Actually, I think a comparison to Musk is pretty apt here. I frequently see Musk saying very incorrect things, and I don’t think his object level knowledge of engineering is very good. But he is a good at selling ideas and building hype, which has translated into funding for actual engineers to build rockets and electric cars in a way that probably wouldn’t have happened without his hype skills.
In the same way, Yud’s skills at persuasive writing have accelerated both AI research and AI safety research (see Altman credited him for boosting openAI). The problem is that he is not actually very good at AI safety research himself (or any sub-set of the problems), and his beliefs and ideas on the subject are generally flawed. It would be like if you hired elon musk directly to build a car in your garage.
At this point, I think the field of AI safety is big enough that you should stick to spokespeople who are actual experts in AI, and don’t make grand incorrect statements on an almost weekly basis.
Actually, I think a comparison to Musk is pretty apt here. I frequently see Musk saying very incorrect things, and I don’t think his object level knowledge of engineering is very good. But he is a good at selling ideas and building hype, which has translated into funding for actual engineers to build rockets and electric cars in a way that probably wouldn’t have happened without his hype skills.
In the same way, Yud’s skills at persuasive writing have accelerated both AI research and AI safety research (see Altman credited him for boosting openAI). The problem is that he is not actually very good at AI safety research himself (or any sub-set of the problems), and his beliefs and ideas on the subject are generally flawed. It would be like if you hired elon musk directly to build a car in your garage.
At this point, I think the field of AI safety is big enough that you should stick to spokespeople who are actual experts in AI, and don’t make grand incorrect statements on an almost weekly basis.