I would consider someone a “pretty good fit” (whatever that means) for alignment research if they started out with a relatively technical background, e.g. an undegrad degree in math/cs, but not really having engaged with alignment before and they were able to come up with a decent proposal after:
~10 hours of engaging with the ELK doc.
~10 hours of thinking about the document and resolving confusions they had, which might involve asking some questions to clarify the rules and the setup.
~10 hours of trying to come up with a proposal.
If someone starts from having thought about alignment a bunch, I would consider them a potentially “pretty good researcher” if they were able to come up with a decent proposal in 2-8 hours. I expect many existing (alignment) researchers to be able to come up with proposals in <1 hour.
Note that I’m saying “if (can come up with proposal in N hours), then (might be good alignment researcher)” and not saying the other implication also holds, e.g. it is not the case that “if (might be good alignment researcher), then (can come up with proposal in N hours)”
Note: I work for ARC.
I would consider someone a “pretty good fit” (whatever that means) for alignment research if they started out with a relatively technical background, e.g. an undegrad degree in math/cs, but not really having engaged with alignment before and they were able to come up with a decent proposal after:
~10 hours of engaging with the ELK doc.
~10 hours of thinking about the document and resolving confusions they had, which might involve asking some questions to clarify the rules and the setup.
~10 hours of trying to come up with a proposal.
If someone starts from having thought about alignment a bunch, I would consider them a potentially “pretty good researcher” if they were able to come up with a decent proposal in 2-8 hours. I expect many existing (alignment) researchers to be able to come up with proposals in <1 hour.
Note that I’m saying “if (can come up with proposal in N hours), then (might be good alignment researcher)” and not saying the other implication also holds, e.g. it is not the case that “if (might be good alignment researcher), then (can come up with proposal in N hours)”