The reason may be somewhat simple: most AI alignment researchers do not participate (post or comment) on LW/AF or participate only a little. For more understanding why, check this post of Wei Dai and the discussion under it.
(Also: if you follow just LW, your understanding of the field of AI safety is likely somewhat distorted)
With hypothesis 4.&5. I expect at least Oli to have strong bias of being more enthusiastic in funding people who like to interact with LW (all other research qualities being equal), so I’m pretty sure it’s not the case
2.&3. is somewhat true at least on average: if we operationalize “private people” as “people who do you meet participating in private research retreats or visiting places like MIRI or FHI”, and “online people” as “people posting and commenting on AI safety on LW” than the first group is on average better.
1. is likely true in the sense that best LW contributors are not applying for grants
The reason may be somewhat simple: most AI alignment researchers do not participate (post or comment) on LW/AF or participate only a little.
I’m wondering how many such people there are. Specifically, how many people (i) don’t participate on LW/AF, (ii) don’t already get paid for AI alignment work, and (iii) do seriously want to spend a significant amount of time working on AI alignment or already do so in their free time? (So I want to exclude researchers at organizations, random people who contact 80,000 Hours for advice on how to get involved, people who attend a MIRI workshop or AI safety camp but then happily go back to doing non-alignment work, etc.) My own feeling before reading your comment was that there are maybe 10-20 such people, but it sounds like there may be many more than that. Do you have a specific number in mind?
if you follow just LW, your understanding of the field of AI safety is likely somewhat distorted
I’m aware of this, and I’ve seen Wei Dai’s post and the comments there. Personally I don’t see an easy way to get access to more private discussions due to a variety of factors (not being invited to workshops, some workshops being too expensive for it to be worth traveling to, not being eligible to apply for certain programs, and so on).
The reason may be somewhat simple: most AI alignment researchers do not participate (post or comment) on LW/AF or participate only a little. For more understanding why, check this post of Wei Dai and the discussion under it.
(Also: if you follow just LW, your understanding of the field of AI safety is likely somewhat distorted)
With hypothesis 4.&5. I expect at least Oli to have strong bias of being more enthusiastic in funding people who like to interact with LW (all other research qualities being equal), so I’m pretty sure it’s not the case
2.&3. is somewhat true at least on average: if we operationalize “private people” as “people who do you meet participating in private research retreats or visiting places like MIRI or FHI”, and “online people” as “people posting and commenting on AI safety on LW” than the first group is on average better.
1. is likely true in the sense that best LW contributors are not applying for grants
I’m wondering how many such people there are. Specifically, how many people (i) don’t participate on LW/AF, (ii) don’t already get paid for AI alignment work, and (iii) do seriously want to spend a significant amount of time working on AI alignment or already do so in their free time? (So I want to exclude researchers at organizations, random people who contact 80,000 Hours for advice on how to get involved, people who attend a MIRI workshop or AI safety camp but then happily go back to doing non-alignment work, etc.) My own feeling before reading your comment was that there are maybe 10-20 such people, but it sounds like there may be many more than that. Do you have a specific number in mind?
I’m aware of this, and I’ve seen Wei Dai’s post and the comments there. Personally I don’t see an easy way to get access to more private discussions due to a variety of factors (not being invited to workshops, some workshops being too expensive for it to be worth traveling to, not being eligible to apply for certain programs, and so on).