Hello, from Brazil, a low-middle income class. Also, I’m a rising Junior pursuing an Electrical Engineer Degree at NYU (in case there are other students that want to connect), I have been always interested in space. My specific ‘end career goal’ would be working on robotics or AI safety for Space Systems, to make sure the robots and AI being used inside and outside earth can be safe, aligned and prevented from hacked. I do feel sometimes that my major can give me a spike on that field but also I feel a lack of skills mainly related to algorithms. To solve that I’ve been focusing on coding projects and have been looking for opportunities to gather skills. What could be the best path that I could take for my end objective? In an EA perspective is a problem that the community is looking to address? What could be maybe people that I could contact or opportunities that I could apply to get skills or a glimpse of this field/research?
I’m still understanding if I would work on the implementation of AI/robotics or on safety research
thank you for providing details about your situation and the questions asked.
Especially at the beginning of your career journey it can be valuable to build career capital towards high-impact AI Safety roles. You might also want to look at training programs / fellowships that you can find here, and apply to those that fit your background.
I will provide you with some more resources that could be insightful in terms of how to transition into the AIS Research space:
Hello, from Brazil, a low-middle income class. Also, I’m a rising Junior pursuing an Electrical Engineer Degree at NYU (in case there are other students that want to connect), I have been always interested in space. My specific ‘end career goal’ would be working on robotics or AI safety for Space Systems, to make sure the robots and AI being used inside and outside earth can be safe, aligned and prevented from hacked. I do feel sometimes that my major can give me a spike on that field but also I feel a lack of skills mainly related to algorithms. To solve that I’ve been focusing on coding projects and have been looking for opportunities to gather skills. What could be the best path that I could take for my end objective? In an EA perspective is a problem that the community is looking to address? What could be maybe people that I could contact or opportunities that I could apply to get skills or a glimpse of this field/research?
I’m still understanding if I would work on the implementation of AI/robotics or on safety research
Hi,
thank you for providing details about your situation and the questions asked.
Especially at the beginning of your career journey it can be valuable to build career capital towards high-impact AI Safety roles. You might also want to look at training programs / fellowships that you can find here, and apply to those that fit your background.
I will provide you with some more resources that could be insightful in terms of how to transition into the AIS Research space:
ML Safety Research Advice—GabeM
Levelling Up in AI Safety Research Engineering
How to pursue a career in technical AI alignment (Charlie Rogers-Smith)
AGI safety career advice (Richard Ngo)
Tips for Empirical Alignment Research (Ethan Perez)
2025 Engineering Reading List (Latent Space)
AI Safety Research Gaps (2025)
Some questions for you:
Do you already have more concrete ideas where your skills and motivation could have an impact on the AI Safety (research) space?
How technical (e.g. coding) vs. high-level (e.g. technical project management) do you want to be?
What did you most enjoy during your studies or past jobs? How could those underlying skills be translated into impactful work?
Hope this is a good starting point.
All the best,
Simon (Career Advisor @ Successif)