Thanks for this update and for all the work you’re doing!
A potential pivot toward AI safety feels pretty significant, especially for such a core “big tent EA” team. Is it correct to interpret this as a reflection of the team’s cause prioritization? Or is this instead because of (1) particularly poor community health in the non-EA AI safety community relative to other causes, (2) part of a plan to spin off into other EA-adjacent spaces, or (3) something else?
I’m a little worried that use of the word pivot was a mistake on my part in that it maybe implies more of a change than I expect; if so, apologies.
I think this is best understood as a combination of
Maybe this is really important, especially right now [which I guess is indeed a subset of cause prioritization]
Maybe there are unusually high leverage things to do in that space right now
Maybe the counterfactual is worse—it’s a space with a lot of new energy, new organizations, etc, and so a lot more opportunity for re-making old mistakes, not a lot of institutional knowledge, and so on.
I think this basically agrees with your point (1), but as a hypothesis, not a conclusion
In addition, there is an unusual amount of money and power flowing around this space right now, and so it might warrant extra attention
This is a small effect, but we’ve received some requests from within this space to pay more attention to it, which seems like some (small) evidence
Thanks for this update and for all the work you’re doing!
A potential pivot toward AI safety feels pretty significant, especially for such a core “big tent EA” team. Is it correct to interpret this as a reflection of the team’s cause prioritization? Or is this instead because of (1) particularly poor community health in the non-EA AI safety community relative to other causes, (2) part of a plan to spin off into other EA-adjacent spaces, or (3) something else?
I’m a little worried that use of the word pivot was a mistake on my part in that it maybe implies more of a change than I expect; if so, apologies.
I think this is best understood as a combination of
Maybe this is really important, especially right now [which I guess is indeed a subset of cause prioritization]
Maybe there are unusually high leverage things to do in that space right now
Maybe the counterfactual is worse—it’s a space with a lot of new energy, new organizations, etc, and so a lot more opportunity for re-making old mistakes, not a lot of institutional knowledge, and so on.
I think this basically agrees with your point (1), but as a hypothesis, not a conclusion
In addition, there is an unusual amount of money and power flowing around this space right now, and so it might warrant extra attention
This is a small effect, but we’ve received some requests from within this space to pay more attention to it, which seems like some (small) evidence