From my perspective, they seem great! If there is an existing project in a niche, this usually means that the niche is worth working on. And of course it seems unlikely that any of the existing ways of doing things are close to optimal, so more experimentation is often worthwhile! That said, 3 caveats I can think of:
If you are working in a space that’s already well-trodden, I expect that you’re already familiar with the space and can explain why your project is different (if it is different). For example, if you’re working in adversarial robustness for AI safety, then you should be very aware that this is a subject that’s well-studied both in and outside of EA (eg in academia). So from my perspective, applicants not being aware of prior work is concerning, as is people being aware of prior work but not having a case for why their project is different/better.
If your project isn’t aiming to be different/better, that’s also okay! For example, your theory of change might be “a total of 2 FTE-years have been spent on this research area, I think humanity should spend at least 10+ years on it to mine for more insights; I’m personally unusually excited about this area.”
But if that’s the case, you should say so explicitly.
I’m more hesitant to fund projects entering a space with natural monopolies. For example, if your theory of change is “persuade the Californian government to set standards for mandatory reporting of a certain class of AI catastrophic failures by talking to policymakers[1]”, this is likely not something where several different groups can realistically pursue in parallel without stepping on each other’s toes.
I’m wary of new projects that tries to carve out a large space for itself in its branding and communications, especially when there isn’t a good reason to do so. I’m worried about it both in cases when there are already other players in a similar niche, and when there isn’t. For example I think “80,000 Hours” is a better name than “Longtermist Career Consulting.” The former can spin down naturally and can allow other orgs (like Probably Good) to enter the space, the latter name is somewhat uninviting.
Also see earlier comment by me here; I still stand by it.
How do you think about applications to start projects/initiatives that would compete with existing projects?
From my perspective, they seem great! If there is an existing project in a niche, this usually means that the niche is worth working on. And of course it seems unlikely that any of the existing ways of doing things are close to optimal, so more experimentation is often worthwhile! That said, 3 caveats I can think of:
If you are working in a space that’s already well-trodden, I expect that you’re already familiar with the space and can explain why your project is different (if it is different). For example, if you’re working in adversarial robustness for AI safety, then you should be very aware that this is a subject that’s well-studied both in and outside of EA (eg in academia). So from my perspective, applicants not being aware of prior work is concerning, as is people being aware of prior work but not having a case for why their project is different/better.
If your project isn’t aiming to be different/better, that’s also okay! For example, your theory of change might be “a total of 2 FTE-years have been spent on this research area, I think humanity should spend at least 10+ years on it to mine for more insights; I’m personally unusually excited about this area.”
But if that’s the case, you should say so explicitly.
I’m more hesitant to fund projects entering a space with natural monopolies. For example, if your theory of change is “persuade the Californian government to set standards for mandatory reporting of a certain class of AI catastrophic failures by talking to policymakers[1]”, this is likely not something where several different groups can realistically pursue in parallel without stepping on each other’s toes.
I’m wary of new projects that tries to carve out a large space for itself in its branding and communications, especially when there isn’t a good reason to do so. I’m worried about it both in cases when there are already other players in a similar niche, and when there isn’t. For example I think “80,000 Hours” is a better name than “Longtermist Career Consulting.” The former can spin down naturally and can allow other orgs (like Probably Good) to enter the space, the latter name is somewhat uninviting.
Also see earlier comment by me here; I still stand by it.
IIUC note also that as a fiscally sponsored project of EV, we may not legally be allowed to regrant to legislative political projects.