It’s extremely intimidating to write in the EAForum. Normally I write my thoughts and ask Google or Claude to edit for mistakes or clarity.
This is such an important conversation that I am living through now. I wanted to add not detract from the conversation. I will go back to lurking on the EA Forum.
I made an account here so I can post this comment.
I wanted to thank you for raising these issues. Similar to you, I’m a senior professional. I’m part of Bluedot and CEA cohorts which also include other senior professionals (20-30 years experience). These professionals (and myself) have already had impactful careers, and are looking to pivot into new impactful roles where our skills and experience can be applied.
With my personal background, it would be much easier (and probably better financially) for me to pivot into corporate AI Governance rather than AI safety. I’d prefer not to do this since it seems less impactful.
I also find the distinction in these discussions between technical / researcher roles and ‘generalist’ (ie non-technical) roles to be an interesting framing. It seems to me that there are other ways of assessing mission alignment, and there is a risk of overweighting on technical expertise, as HannahGB questions below.
To give a concrete (but invented) example:
Scenario 1: Lets imagine that we have an AI safety organisation doing wonderful research. The researchers take their results, and present at a technical conference. Attendees are very impressed, and this inspires other researchers to continue to develop the research pathway.
Scenario 2: Lets imagine the same research at a different AI safety organisation. The researcher briefs the executive leadership of the organisation on their results. The organisation works with their policy lead to tease out the implications of the research results. The policy and communications leads work together to define an advocacy position and their proposals, supported by a strong briefing deck with talking points that are understandable by a semi-technical government audience. A lawyer helps prepare zero draft text for inclusion in regulation. The policy lead links the organisation with regulators from their network, to present the research and advocate for improved governance. The Comms lead arranges publicity and advocacy for the discussion through their comms networks. And the researcher still gets to present the research at a technical conference.
It seems to me like there’s a lot of Scenario 1 work happening in the field. And then some separate organisations working on AI governance and oversight from a legislative and policy perspective. My question is whether there is also opportunity for more of the Scenario 2 type approach?
It’s extremely intimidating to write in the EAForum. Normally I write my thoughts and ask Google or Claude to edit for mistakes or clarity.
This is such an important conversation that I am living through now. I wanted to add not detract from the conversation. I will go back to lurking on the EA Forum.
Hi Karen,
I made an account here so I can post this comment.
I wanted to thank you for raising these issues. Similar to you, I’m a senior professional. I’m part of Bluedot and CEA cohorts which also include other senior professionals (20-30 years experience). These professionals (and myself) have already had impactful careers, and are looking to pivot into new impactful roles where our skills and experience can be applied.
With my personal background, it would be much easier (and probably better financially) for me to pivot into corporate AI Governance rather than AI safety. I’d prefer not to do this since it seems less impactful.
I also find the distinction in these discussions between technical / researcher roles and ‘generalist’ (ie non-technical) roles to be an interesting framing. It seems to me that there are other ways of assessing mission alignment, and there is a risk of overweighting on technical expertise, as HannahGB questions below.
To give a concrete (but invented) example:
Scenario 1: Lets imagine that we have an AI safety organisation doing wonderful research. The researchers take their results, and present at a technical conference. Attendees are very impressed, and this inspires other researchers to continue to develop the research pathway.
Scenario 2: Lets imagine the same research at a different AI safety organisation. The researcher briefs the executive leadership of the organisation on their results. The organisation works with their policy lead to tease out the implications of the research results. The policy and communications leads work together to define an advocacy position and their proposals, supported by a strong briefing deck with talking points that are understandable by a semi-technical government audience. A lawyer helps prepare zero draft text for inclusion in regulation. The policy lead links the organisation with regulators from their network, to present the research and advocate for improved governance. The Comms lead arranges publicity and advocacy for the discussion through their comms networks. And the researcher still gets to present the research at a technical conference.
It seems to me like there’s a lot of Scenario 1 work happening in the field. And then some separate organisations working on AI governance and oversight from a legislative and policy perspective. My question is whether there is also opportunity for more of the Scenario 2 type approach?