This is similar to my experience trying to get into AI x Animals specifically. I work full time at a standard software engineering job, and I decided to start getting involved in the space.
I started out trying some writing, but I really struggled with it and felt like I didn’t have much to say that other people weren’t saying better already. I still feel that way.
Then I reached out to Compassioned Aligned Machine Learning (compassionml.com) to see if I could volunteer for them. They got me involved, and they could still use help (and funding!) but I really struggle to contribute much while working full time. I’m really proud of what I’ve done so far, it’s helped me grow a lot and I’m excited to keep helping! But I wish I could properly focus on it.
I’ve tried to get into various funded tracks in this field, but they all tend to get filled up by better candidates. I am glad they are getting the best people, but it’s discouraging that there isn’t much room. I want to do more, but I’m unfortunately not really willing to do the huge amount of work needed to get a paid position in the field or start my own organization for it. I would happily take a big pay cut to be able to focus on it full time though. Huge props to the people who do like the folks running CAML!!
Maybe we’re just in the weird phase waiting for Anthropic to ipo and flood the field with funding?
This is similar to my experience trying to get into AI x Animals specifically. I work full time at a standard software engineering job, and I decided to start getting involved in the space.
I started out trying some writing, but I really struggled with it and felt like I didn’t have much to say that other people weren’t saying better already. I still feel that way.
Then I reached out to Compassioned Aligned Machine Learning (compassionml.com) to see if I could volunteer for them. They got me involved, and they could still use help (and funding!) but I really struggle to contribute much while working full time. I’m really proud of what I’ve done so far, it’s helped me grow a lot and I’m excited to keep helping! But I wish I could properly focus on it.
I’ve tried to get into various funded tracks in this field, but they all tend to get filled up by better candidates. I am glad they are getting the best people, but it’s discouraging that there isn’t much room. I want to do more, but I’m unfortunately not really willing to do the huge amount of work needed to get a paid position in the field or start my own organization for it. I would happily take a big pay cut to be able to focus on it full time though. Huge props to the people who do like the folks running CAML!!
Maybe we’re just in the weird phase waiting for Anthropic to ipo and flood the field with funding?