I think that I am not particularly excited by this but mostly because it doesn’t feel like much of an update for me.
I know that Musk has had some kind of a relationship with EA and EA adjacent things in the past. When I hear them talk about x-risk they sound very similar to a lot of thoughtful EAs and like they have actually internalised how worrying AI is rather than just echoing the general sentiment. He seems to build/advise organisations to directly work on the problems that they think are important and be pretty good at it (Open AI, FLI, Neuralink …).
I care more about people ‘doing the EA thing’ than identifying as an EA, I don’t think much changes if he moves closer to the EA movement. I imagine that if they were ever going to be well networked with Holden et al. then they probably already are but either way, I think that they are well-positioned to continue to make substantial contributions to longtermist causes.
Edit: I probably sounded a bit unenthusiastic in the above but did upvote the post and I appreciate this kind of content on the forum.
I have a different intuition, fwiw. I think the value of Musk’s projects varies substantially. Having someone advocating for the more valuable projects seems good, at first glance.
I think that I am not particularly excited by this but mostly because it doesn’t feel like much of an update for me.
I know that Musk has had some kind of a relationship with EA and EA adjacent things in the past. When I hear them talk about x-risk they sound very similar to a lot of thoughtful EAs and like they have actually internalised how worrying AI is rather than just echoing the general sentiment. He seems to build/advise organisations to directly work on the problems that they think are important and be pretty good at it (Open AI, FLI, Neuralink …).
I care more about people ‘doing the EA thing’ than identifying as an EA, I don’t think much changes if he moves closer to the EA movement. I imagine that if they were ever going to be well networked with Holden et al. then they probably already are but either way, I think that they are well-positioned to continue to make substantial contributions to longtermist causes.
Edit: I probably sounded a bit unenthusiastic in the above but did upvote the post and I appreciate this kind of content on the forum.
I have a different intuition, fwiw. I think the value of Musk’s projects varies substantially. Having someone advocating for the more valuable projects seems good, at first glance.
Yeah, that’s fair. The little that I know about Igor Kurganov makes me think that they might be especially great in this kind of a role.
I think I expected something like a huge donation to give Directly in the next 3 years. So this is both sooner and potentially more effective.
As for the unenthusiastic tone, it’s chill. I’d prefer people were honest than that they were enthusiastic.