Thanks for taking the time to write up this post. Many of us have gone through similar things and can relate to the struggle you are experiencing.
Regarding the “I can’t do anything about it” part:
I see this meme a lot in the AI safety community. I think it’s a function of a) the underlying complexity of the problem and b) the reverance we have for some of the people working on this, with a dash of c) “my academic background is completely irrelevant” and d) “it’s too late for me to build the skills I need to contribute” thrown in there.
I won’t argue against a) and b) - the problem IS hard and the people working on it ARE often very impressive with regards to their intellectual chops.
But c) and d) are a completely different story, and I want to push back hard against them. People routinely underestimate how many different skills a given field can benefit from. AI Safety needs cognitive scientists, STEM people, historians, activists, political scientists, artists, journalists, content editors, Office Managers, educators, finance specialists, PAs- if you truly think your background is irrelevant, send me a DM and I’m happy to take bets on whether I can find a position that would benefit from your skillset. ;-) (Anecdotally, I used to be a teacher, and I’m now working on case studies for AI Standards, field-building and Research Management. It turned out people really appreciate it when you can explain something in clear terms, organize processes well and help others to engage with important but thorny ideas.)
On building skills: The field is so young and nascent that literally nobody is “on the ball” and while this is deeply concerning from an x-risk perspective, it is good news for you—there is a limited number of key concepts and models to understand. For many people, it’s is not too late to learn about these things and to build skills, and there are many resources and programs to support this.
Last but not least: Reach out to me if you’d like to discuss your options or just want to talk to a kind voice. I’d be happy to. :)
Hi bethhw!
Thanks for taking the time to write up this post. Many of us have gone through similar things and can relate to the struggle you are experiencing.
Regarding the “I can’t do anything about it” part:
I see this meme a lot in the AI safety community. I think it’s a function of a) the underlying complexity of the problem and b) the reverance we have for some of the people working on this, with a dash of c) “my academic background is completely irrelevant” and d) “it’s too late for me to build the skills I need to contribute” thrown in there.
I won’t argue against a) and b) - the problem IS hard and the people working on it ARE often very impressive with regards to their intellectual chops.
But c) and d) are a completely different story, and I want to push back hard against them. People routinely underestimate how many different skills a given field can benefit from. AI Safety needs cognitive scientists, STEM people, historians, activists, political scientists, artists, journalists, content editors, Office Managers, educators, finance specialists, PAs- if you truly think your background is irrelevant, send me a DM and I’m happy to take bets on whether I can find a position that would benefit from your skillset. ;-)
(Anecdotally, I used to be a teacher, and I’m now working on case studies for AI Standards, field-building and Research Management. It turned out people really appreciate it when you can explain something in clear terms, organize processes well and help others to engage with important but thorny ideas.)
On building skills: The field is so young and nascent that literally nobody is “on the ball” and while this is deeply concerning from an x-risk perspective, it is good news for you—there is a limited number of key concepts and models to understand. For many people, it’s is not too late to learn about these things and to build skills, and there are many resources and programs to support this.
Last but not least: Reach out to me if you’d like to discuss your options or just want to talk to a kind voice. I’d be happy to. :)