What does a Trump 2 admin mean for PauseAI US? The likely emphasis on defense and natsec and China competition seems to make Pause lobbying harder.
One worry I have heard, and share, is that some sorts of public advocacy will unhelpfully polarise and politicize the AI debate. How do you think about this, and if you grant the premise that this is a worry, what are you doing/can you do to mitigate it?
We are an avowedly bipartisan org and we stan the democratic process. Our messaging is strong because of its simplicity and appeal to what the people actually think and feel. But our next actions remain the same no matter who is in office: protest to share our message and lobby for the PauseAI proposal. We will revise our lobbying strategy based on who has what weight, as we would with any change of the guard, and different topics and misconceptions will likely dominate the education side of our work than before.
The likely emphasis on defense and natsec and China competition seems to make Pause lobbying harder
This is why it’s all the more important that we be there.
The EA instinct is to do things that are high leverage and to quickly give up causes that are hard or involve tugging the rope against an opponent to find something easier (higher leverage). There is no substitute for doing the hard work of grassroots growth and lobbying here. There will be a fight for hearts and minds, conflicts between moneyed industry interests and the population at large, and shortcuts in that kind of work are called “astroturfing”. Messaging getting harder is not a reason to leave—it’s a crucial reason to stay.
If grassroots protesting and lobbying were impossible, we would something else. But this is just what politics looks like, and AI Safety needs to be represented in politics.
Politics
What does a Trump 2 admin mean for PauseAI US? The likely emphasis on defense and natsec and China competition seems to make Pause lobbying harder.
One worry I have heard, and share, is that some sorts of public advocacy will unhelpfully polarise and politicize the AI debate. How do you think about this, and if you grant the premise that this is a worry, what are you doing/can you do to mitigate it?
We are an avowedly bipartisan org and we stan the democratic process. Our messaging is strong because of its simplicity and appeal to what the people actually think and feel. But our next actions remain the same no matter who is in office: protest to share our message and lobby for the PauseAI proposal. We will revise our lobbying strategy based on who has what weight, as we would with any change of the guard, and different topics and misconceptions will likely dominate the education side of our work than before.
This is why it’s all the more important that we be there.
The EA instinct is to do things that are high leverage and to quickly give up causes that are hard or involve tugging the rope against an opponent to find something easier (higher leverage). There is no substitute for doing the hard work of grassroots growth and lobbying here. There will be a fight for hearts and minds, conflicts between moneyed industry interests and the population at large, and shortcuts in that kind of work are called “astroturfing”. Messaging getting harder is not a reason to leave—it’s a crucial reason to stay.
If grassroots protesting and lobbying were impossible, we would something else. But this is just what politics looks like, and AI Safety needs to be represented in politics.