Research on AI suffering has higher marginal value than research on AI consciousness⁷
I don’t think it’s higher value because I expect both of those areas to have very low expected value in the next 2 years at least. Unless I think you’re overly generous with what interpretability research you count as consciousness research or something similar.
Also even if those areas of research end up being more productive than expected in the next couple years, it seems likely that the question won’t make sense because studying either necessarily involves studying both.
I don’t think it’s higher value because I expect both of those areas to have very low expected value in the next 2 years at least. Unless I think you’re overly generous with what interpretability research you count as consciousness research or something similar.
Also even if those areas of research end up being more productive than expected in the next couple years, it seems likely that the question won’t make sense because studying either necessarily involves studying both.