I would be very much in favour of shifting the epicentre of the EA community to the East coast (Boston, NYC, and DC in particular), at least for the next 10 years. There are lots of good reasons for this:
It is geographically in the middle of the UK, Bay Area, Bahamas, and accessible from Africa and most of the Middle East.
Boston is a bio hub, and DC is important for Policy.
Over 100 EAs live in NYC, whilst another 150+ live in Boston and DC
There are likely to be 200+ seats of dedicated EA coworking spaces in NYC and Boston within the next 8 months.
Boston and DC have lower (but still globally exorbitant) costs of living compared to the Bay Area.
Boston, NYC, and DC are global cultural hubs and have lots of great restaurants, museums, concerts, and natural attractions.
There are many more extremely good universities in Boston, NYC, and DC than the Bay Area.
There are lots of advantages to being based in the Bay Area. It seems both easier and higher upside to solve the Berkeley real estate issue that to coordinate a move away from the Bay Area.
Open Phil funds pro-housing advocacy, whose benefits are especially concentrated in areas like Berkeley, so these benefits will flow through to the EA and AIS communities as well.
I think that San Diego would be an excellent hub for EAs, especially people in the AI Alignment community
Climate—Great weather all year round, arguably even better than the bay area—most days sit in a very comfortable range of 65 to 75 degrees.
Culture—it’s important to be able to relax, and while the bay tends to have a very hardworking culture, this culture is probably not great for idea generation. My vibe from San Diego is that it’s a more relaxing place where people tend to value clearing their mind, walking on the beach, and generally living a mentally healthy lifestyle.
Expenses—Cost of living is on average 28% lower than SF and has pretty good public transportation (e.g. it has a light rail system, unlike Berkeley).
Housing and workspaces—San Diego has less strain on its real estate and (I’m guessing) has fewer regulations than many cities in the bay, making it much easier to purchase large houses and workspaces. There are also some WeWorks throughout the city.
Location—Ultimately, to coordinate a movement to a different city, a founder group has to start it off. I’d argue that the East Coast too far and dissimilar to SF for people to move, especially because they’d need to come back to SF frequently for events and meetups and that’s a long flight. San Diego, meanwhile, is less than a 2-hour flight away.
Additionally, moving to the East Coast weakens the connection to Asia. While Europe is certainly important, there are more people in China alone than in all of Europe, and having a strong connection between the AI Safety community and China seems very important.
Disadvantages
Unlike the East Coast or SF, there really isn’t much tech infrastructure currently built up in San Diego
There aren’t particularly good universities in San Diego, and recruitment from Stanford and UC Berkeley would be harder
Although AI Alignment people can move around, capabilities orgs won’t move with us, and in my view it’s very important to be able to work closely with them
I’m not convinced that the AI Safety community should move at all, but if it is to move, I think that a place like San Diego would be a natural place to consider.
2 hours from new york, a little over 2 from DC, something like 5-7 to boston depending on if you drive or amtrak.
EA Philly’s discord has about a hundred people
A wework cluster (spearheaded by rethink priorities) has a bunch of empty desks at the time of this writing!
rent under a thousand is quite easy to find for a lot of different types of people and needs (I pay more than anyone in my house and i’m at like 537 lol)
Penn has a reasonable EA history, has hard coursework and some cool profs and students.
Adequate public transit
Not philly:
Volume of entrepreneurial vibes is small. At a meetup you’re more likely to run into a “since there’s no free will we might as well all not try / rationality is a social club it’s not about kicking ass and winning” guy than a “well I’ve been working on project xyz” or “my theory of change is abc” guy (by an astounding factor).
Summers are too hot and humid, winters are too cold. lol. The sweet spot of no complaints doesn’t feel actively too short to count tbh, it’s really only the worst part of the summer and the worst part of the winter that I can be caught whining about it.
You should talk to the people who bailed from Penn EA about what they don’t like about Philly
“The main bottleneck to solving existential risks is Berkeley real estate.” -leader of a high-in-demand Berkeley EA coworking space
Where can EAs coordinate to move to (that is not the oversaturated San Francisco Bay Area)?
