“Also, our approach to decision theory stirred up a lot of interest from professional decision theorists at last year’s Cambridge conference; expect more about this in the next few months.”
A quick note to say that comments that have made their way back to me from relevant circles agree with this.
Also, my own impression—from within academia, but outside decision theory and AI—is that the level of recognition of, and respect for, MIRI’s work is steadily rising in academia, although inferential gaps like what nate describes certainly exist, plus more generic cultural gaps. I’ve heard positive comments about MIRI’s work from academics I wouldn’t have expected even to have heard of MIRI. And my impression, from popping by things like Cambridge’s MIRIx discussion group, is that they’re populated for the most part by capable people with standard academic backgrounds who have become involved based on the merits of the work rather than any existing connection to MIRI (although I imagine some are or were lesswrong readers).
“Also, our approach to decision theory stirred up a lot of interest from professional decision theorists at last year’s Cambridge conference; expect more about this in the next few months.” A quick note to say that comments that have made their way back to me from relevant circles agree with this. Also, my own impression—from within academia, but outside decision theory and AI—is that the level of recognition of, and respect for, MIRI’s work is steadily rising in academia, although inferential gaps like what nate describes certainly exist, plus more generic cultural gaps. I’ve heard positive comments about MIRI’s work from academics I wouldn’t have expected even to have heard of MIRI. And my impression, from popping by things like Cambridge’s MIRIx discussion group, is that they’re populated for the most part by capable people with standard academic backgrounds who have become involved based on the merits of the work rather than any existing connection to MIRI (although I imagine some are or were lesswrong readers).