Seems like academic research groups would be a better reference class than YC companies for most alignment labs.
If they’re trying to build an org that scales a lot, and is funded by selling products, YC companies is a good reference class, but if they’re an org of researchers working somewhat independently or collaborating on hard technical problems, funded by grants, that sounds much more similar to an academic research group.
Unsure how to define success for an academic research group, any ideas? They seem to more often be exploratory and less goal-oriented.
Seems like academic research groups would be a better reference class than YC companies for most alignment labs.
If they’re trying to build an org that scales a lot, and is funded by selling products, YC companies is a good reference class, but if they’re an org of researchers working somewhat independently or collaborating on hard technical problems, funded by grants, that sounds much more similar to an academic research group.
Unsure how to define success for an academic research group, any ideas? They seem to more often be exploratory and less goal-oriented.