(Speaking for myself, not OpenPhil, who I wouldn’t be able to speak for anyways.)
For what it’s worth, I’m pretty critical of deep learning, which is the approach OpenAI wants to take, and still think the grant to OpenAI was a pretty good idea; and I can’t really think of anyone more familiar with MIRI’s work than Paul who isn’t already at MIRI (note that Paul started out pursuing MIRI’s approach and shifted in an ML direction over time).
That being said, I agree that the public write-up on the OpenAI grant doesn’t reflect that well on OpenPhil, and it seems correct for people like you to demand better moving forward (although I’m not sure that adding HRAD researchers as TAs is the solution; also note that OPP does consult regularly with MIRI staff, though I don’t know if they did for the OpenAI grant).
I can’t really think of anyone more familiar with MIRI’s work than Paul who isn’t already at MIRI (note that Paul started out pursuing MIRI’s approach and shifted in an ML direction over time).
The Agent Foundations Forum would have been a good place to look for more people familiar with MIRI’s work. Aside from Paul, I see Stuart Armstrong, Abram Demski, Vadim Kosoy, Tsvi Benson-Tilsen, Sam Eisenstat, Vladimir Slepnev, Janos Kramar, Alex Mennen, and many others. (Abram, Tsvi, and Sam have since joined MIRI, but weren’t employees of it at the time of the Open Phil grant.)
That being said, I agree that the public write-up on the OpenAI grant doesn’t reflect that well on OpenPhil, and it seems correct for people like you to demand better moving forward
I had previously seen some complaints about the way the OpenAI grant was made, but until your comment, hadn’t thought of a possible group blind spot due to a common ML perspective. If you have any further insights on this and related issues (like why you’re critical of deep learning but still think the grant to OpenAI was a pretty good idea, what are your objections to Paul’s AI alignment approach, how could Open Phil have done better), would you please write them down somewhere?
(Speaking for myself, not OpenPhil, who I wouldn’t be able to speak for anyways.)
For what it’s worth, I’m pretty critical of deep learning, which is the approach OpenAI wants to take, and still think the grant to OpenAI was a pretty good idea; and I can’t really think of anyone more familiar with MIRI’s work than Paul who isn’t already at MIRI (note that Paul started out pursuing MIRI’s approach and shifted in an ML direction over time).
That being said, I agree that the public write-up on the OpenAI grant doesn’t reflect that well on OpenPhil, and it seems correct for people like you to demand better moving forward (although I’m not sure that adding HRAD researchers as TAs is the solution; also note that OPP does consult regularly with MIRI staff, though I don’t know if they did for the OpenAI grant).
The Agent Foundations Forum would have been a good place to look for more people familiar with MIRI’s work. Aside from Paul, I see Stuart Armstrong, Abram Demski, Vadim Kosoy, Tsvi Benson-Tilsen, Sam Eisenstat, Vladimir Slepnev, Janos Kramar, Alex Mennen, and many others. (Abram, Tsvi, and Sam have since joined MIRI, but weren’t employees of it at the time of the Open Phil grant.)
I had previously seen some complaints about the way the OpenAI grant was made, but until your comment, hadn’t thought of a possible group blind spot due to a common ML perspective. If you have any further insights on this and related issues (like why you’re critical of deep learning but still think the grant to OpenAI was a pretty good idea, what are your objections to Paul’s AI alignment approach, how could Open Phil have done better), would you please write them down somewhere?