I am surprised that you mention technical AI Safety as something you don’t do under what I consider “prioritization research”, which I didn’t before posting my question was apparently a concept I used mostly internally 😊 Linch’s mention of it below was in the context of understanding it’s importance rather than trying to solve it, which I guess is how I’d carve up “prioritization research”.
I guess that for similar reasons I’d expect RP to focus less on solving (longtermist or other) problems. Just to make sure, could examples like the following be in RP’s scope if you had the right people/situation?
Suggesting safe ways to use certain geoengineering mehcanisms.
Developing methods for increased empathy toward future people.
Proposing and defining a governmental institute for future generations.
Developing economic models for incentives of great power war under futuristic scenarios like space expansion and proposing mechanisms to manage the risk of war.
Linch’s mention of it below was in the context of understanding its importance rather than trying to solve it, which I guess is how I’d carve up “prioritization research”.
I think what counts as prioritization vs object-level research of the form “trying to solve X” does not obviously have clean boundaries, for example a scoping paper like Concrete Problems in AI Safety is something that a) should arguably be considered prioritization research and b) is arguably better done by somebody who’s familiar with (and connected in) AI.
Yes, I think all the things you mentioned are projects that are “within the scope” of RP (not that we would necessarily do them). We see our scope as being very broad so that we can always do the highest impact projects.
Thanks, that’s interesting to hear. I guess that the mission statement is broad enough to allow it :)
I have some concerns about this approach, mostly as it relates to developing research and organizational expertise, and possibly discouraging the creation of new research organizations. However, I’m sure that these kinds of considerations go into your case-by-case decision-making process and I imagine that these problems would only be crucial when EA and RP scales-up and matures more.
I am surprised that you mention technical AI Safety as something you don’t do under what I consider “prioritization research”, which I didn’t before posting my question was apparently a concept I used mostly internally 😊 Linch’s mention of it below was in the context of understanding it’s importance rather than trying to solve it, which I guess is how I’d carve up “prioritization research”.
I guess that for similar reasons I’d expect RP to focus less on solving (longtermist or other) problems. Just to make sure, could examples like the following be in RP’s scope if you had the right people/situation?
Suggesting safe ways to use certain geoengineering mehcanisms.
Developing methods for increased empathy toward future people.
Proposing and defining a governmental institute for future generations.
Developing economic models for incentives of great power war under futuristic scenarios like space expansion and proposing mechanisms to manage the risk of war.
I think what counts as prioritization vs object-level research of the form “trying to solve X” does not obviously have clean boundaries, for example a scoping paper like Concrete Problems in AI Safety is something that a) should arguably be considered prioritization research and b) is arguably better done by somebody who’s familiar with (and connected in) AI.
Yes, I think all the things you mentioned are projects that are “within the scope” of RP (not that we would necessarily do them). We see our scope as being very broad so that we can always do the highest impact projects.
Thanks, that’s interesting to hear. I guess that the mission statement is broad enough to allow it :)
I have some concerns about this approach, mostly as it relates to developing research and organizational expertise, and possibly discouraging the creation of new research organizations. However, I’m sure that these kinds of considerations go into your case-by-case decision-making process and I imagine that these problems would only be crucial when EA and RP scales-up and matures more.