My intuition is that this would be a good time to formalize the structure of the newsletter somewhat, especially given that there are multiple contributors & you are starting to function more as an editor.
Could do by incorporating a small publishing organization that produces the newsletter, or by housing the newsletter in an existing organization. The former would be more work, but also seems better (less worry that we’re getting DeepMind (or whoever’s) spin if it’s coming out of an independent org).
Plausibly it’s fine to keep it as an informal research product, but I’d guess that “AI alignment newsletter editor” could basically be (or soon become) a full-time job.
incorporating a small publishing organization that produces the newsletter...
Could get a grant to fund this, or could do a pay-per-subscription model (a la Ben Thompson’s Stratechery, which I believe has > $1 million in annual revenue entirely from $10/month subscribers).
My intuition is that this would be a good time to formalize the structure of the newsletter somewhat, especially given that there are multiple contributors & you are starting to function more as an editor.
Certainly more systems are being put into place, which is kind of like “formalizing the structure”. Creating an organization feels like a high fixed cost for not much benefit—what do you think the main benefits would be? (Maybe this is combined with paying content writers and editors, in which case an organization might make more sense?)
Plausibly it’s fine to keep it as an informal research product, but I’d guess that “AI alignment newsletter editor” could basically be (or soon become) a full-time job.
If I were to make this my full-time job, the newsletter would approximately double in length (assuming I found enough content to cover), and I’d expect that people wouldn’t read most of it. (People already don’t read all of it, I’m pretty sure.) What do you think would be the value of more time put into the newsletter?
(Maybe this is combined with paying content writers and editors, in which case an organization might make more sense?)
Right, that’s what I was gesturing towards.
What do you think would be the value of more time put into the newsletter?
This was in response to “the growing amount of AI safety research.”
Presumably as there is more research, it takes more time to read & assess the forthcoming literature to figure out what’s important / worth including in the newsletter.
This was in response to “the growing amount of AI safety research.”
Yeah, I think I phrased that question poorly. The question is both “should all of it be summarized” and “if yes, how can that be done”.
Presumably as there is more research, it takes more time to read & assess the forthcoming literature to figure out what’s important / worth including in the newsletter.
I feel relatively capable of that—I think I can figure out for any given reading whether I want to include it in ~5 minutes or so with relatively high accuracy. It’s actually reading and summarizing it that takes time.
My intuition is that this would be a good time to formalize the structure of the newsletter somewhat, especially given that there are multiple contributors & you are starting to function more as an editor.
Could do by incorporating a small publishing organization that produces the newsletter, or by housing the newsletter in an existing organization. The former would be more work, but also seems better (less worry that we’re getting DeepMind (or whoever’s) spin if it’s coming out of an independent org).
Plausibly it’s fine to keep it as an informal research product, but I’d guess that “AI alignment newsletter editor” could basically be (or soon become) a full-time job.
Could get a grant to fund this, or could do a pay-per-subscription model (a la Ben Thompson’s Stratechery, which I believe has > $1 million in annual revenue entirely from $10/month subscribers).
Certainly more systems are being put into place, which is kind of like “formalizing the structure”. Creating an organization feels like a high fixed cost for not much benefit—what do you think the main benefits would be? (Maybe this is combined with paying content writers and editors, in which case an organization might make more sense?)
If I were to make this my full-time job, the newsletter would approximately double in length (assuming I found enough content to cover), and I’d expect that people wouldn’t read most of it. (People already don’t read all of it, I’m pretty sure.) What do you think would be the value of more time put into the newsletter?
Right, that’s what I was gesturing towards.
This was in response to “the growing amount of AI safety research.”
Presumably as there is more research, it takes more time to read & assess the forthcoming literature to figure out what’s important / worth including in the newsletter.
Yeah, I think I phrased that question poorly. The question is both “should all of it be summarized” and “if yes, how can that be done”.
I feel relatively capable of that—I think I can figure out for any given reading whether I want to include it in ~5 minutes or so with relatively high accuracy. It’s actually reading and summarizing it that takes time.