I recommend changing the title to something like “Should I work at BenevolentAI?” or “Is BenevolentAI impactful?” so that it will be easier for readers to know if this post is relevant for them
It seems to me Jack believes that they are impactful and is wondering why they are therefore absent from EA literature. I could be wrong here, he could instead be unsure how impactful it is and assuming that if EA hasn’t indexed it it’s not impactful (fwiw I think this general inference pattern is pretty wrong). Seems to additionally be wondering whether he should work there, and taking into account views people from this community might have when making his decision.
Both of these comments are somewhat true. My default position is definitely ‘they seem impactful to me’. It’s also a bit of ‘why aren’t companies like this talked about much within EA’. That said, the point of my post is to gain unbiased insight from the community, so it might be better posed as ‘is BenevolentAI (positively) impactful?’.
I suppose as I wrote the title, I was reading the acronym as ‘Effectively Altruistic’ and as an adjective, rather than questioning whether it ‘deserves a spot in the tribe’. Clearly ‘impactful’ would have been a better word than altruism given the nature of their profit making company.
I think their company name is eye catching enough to warrant its position as the first word on my first post’s title, so I think I’ll leave it there and chuck in ‘impactful’ for clarity.
+1 for asking!
I recommend changing the title to something like “Should I work at BenevolentAI?” or “Is BenevolentAI impactful?” so that it will be easier for readers to know if this post is relevant for them
It seems to me Jack believes that they are impactful and is wondering why they are therefore absent from EA literature. I could be wrong here, he could instead be unsure how impactful it is and assuming that if EA hasn’t indexed it it’s not impactful (fwiw I think this general inference pattern is pretty wrong). Seems to additionally be wondering whether he should work there, and taking into account views people from this community might have when making his decision.
Both of these comments are somewhat true. My default position is definitely ‘they seem impactful to me’. It’s also a bit of ‘why aren’t companies like this talked about much within EA’. That said, the point of my post is to gain unbiased insight from the community, so it might be better posed as ‘is BenevolentAI (positively) impactful?’.
I suppose as I wrote the title, I was reading the acronym as ‘Effectively Altruistic’ and as an adjective, rather than questioning whether it ‘deserves a spot in the tribe’. Clearly ‘impactful’ would have been a better word than altruism given the nature of their profit making company.
I think their company name is eye catching enough to warrant its position as the first word on my first post’s title, so I think I’ll leave it there and chuck in ‘impactful’ for clarity.
Thanks :)
(I like the current title!)