I also think Open Philanthropy would benefit from less ambiguity about my role in its funding decisions (especially given the fact that I’m married to the President of a major AI company).
This makes sense, but if anything the conflict of interest seems more alarming if you’re influencing national policy. For example, I would guess that you are one of the people—maybe literally among the top 10?—who stands to personally lose the most money in the event of an AI pause. Are you worried about this, or taking any actions to mitigate it (e.g., trying to convert equity into cash?)
My spouse isn’t currently planning to divest the full amount of her equity. Some factors here: (a) It’s her decision, not mine. (b) The equity has important voting rights, such that divesting or donating it in full could have governance implications. (c) It doesn’t seem like this would have a significant marginal effect on my real or perceived conflict of interest: I could still not claim impartiality when married to the President of a company, equity or no. With these points in mind, full divestment or donation could happen in the future, but there’s no immediate plan to do it.
The bottom line is that I have a significant conflict of interest that isn’t going away, and I am trying to help reduce AI risk despite that. My new role will not have authority over grants or other significant resources besides my time and my ability to do analysis and make arguments. People encountering any analysis and arguments will have to decide how to weigh my conflict of interest for themselves, while considering arguments and analysis on the merits.
For whatever it’s worth, I have publicly said that the world would pause AI development if it were all up to me, and I make persistent efforts to ensure people I’m interacting with know this. I also believe the things I advocate for would almost universally have a negative expected effect (if any effect) on the value of the equity I’m exposed to. But I don’t expect everyone to agree with this or to be reassured by it.
For context, Holden is married to Daniela Amodei, president and co-founder of Anthropic. She also used to work at OpenAI and still, I believe, holds equity there. As Holden has stated elsewhere: “I am married to the President of Anthropic and have a financial interest in both Anthropic and OpenAI via my spouse.”
This makes sense, but if anything the conflict of interest seems more alarming if you’re influencing national policy. For example, I would guess that you are one of the people—maybe literally among the top 10?—who stands to personally lose the most money in the event of an AI pause. Are you worried about this, or taking any actions to mitigate it (e.g., trying to convert equity into cash?)
My spouse isn’t currently planning to divest the full amount of her equity. Some factors here: (a) It’s her decision, not mine. (b) The equity has important voting rights, such that divesting or donating it in full could have governance implications. (c) It doesn’t seem like this would have a significant marginal effect on my real or perceived conflict of interest: I could still not claim impartiality when married to the President of a company, equity or no. With these points in mind, full divestment or donation could happen in the future, but there’s no immediate plan to do it.
The bottom line is that I have a significant conflict of interest that isn’t going away, and I am trying to help reduce AI risk despite that. My new role will not have authority over grants or other significant resources besides my time and my ability to do analysis and make arguments. People encountering any analysis and arguments will have to decide how to weigh my conflict of interest for themselves, while considering arguments and analysis on the merits.
For whatever it’s worth, I have publicly said that the world would pause AI development if it were all up to me, and I make persistent efforts to ensure people I’m interacting with know this. I also believe the things I advocate for would almost universally have a negative expected effect (if any effect) on the value of the equity I’m exposed to. But I don’t expect everyone to agree with this or to be reassured by it.
For context, Holden is married to Daniela Amodei, president and co-founder of Anthropic. She also used to work at OpenAI and still, I believe, holds equity there. As Holden has stated elsewhere: “I am married to the President of Anthropic and have a financial interest in both Anthropic and OpenAI via my spouse.”