Congrats to Zach! I feel like this is mostly supposed to be a “quick update/celebratory post”, but I feel like there’s a missing mood that I want to convey in this comment. Note that my thoughts mostly come from an AI Safety perspective, so these thoughts may be less relevant for folks who focus on other cause areas.
My impression is that EA is currently facing an unprecedented about of PR backlash, as well as some solid internal criticisms among core EAs who are now distancing from EA. I suspect this will likely continue into 2024. Some examples:
EA has acquired several external enemies as a result of the OpenAI coup. I suspect that investors/accelerationists will be looking for ways to (further) damage EA’s reputation.
EA is acquiring external enemies as a result of its political engagements. There have been a few news articles recently criticizing EA-affiliated or EA-influenced fellowship programs and think-tanks.
EA is acquiring an increasing number of internal critics. Informally, I feel like many people I know (myself included) have become increasingly dissatisfied with the “modern EA movement” and “mainstream EA institutions”. Examples of common criticisms include “low integrity/low openness”, “low willingness to critique powerful EA institutions”, “low willingness to take actions in the world that advocate directly/openly for beliefs”, “cozyness with AI labs”, “general slowness/inaction bias”, and “lack of willingness to support groups pushing for concrete policies to curb the AI race.” (I’ll acknowledge that some of these are more controversial than others and could reflect genuine worldview differences, though even so, my impression is that they’re meaningfully contributing to a schism in ways that go beyond typical worldview differences).
I’d be curious to know how CEA is reacting to this. The answer might be “well, we don’t really focus much on AI safety, so we don’t really see this as our thing to respond to.” The answer might be “we think these criticisms are unfair/low-quality, so we’re going to ignore them.” Or the answer might be “we take X criticism super seriously and are planning to do Y about it.”
Regardless, I suspect that this is an especially important and challenging time to be the CEO of CEA. I hope Zach (and others at CEA) are able to navigate the increasing public scrutiny & internal scrutiny of EA that I suspect will continue into 2024.
I strongly agree that being associated with EA in AI policy is increasingly difficult (as many articles and individuals’ posts on social media can attest), in particular in Europe, DC, and the Bay Area.
I appreciate Akash’s comment, and at the same time, I understand the object of this post is not to ask for people’s opinions about what the priorities of CEA would be, so I won’t go too much into detail. I want to highlight that I’m really excited for Zach Robinson to lead CEA!
With my current knowledge of the situation in three different jurisdictions, I’ll simply comment that there is a huge problem related to EA connections and AI policy at the moment. I would support CEA getting strong PR support so that there is a voice defending EA rather than mostly receiving punches. I truly appreciate the CEA’s communication efforts over the last year and it’s very plausible that CEA needs more than one person working on this. One alternative is for most people working on AI policy to cut their former connections to EA which I think is a shame due to the usually good epistemics and motivation the community brings. (In any case, the AI safety movement should become more and more independent and “big tent” as soon as possible and I’m looking forward to more energy being put into PR there.)
These are all good points, but I suspect it could be a mistake for EA to focus too much on PR. Very important to listen carefully to people’s concerns, but I also think we need the confidence to forge our own path.
Could you explain a bit more what you mean by “confidence to forge our own path”? I think if the validity of the claims made about AI safety is systematically attacked due to EA connections, there is a strong reason to worry about this. I find that it makes it more difficult for a bunch of people to have an impact on AI policy.
The costs of chasing good PR are larger than they first appear: at the start you’re just talking about things differently, but soon enough it distorts your epistemics.
At the same time, these actions make less of a difference than you might expect. Some people are just looking for a reason to criticism you and will find a different reason. People will still attack you based on what happened in the past.
Congrats to Zach! I feel like this is mostly supposed to be a “quick update/celebratory post”, but I feel like there’s a missing mood that I want to convey in this comment. Note that my thoughts mostly come from an AI Safety perspective, so these thoughts may be less relevant for folks who focus on other cause areas.
My impression is that EA is currently facing an unprecedented about of PR backlash, as well as some solid internal criticisms among core EAs who are now distancing from EA. I suspect this will likely continue into 2024. Some examples:
EA has acquired several external enemies as a result of the OpenAI coup. I suspect that investors/accelerationists will be looking for ways to (further) damage EA’s reputation.
EA is acquiring external enemies as a result of its political engagements. There have been a few news articles recently criticizing EA-affiliated or EA-influenced fellowship programs and think-tanks.
EA is acquiring an increasing number of internal critics. Informally, I feel like many people I know (myself included) have become increasingly dissatisfied with the “modern EA movement” and “mainstream EA institutions”. Examples of common criticisms include “low integrity/low openness”, “low willingness to critique powerful EA institutions”, “low willingness to take actions in the world that advocate directly/openly for beliefs”, “cozyness with AI labs”, “general slowness/inaction bias”, and “lack of willingness to support groups pushing for concrete policies to curb the AI race.” (I’ll acknowledge that some of these are more controversial than others and could reflect genuine worldview differences, though even so, my impression is that they’re meaningfully contributing to a schism in ways that go beyond typical worldview differences).
I’d be curious to know how CEA is reacting to this. The answer might be “well, we don’t really focus much on AI safety, so we don’t really see this as our thing to respond to.” The answer might be “we think these criticisms are unfair/low-quality, so we’re going to ignore them.” Or the answer might be “we take X criticism super seriously and are planning to do Y about it.”
Regardless, I suspect that this is an especially important and challenging time to be the CEO of CEA. I hope Zach (and others at CEA) are able to navigate the increasing public scrutiny & internal scrutiny of EA that I suspect will continue into 2024.
I strongly agree that being associated with EA in AI policy is increasingly difficult (as many articles and individuals’ posts on social media can attest), in particular in Europe, DC, and the Bay Area.
I appreciate Akash’s comment, and at the same time, I understand the object of this post is not to ask for people’s opinions about what the priorities of CEA would be, so I won’t go too much into detail. I want to highlight that I’m really excited for Zach Robinson to lead CEA!
With my current knowledge of the situation in three different jurisdictions, I’ll simply comment that there is a huge problem related to EA connections and AI policy at the moment. I would support CEA getting strong PR support so that there is a voice defending EA rather than mostly receiving punches. I truly appreciate the CEA’s communication efforts over the last year and it’s very plausible that CEA needs more than one person working on this. One alternative is for most people working on AI policy to cut their former connections to EA which I think is a shame due to the usually good epistemics and motivation the community brings. (In any case, the AI safety movement should become more and more independent and “big tent” as soon as possible and I’m looking forward to more energy being put into PR there.)
These are all good points, but I suspect it could be a mistake for EA to focus too much on PR. Very important to listen carefully to people’s concerns, but I also think we need the confidence to forge our own path.
Could you explain a bit more what you mean by “confidence to forge our own path”? I think if the validity of the claims made about AI safety is systematically attacked due to EA connections, there is a strong reason to worry about this. I find that it makes it more difficult for a bunch of people to have an impact on AI policy.
The costs of chasing good PR are larger than they first appear: at the start you’re just talking about things differently, but soon enough it distorts your epistemics.
At the same time, these actions make less of a difference than you might expect. Some people are just looking for a reason to criticism you and will find a different reason. People will still attack you based on what happened in the past.