The DARI Foundation

The Turning Point

Throughout history, humanity benefited enormously from advances in technology. From the first tools and fire to nuclear energy and silicon: we have never been safer, healthier, wealthier, more educated, and more productive than we are today. Technology gave us wings.

But the exponential speed at which the latest breakthroughs in AI occur now outstrips human ability to comprehend the implications. Even the most conservative scenarios see the dawn of superintelligent AI. Driven by profits, productivity, and power, these artificial minds will soon out-reason, out-invent, and out-decide our entire species. This singular event will mark the beginning of a new era in which humanity’s future is uncertain.

The dice have not yet fallen. We will not know the true price for superintelligent AI until it is due. But the uncertainty is raising fears in individuals and organizations across all levels of society.

Paradise or Extinction

Our leading thinkers see it two ways. Optimists envision a world of total abundance — a utopian paradise in which all of our individual and collective problems are solved with AI. Humans will be the big winner, once more.

Pessimists argue that we will ultimately fail to align superintelligent AI with what is best for us as a collective and as individuals. This — in one way or another, sooner or later — will lead to the inevitable extinction of the human species.

Optimistic Curiosity

DARI works and influences actively towards a future in which superintelligent AI serves humanity and leverages the best of what we are — as a collective and as individuals. We are neither doom nor boom nor gloom. We are not deceleration or acceleration. We accept the coevolution of technology and humanity as an inevitable process. But we focus on understanding the practical challenges and implications of coexistence.

Assuming the optimists are right — what will be our individual and collective purpose in a world where work has become obsolete, where machines grow food, cure disease, compose symphonies, and solve climate math before breakfast? How will we spend our days and years when scarcity fades and the age-old mandate to “earn a living” evaporates? What will constitute motivation, inspiration, achievement, and ambition when there is no more struggle, hardship, or challenge left worth solving?

Preparing humankind for coexistence with superintelligent AI goes far beyond solving alignment risk. We ourselves will have to align with this new and unfamiliar abundant world — a world in which our dreams of today will be less than a prompt away. Humanity needs to be prepared for such a reality. DARI aims to bring hundreds of millions of people into this conversation, so that as we take these critical steps, people are better informed and prepared for the world that awaits.

Critical Reflection

Preparing humankind for coexistence with superintelligent AI implies humanity’s existence to begin with. That is why DARI’s secondary goal is to support the implementation of effective protection and backup mechanisms should we ever face extinction by misaligned or misguided AI. DARI funds research, dialogue, education, and policy work to put humankind — not self-optimizing computer code — at the center of sovereign decision-making.

Legitimacy and Independence

DARI obtains collective legitimacy, authority, and the financial independence it needs through its first flagship project: the Tesseract. The Tesseract is a monumental physical cube that serves as the collective legacy of our modern civilization — assembled from one million Memocubes, each an ultra-long-term storage unit for data, human culture, biology, and knowledge. Individuals and organizations can purchase and own Memocubes, thereby financing DARI’s work. At the same time, they become part of a collective artwork deliberately engineered to outlast human life on Earth.

With estimated net proceeds of $1.6 billion after building the Tesseract, launching six interstellar space probes, and covering all operational costs, the DARI Foundation is projected to become one of the best-funded nonprofit organizations in the world — working toward one of the most critical goals humanity has ever faced: understanding ourselves well enough to coexist with intelligence that surpasses our own. One hundred percent of Tesseract profits flow as unrestricted donations to the Foundation.

If the Tesseract — as a symbolic and collaborative endeavor — can gather one million humans willing to stand with this mission, that itself is a mandate for DARI to speak on behalf of something larger than any single institution. The faster Memocubes are claimed, the sooner DARI can operate at the scale its vision and mission demand.

Why Independence Matters

DARI has been offered funding from various organizations, often directly or indirectly connected to the technology and AI industry. While these donations may not appear to have strings attached, they are typically modest, restricted in scope, and sufficient only for one or two years of operation. Accepting them would be like funding lung cancer research with money from big tobacco — the research itself might be sound, but there would be an aftertaste.

An organization that must return to its donors every eighteen months is not truly independent. It cannot promote ideas or causes that run counter to a donor’s agenda without risking its own survival. The Tesseract solves this: a single, bold, self-sustaining source of funding that frees the Foundation to work for humanity without compromise, without permission, and without an expiration date.

A Reminder of Human Unity

“DARI” comes from Akkadian — a forgotten language once spoken in ancient Babylon, long before the world was split into hundreds of tongues. Legend says the people of Babylon built a tower to reach heaven. Alarmed, God scattered them by cursing each group with a different language. Progress stalled because common understanding was lost.

By choosing a word from humanity’s last common language, we signal that DARI belongs to everyone. We take no political, religious, or ideological side. Our work serves humankind, present and future. In Akkadian, “dari” means “forever.” It captures our promise to think far beyond the next quarter, the next election, or even the next century — always acting for the lasting good of humanity. We will speak for those yet unborn: as decisions today shape the society of tomorrow, we ensure that future humans — who bear the true cost of present-day choices — are not ignored.

DARI is based in Geneva, birthplace of the Red Cross, the Geneva Convention, the Roerich Pact, the United Nations, and the old League of Nations — institutions created to lift the whole world, not just a single actor.

Advisory Board

The Foundation is supported by an independent advisory board with expertise spanning humanitarian leadership, science, art, innovation, and governance. These individuals lend the project credibility, strategic depth, and the legitimacy required to speak on behalf of a global mission.

Yves Daccord

Board Member

Humanitarian leader and former Director-General of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), where he served from 2010 to 2020. Known for his pioneering work on the future of humanitarian action, trust, and data governance. Today heading the Edgelands Institute at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center.

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Pero Mićić

Board Member

Futurist, author, and CEO of FutureManagementGroup, one of Europe’s leading strategic foresight consultancies. He advises executives on how to anticipate change and turn trends into competitive advantage. His Eltville Model shaped modern foresight practice.

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Thomas Schönauer

Board Member

German artist whose large-scale sculptures explore the dynamic interplay between matter, space, time, and perception, often blurring the line between structural engineering and fine art. His work frequently combines material science with philosophical enquiry, inviting reflection on the unseen forces behind form.

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Aleksandar Stojanovic

Director General & Chairman of the Board

Founder of the DARI Foundation and architect of the Tesseract project. Aleksandar brings a background in strategy, technology, and large-scale cultural initiatives to the mission of preparing humanity for coexistence with superintelligent AI.

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Vaughn Tan

Board Member

Professor of Strategy and Innovation at University College London whose work focuses on designing organizations for uncertainty. A former Google Lab founding team member, he combines academic research with practical insights to help individuals and organizations thrive in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world.

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Prof. Dr. Anabel Ternès

Board Member

Futurist and thought leader whose work spans boards, advisory roles, and academic research — all aimed at equipping individuals and institutions to thrive in a complex, tech-driven future while keeping human values front and centre.

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How We Operate

The Foundation operates with full transparency, publishing annual reports, financial audits, and governance proceedings for public review. The charter includes perpetuity clauses that legally protect the Tesseract and its contents from sale, seizure, or repurposing under any circumstances.

Day-to-day operations, including Memocube sales, technology development, and patron services, are handled by Tesseract Operations LLC. TESSOP is the operational arm; the Foundation is the soul. Everything we do is guided by a single question: will this help ensure that humanity is prepared for the world that is coming?