for Progress’s and Foundation for American Innovation’s excellent gift guides, we’ve put together our own here at Transformer. And whether you’re a billionaire or an underpaid civil servant, there’s something for every budget.
Gina Raimondo Trading Card
$2.03, eBay
Gina Raimondo may soon be leaving the Commerce Department, but she’ll never leave our hearts. Honour her extensive service to AI policy with this remarkably cheap trading card — and if you’re feeling generous, splash out $180 for this autograph, too.
OpenAI Board of Directors Baseball Cap
$24.99, AI Store
This (extremely unofficial) cap is the most stylish way to pay tribute to the formerly independent OpenAI board. Might ruin future Thanksgivings, though.
ASML LEGO Set
$227.95, ASML Store
Compute governance folks will adore this ultra-exclusive LEGO version of ASML’s TWINSCAN EXE:5000 EUV machine, designed by ASML developer Rick Lenssen. Not only will they have fun building it, it’ll also make a fine desk ornament to stare at while drafting the next round of export controls. (via Tim Hwang/Zach Graves)
Life-Size T-800 Endoskeleton
$8,585, Sideshow
No, The Terminator is not a perfect example of what loss-of-control risks look like. But it is the coolest. And this terrifying sculpture — standing over 6ft tall and weighing a whopping 300lbs — is a perfect way to signal your >90% P(doom) to all who visit you. The human skulls embedded in the base are a particularly excellent touch.
The Ghost In The Shell Eau de Parfum
$80, Etat Libre d'Orange
AI co-working spaces aren’t known for smelling good. Do your part to fix that by buying your loved one a bottle of this AI-inspired perfume — described by its designer as “a perfume that speaks of the human phenomenon and its paradox”, which “silently celebrates ... a day when all consciousness is summoned by the infosphere to constitute a superior being and pass from the inert to the living.” More concretely, it smells of jasmine, yuzu, and moss. (via Séb Krier)
Nvidia DGX H100
$358,398, Broadberry
Even Santa can’t get his hands on Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips. But for the bargain price of $350k, you can get yourself eight H100s in one convenient system. People are always complaining that AI policy people don’t know anything about actual AI: what better way to fix that than to have your own mini-cluster at home?
Erewhon, by Samuel Butler
$8.25, Amazon
“Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question.”
That is not a quote from Eliezer Yudkowsky, but from Samuel Butler’s 1863 essay “Darwin Among The Machines” — an astonishingly prescient work which makes you realise just how unoriginal most AI policy discussions are. While the essay is unavailable to purchase in print, you can buy Butler’s 1872 novel Erewhon, which builds on many of the same themes.
DuPont Tychem 10000 Level A Suit and 3M Scott X8815021301303 Air-Pak X3 Pro SCBA with CGA and Continuous Hose 5500
$1,409.66 and $13,059.10, from DQE and ISP respectively
Is your gift recipient kept up at night by fears of AI-assisted chemical, biological, and radiological attacks? This CBRN-grade protection equipment will help them sleep easier: even if the attacks wipe out almost everyone, at least your loved one will stay around to propagate the human race — just as Derek Parfit wanted. (Disclaimer: though my way-too-many hours of research suggest these are both CDC-recommended products, you should probably do your own research before relying on them.)
Donate to Tarbell
$1-1B, every.org
Shameless self-promotion time: if you really care about AI and AI policy, I’d encourage you to donate to Tarbell (my employer). Your donations will help support in-depth reporting on AI and its impacts: we’ll primarily use them to fund future iterations of our grants program, but they’ll also help support our fellowship for early-career journalists, our residency program — and help keep Transformer free for everyone to read. Anything you’d like to donate is greatly appreciated and, if you’re in the US, tax-deductible. You can donate here.