I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but this press release is badly written, and it will hurt your cause.
I know you say you’re talking about more than extinction risks, but when you put: “The probability of AGI causing human extinction is greater than 99%” in bold and red highlight, that’s all anyone will see. And then they can go on to check what experts think, and notice that only a fringe minority, even among those concerned with AI risk, believe that figure.
By declaring your own opinion as the truth, over that of experts, you come off like an easily dismissible crank. One of the advantages of the climate protest movements is that they have a wealth of scientific work to point to for credibility. I’m glad you are pointing out current day harms later on in the article, but by then it’s too late and everyone will have written you off.
In general, there are too many exclamation points! It comes off as weird and offputting! and RANDOMLY BREAKING INTO ALLCAPS makes you look like you’re arguing on an internet forum. And there’s way too long paragraphs full of confusing phrases that are not understandable by a layperson.
I suggest you find some people who have absolutely zero exposure to AI safety or EA at all, and run these and future documents by them for ideas on improvements.
One of the advantages of the climate protest movements is that they have a wealth of scientific work to point to for credibility.
Scientific work doesn’t give particular support for the idea that climate change will create a substantial extinction risk though, and that doesn’t stop the activists there. I’m not saying you’re wrong or the OP’s approach is justified, but public perceptions of activist groups’ reasonableness seems only loosely linked to expert views (I’ve not seen much evidence of the “then they can go on to check what experts think” bit happening much).
Extinction Rebellion is named after the Anthropocene Extinction, I don’t think they are claiming that climate change alone would lead to human extinction.
They seem to say so in their intro video on this page: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/the-truth/the-emergency/. OK they say due to climate and ecological destruction, but it doesn’t really matter for this. The point is just that disagreeing with experts doesn’t generally seem to prevent an organisation from becoming “successful”. (Plenty of examples outside climate too.)
I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but this press release is badly written, and it will hurt your cause.
I know you say you’re talking about more than extinction risks, but when you put: “The probability of AGI causing human extinction is greater than 99%” in bold and red highlight, that’s all anyone will see. And then they can go on to check what experts think, and notice that only a fringe minority, even among those concerned with AI risk, believe that figure.
By declaring your own opinion as the truth, over that of experts, you come off like an easily dismissible crank. One of the advantages of the climate protest movements is that they have a wealth of scientific work to point to for credibility. I’m glad you are pointing out current day harms later on in the article, but by then it’s too late and everyone will have written you off.
In general, there are too many exclamation points! It comes off as weird and offputting! and RANDOMLY BREAKING INTO ALLCAPS makes you look like you’re arguing on an internet forum. And there’s way too long paragraphs full of confusing phrases that are not understandable by a layperson.
I suggest you find some people who have absolutely zero exposure to AI safety or EA at all, and run these and future documents by them for ideas on improvements.
Scientific work doesn’t give particular support for the idea that climate change will create a substantial extinction risk though, and that doesn’t stop the activists there. I’m not saying you’re wrong or the OP’s approach is justified, but public perceptions of activist groups’ reasonableness seems only loosely linked to expert views (I’ve not seen much evidence of the “then they can go on to check what experts think” bit happening much).
But the climate protesters generally aren’t basing their pitch on existential risk, as in a global extinction event.
It seems to be a big part in the UK cf Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil.
Extinction Rebellion is named after the Anthropocene Extinction, I don’t think they are claiming that climate change alone would lead to human extinction.
They seem to say so in their intro video on this page: https://extinctionrebellion.uk/the-truth/the-emergency/. OK they say due to climate and ecological destruction, but it doesn’t really matter for this. The point is just that disagreeing with experts doesn’t generally seem to prevent an organisation from becoming “successful”. (Plenty of examples outside climate too.)
“Okay, all the examples I used were strawmen, but it doesn’t really matter”
?????
Thank you for the specific feedback on the press release! I broadly agree with it, and I think it’s going to be useful for improving future texts.
Wish there was a way to vote strong agree and not just agree on this comment.
You can strong-vote by long-clicking the arrow (or double-tapping if you’re on mobile).
Strong *upvote* the comment yes. But there is no strong agreement vote.