Hmm I don’t have a survey results but I think this is a common concern for people who get entry-level offers at EA orgs, or who think they have a high chance to. I feel like some Rethink interns face this dilemma for example.
David Bernard also recently left RP to focus on his economics PhD. He seems good at it, but he also seemed good at RP work, and I got the impression that this was a hard call for him.
To consider other examples, people who can become ML safety engineers at Anthropic or Redwood probably also have alternative options including a) be among the first AI safety-inclined people at eg, FAIR or Microsoft Research, or b) get into top N ML PhD program.
(I think the more EA-aligned ppl empirically end up going to an EA org most of the time, but I’ve definitely talked to people who think this is collectively a bad decision for our community)
Similarly, depending on nationality and temperament, people who are interested in doing AI or biosecurity policy research in entry-level positions at EA orgs are often also viable for entry-level policy positions in national gov’ts, giving them instead the chance to eventually influence policy directly from within the system.
(Separating out my thoughts into separate comments as I have a handful!)
I’m interested to know on the meta-level what motivated you to ask this question. Do you see this as a common dilemma in the community?
Hmm I don’t have a survey results but I think this is a common concern for people who get entry-level offers at EA orgs, or who think they have a high chance to. I feel like some Rethink interns face this dilemma for example.
David Bernard also recently left RP to focus on his economics PhD. He seems good at it, but he also seemed good at RP work, and I got the impression that this was a hard call for him.
To consider other examples, people who can become ML safety engineers at Anthropic or Redwood probably also have alternative options including a) be among the first AI safety-inclined people at eg, FAIR or Microsoft Research, or b) get into top N ML PhD program.
(I think the more EA-aligned ppl empirically end up going to an EA org most of the time, but I’ve definitely talked to people who think this is collectively a bad decision for our community)
Similarly, depending on nationality and temperament, people who are interested in doing AI or biosecurity policy research in entry-level positions at EA orgs are often also viable for entry-level policy positions in national gov’ts, giving them instead the chance to eventually influence policy directly from within the system.