We could buy (a significant number of shares in) media companies themselves and shift their direction. Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million. Some are probably too big, like the New York Times at a $8 billion market cap and Fox Corporation at $20 billion.
I generally agree, although I think these >$1B general audience entities are too expensive for EAs. Whereas I think it would make sense to buy media companies and consultancies that are somewhat focused on global security, AI and/​or econ research. e.g. Foreign Policy magazine, Wired, GZero Media. Stratfor. Economist Intelligence Unit, and so on. At least, I think the value of info from trying out buying up one or more smaller entities, to see how one could steer them, or bolster them with some EA talent, could be high—the most similar things I can think of EAs having done previously were investing in DeepMind and OpenAI.
Another way of thinking about this question is—are there other entities that are of less value to invest in than DM/​OAI, but more than the media/​consulting orgs that I mentioned?
I’m concerned that it would look really shady for OpenPhil to do so, but maybe Sam Bankman-Fried or another very big EA donor could do it—but then the purchaser needs to figure out who to pick to actually manage things, since they aren’t experts themselves. (And they need to ensure that their control doesn’t undermine the publication’s credibility—which seems quite tricky!)
It could only be billionaires who are running out of donation targets. If Bezos can buy WaPo, then less prominent billionaires can buy less popular media with much less (though not zero) controversy. But I agree that it only works well if you have EA-leaning talent to work there, especially at the executive level.
We could buy (a significant number of shares in) media companies themselves and shift their direction. Bezos bought the Washington Post for $250 million. Some are probably too big, like the New York Times at a $8 billion market cap and Fox Corporation at $20 billion.
I generally agree, although I think these >$1B general audience entities are too expensive for EAs. Whereas I think it would make sense to buy media companies and consultancies that are somewhat focused on global security, AI and/​or econ research. e.g. Foreign Policy magazine, Wired, GZero Media. Stratfor. Economist Intelligence Unit, and so on. At least, I think the value of info from trying out buying up one or more smaller entities, to see how one could steer them, or bolster them with some EA talent, could be high—the most similar things I can think of EAs having done previously were investing in DeepMind and OpenAI.
Another way of thinking about this question is—are there other entities that are of less value to invest in than DM/​OAI, but more than the media/​consulting orgs that I mentioned?
Who should buy them?
I’m concerned that it would look really shady for OpenPhil to do so, but maybe Sam Bankman-Fried or another very big EA donor could do it—but then the purchaser needs to figure out who to pick to actually manage things, since they aren’t experts themselves. (And they need to ensure that their control doesn’t undermine the publication’s credibility—which seems quite tricky!)
It could only be billionaires who are running out of donation targets. If Bezos can buy WaPo, then less prominent billionaires can buy less popular media with much less (though not zero) controversy. But I agree that it only works well if you have EA-leaning talent to work there, especially at the executive level.