Thank you for writing this - as a current undergraduate myself, this has been a very uncomfortable dynamic that I’ve been struggling with as I debate whether or not I want to pursue a standard CS internship, or take a chance at getting into a program related to AI-Safety. Personally, for us CS majors at my school, there is a lot of pressure to get a CS internship before winter break (these are usually higher quality); unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, most AI-Safety-related programs or internships don’t open their applications until the spring.
I would love to do research or engineering for anything in the AI-Safety space, but when I evaluate my chances of getting into said AI-Safety programs, I grow wary and debate just settling for a standard CS internship :/
I do understand why these kinds of programs might need to start applications later; but, as you said, it would be tremendously beneficial to have some programs run their application processes earlier, if possible.
I sympathize with this. My AI safety career was started when I turned down a tech company return offer for the chance of maybe later getting an AI safety research internship. The tech company paid more than triple (seeing as AI safety internship was in academia). I ended up getting the AI safety internship, but I almost didn’t!
Not everyone wants to take that risk. And not everyone can afford to, either.
Thanks for chiming in here! You’re exactly the kind of person who is being put in a bad position :( I hope you can figure something out! (And maybe consider applying for 80k coaching?)
Thank you for writing this - as a current undergraduate myself, this has been a very uncomfortable dynamic that I’ve been struggling with as I debate whether or not I want to pursue a standard CS internship, or take a chance at getting into a program related to AI-Safety. Personally, for us CS majors at my school, there is a lot of pressure to get a CS internship before winter break (these are usually higher quality); unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, most AI-Safety-related programs or internships don’t open their applications until the spring.
I would love to do research or engineering for anything in the AI-Safety space, but when I evaluate my chances of getting into said AI-Safety programs, I grow wary and debate just settling for a standard CS internship :/
I do understand why these kinds of programs might need to start applications later; but, as you said, it would be tremendously beneficial to have some programs run their application processes earlier, if possible.
I sympathize with this. My AI safety career was started when I turned down a tech company return offer for the chance of maybe later getting an AI safety research internship. The tech company paid more than triple (seeing as AI safety internship was in academia). I ended up getting the AI safety internship, but I almost didn’t!
Not everyone wants to take that risk. And not everyone can afford to, either.
Thanks for chiming in here! You’re exactly the kind of person who is being put in a bad position :( I hope you can figure something out! (And maybe consider applying for 80k coaching?)