MIRI currently spends around $2 million dollars a year—including some highly skilled labour that is probably underpriced
Their 2014 financials on https://intelligence.org/transparency/ say their total expenditures in 2014 were $948k. Their 2015 financials aren’t up yet, and I think they did expand in 2015, but I don’t think you can claim this unremarked. This is not a neutral error; if you make them look twice as big as they are, then you also make them look half as efficient.
Simply took a look at their latest fundraising page:
“although we may still slow down or accelerate our growth based on our fundraising performance, our current plans assume a budget of roughly $1,825,000 per year.”
Ok, I admit I didn’t think to check there. Arguing the semantics about what “currently spends” means would be pointless, and I recognize that this remark was in the context of estimating how MIRI’s future budget would be affected, but I do think that in the context of a discussion about evaluating past performance, it’s important not to anchor people’s expectations on a budget they don’t have yet.
Presumably well-chosen participants in this survey, were it to occur, should not be left to rely on a barely related point in this post to inform them about MIRI’s budget over the last decade.
Their 2014 financials on https://intelligence.org/transparency/ say their total expenditures in 2014 were $948k. Their 2015 financials aren’t up yet, and I think they did expand in 2015, but I don’t think you can claim this unremarked. This is not a neutral error; if you make them look twice as big as they are, then you also make them look half as efficient.
Simply took a look at their latest fundraising page:
“although we may still slow down or accelerate our growth based on our fundraising performance, our current plans assume a budget of roughly $1,825,000 per year.”
https://intelligence.org/2015/12/01/miri-2015-winter-fundraiser/
So hopefully it is indeed not a neutral error.
Ok, I admit I didn’t think to check there. Arguing the semantics about what “currently spends” means would be pointless, and I recognize that this remark was in the context of estimating how MIRI’s future budget would be affected, but I do think that in the context of a discussion about evaluating past performance, it’s important not to anchor people’s expectations on a budget they don’t have yet.
Presumably well-chosen participants in this survey, were it to occur, should not be left to rely on a barely related point in this post to inform them about MIRI’s budget over the last decade.