FWIW, I think this could also make a lot of sense. I don’t think Holden would be an individual contributor writing code forever, but skilling up in ML and completing concrete research projects seems like a good foundation for ultimately building a team doing something in AI safety.
Yes, it would be very different if he’d said “I’m going to skill up on ML and get coding”!
(I work at Open Phil, speaking for myself)
FWIW, I think this could also make a lot of sense. I don’t think Holden would be an individual contributor writing code forever, but skilling up in ML and completing concrete research projects seems like a good foundation for ultimately building a team doing something in AI safety.