I would be very much in favour of shifting the epicentre of the EA community to the East coast (Boston, NYC, and DC in particular), at least for the next 10 years. There are lots of good reasons for this:
It is geographically in the middle of the UK, Bay Area, Bahamas, and accessible from Africa and most of the Middle East.
Boston is a bio hub, and DC is important for Policy.
Over 100 EAs live in NYC, whilst another 150+ live in Boston and DC
There are likely to be 200+ seats of dedicated EA coworking spaces in NYC and Boston within the next 8 months.
Boston and DC have lower (but still globally exorbitant) costs of living compared to the Bay Area.
Boston, NYC, and DC are global cultural hubs and have lots of great restaurants, museums, concerts, and natural attractions.
There are many more extremely good universities in Boston, NYC, and DC than the Bay Area.
There are lots of advantages to being based in the Bay Area. It seems both easier and higher upside to solve the Berkeley real estate issue that to coordinate a move away from the Bay Area.
Open Phil funds pro-housing advocacy, whose benefits are especially concentrated in areas like Berkeley, so these benefits will flow through to the EA and AIS communities as well.
The case for San Diego
I think that San Diego would be an excellent hub for EAs, especially people in the AI Alignment community
Climate—Great weather all year round, arguably even better than the bay area—most days sit in a very comfortable range of 65 to 75 degrees.
Culture—it’s important to be able to relax, and while the bay tends to have a very hardworking culture, this culture is probably not great for idea generation. My vibe from San Diego is that it’s a more relaxing place where people tend to value clearing their mind, walking on the beach, and generally living a mentally healthy lifestyle.
Expenses—Cost of living is on average 28% lower than SF and has pretty good public transportation (e.g. it has a light rail system, unlike Berkeley).
Housing and workspaces—San Diego has less strain on its real estate and (I’m guessing) has fewer regulations than many cities in the bay, making it much easier to purchase large houses and workspaces. There are also some WeWorks throughout the city.
Location—Ultimately, to coordinate a movement to a different city, a founder group has to start it off. I’d argue that the East Coast too far and dissimilar to SF for people to move, especially because they’d need to come back to SF frequently for events and meetups and that’s a long flight. San Diego, meanwhile, is less than a 2-hour flight away.
Additionally, moving to the East Coast weakens the connection to Asia. While Europe is certainly important, there are more people in China alone than in all of Europe, and having a strong connection between the AI Safety community and China seems very important.
Disadvantages
Unlike the East Coast or SF, there really isn’t much tech infrastructure currently built up in San Diego
There aren’t particularly good universities in San Diego, and recruitment from Stanford and UC Berkeley would be harder
Although AI Alignment people can move around, capabilities orgs won’t move with us, and in my view it’s very important to be able to work closely with them
I’m not convinced that the AI Safety community should move at all, but if it is to move, I think that a place like San Diego would be a natural place to consider.
the philly value prop
2 hours from new york, a little over 2 from DC, something like 5-7 to boston depending on if you drive or amtrak.
EA Philly’s discord has about a hundred people
A wework cluster (spearheaded by rethink priorities) has a bunch of empty desks at the time of this writing!
rent under a thousand is quite easy to find for a lot of different types of people and needs (I pay more than anyone in my house and i’m at like 537 lol)
Penn has a reasonable EA history, has hard coursework and some cool profs and students.
Adequate public transit
Not philly:
Volume of entrepreneurial vibes is small. At a meetup you’re more likely to run into a “since there’s no free will we might as well all not try / rationality is a social club it’s not about kicking ass and winning” guy than a “well I’ve been working on project xyz” or “my theory of change is abc” guy (by an astounding factor).
Summers are too hot and humid, winters are too cold. lol. The sweet spot of no complaints doesn’t feel actively too short to count tbh, it’s really only the worst part of the summer and the worst part of the winter that I can be caught whining about it.
You should talk to the people who bailed from Penn EA about what they don’t like about Philly
Reach out to me for a couch if you want to visit!
I’m expecting Berlin to really take off as a hub.