Hey, as someone who also has professional CS and DS experience, this was a really welcome and interesting read. I have all sorts of thoughts but I had one main question
So I used the AGISF Slack to find people who had already had a background in machine learning before getting into AI safety and asked them what had originally convinced them. Finally, I got answers from 3 people who fit my search criteria. They mentioned some different sources of first hearing about AI safety (80 000 Hours and LessWrong), but all three mentioned one same source that had deeply influenced them: Superintelligence.
When I read this I remembered that I was one of the folks you reached out to on Slack! But I didn’t mention Superintelligence at all (though in fact I have read it and have a generally good opinion of it, though it was several years ago). I guess I didn’t fit your criteria quite right? In my case I had CS and a little academic AI, but no professional DS/ML experience, before getting ‘into’ AI safety. Interested to know what other people you spoke to and for what reasons they didn’t fall into the criteria you were looking for.
That’s right, thanks again for answering my question back then!
Maybe I formulated my question wrong but I understood from your answer that you got first interested in AI safety, and only then on DS/ML (you mentioned you had had a CS background before but not your academic AI experience). This is why I did not include you in this sample of 3 persons—I wanted to narrow the search to people who had more AI specific background before getting into AI safety (not just CS). It is true that you did not mention Superintelligence either, but interesting to hear you also had a good opinion on it! If I would have known both your academic AI experience and that you liked Superintelligence I could have made the number to 4 (unless you think Superintelligence did not really influence you, then it would be 3 out of 4).
You were the only person who answered my PM but stated they got into AI safety before getting to DS/ML. One person did not answer, and the other 3 that answered stated they got into DS/ML before AI safety. I guess there are more than 6 people with some DS/ML background on the course channel but also know not everyone introduced themselves, so the sample size is very anecdotal anyway.
I also used the Slack to ask for recommendations of blog posts or similar stories on how people with DS/ML backgrounds got into AI safety. Aside of recommendations on who to talk on the Slack, I got pointers to Stuart Russell’s interview on Sam Harris’ podcast and a Yudkowsky post.
Hey, as someone who also has professional CS and DS experience, this was a really welcome and interesting read. I have all sorts of thoughts but I had one main question
When I read this I remembered that I was one of the folks you reached out to on Slack! But I didn’t mention Superintelligence at all (though in fact I have read it and have a generally good opinion of it, though it was several years ago). I guess I didn’t fit your criteria quite right? In my case I had CS and a little academic AI, but no professional DS/ML experience, before getting ‘into’ AI safety. Interested to know what other people you spoke to and for what reasons they didn’t fall into the criteria you were looking for.
That’s right, thanks again for answering my question back then!
Maybe I formulated my question wrong but I understood from your answer that you got first interested in AI safety, and only then on DS/ML (you mentioned you had had a CS background before but not your academic AI experience). This is why I did not include you in this sample of 3 persons—I wanted to narrow the search to people who had more AI specific background before getting into AI safety (not just CS). It is true that you did not mention Superintelligence either, but interesting to hear you also had a good opinion on it! If I would have known both your academic AI experience and that you liked Superintelligence I could have made the number to 4 (unless you think Superintelligence did not really influence you, then it would be 3 out of 4).
You were the only person who answered my PM but stated they got into AI safety before getting to DS/ML. One person did not answer, and the other 3 that answered stated they got into DS/ML before AI safety. I guess there are more than 6 people with some DS/ML background on the course channel but also know not everyone introduced themselves, so the sample size is very anecdotal anyway.
I also used the Slack to ask for recommendations of blog posts or similar stories on how people with DS/ML backgrounds got into AI safety. Aside of recommendations on who to talk on the Slack, I got pointers to Stuart Russell’s interview on Sam Harris’ podcast and a Yudkowsky post.