I want to see a compelling case that there’s not an organisation that would be a good home for the applicant.
My impression is that it is not possible for everyone who want to help with the long term ti get hired by an org, for the simple reason that there are not enough openings at those orgs. At least in AI Safety, all entry level jobs are very competitive, meaning that not getting in is not a strong signal that one could not have done well there.
I can’t respond for Adam, but just wanted to say that I personally agree with you, which is one of the reasons I’m currently excited about funding independent work.
Thanks for picking up the thread here Asya! I think I largely agree with this, especially about the competitiveness in this space. For example, with AI PhD applications, I often see extremely talented people get rejected who I’m sure would have got an offer a few years ago.
I’m pretty happy to see the LTFF offering effectively “bridge” funding for people who don’t quite meet the hiring bar yet, but I think are likely to in the next few years. However, I’d be hesitant about heading towards a large fraction of people working independently long-term. I think there’s huge advantages from the structure and mentorship an org can provide. If orgs aren’t scaling up fast enough, then I’d prefer to focus on trying to help speed that up.
The main way I could see myself getting more excited about long-term independent research is if we saw flourishing communities forming amongst independent researchers. Efforts like LessWrong and the Alignment Forum help in terms of providing infrastructure. But right now it still seems much worse than working for an org, especially if you want to go down any of the more traditional career paths later. But I’d love to be proven wrong here.
I claim we have proof of concept. The people who started the existing AI Safety research orgs did not have AI Safety mentors. Current independent researcher have more support than they had. In a way an org is just a crystalized collaboration of previously independent researchers.
I think that there are some PR reasons why it would be good if most AI Safety researchers where part of academia or other respectable orgs (e.g. DeepMind). But I also think it is good to have a minority of researchers who are disconnected from the particular pressures of that environment.
However, being part of academia is not the same as being part of an AI Safety org. MIRI people are not part of academia, and someone doing AI Safety research as part of their PhD in a “normal” (not AI Safety focused) PhD program, is sorta an independent researcher.
The main way I could see myself getting more excited about long-term independent research is if we saw flourishing communities forming amongst independent researchers.
We are working on that. I’m not optimistic about current orgs keeping up with the growth of the field, and I don’t think it is healthy for the career to be too competitive, since this will lead to goodhearted on career intensives. But I do think a looser structure, built on personal connections rather than formal org employment, can grow in a much more flexible way, and we are experimenting with various methods to make this happen.
My impression is that it is not possible for everyone who want to help with the long term ti get hired by an org, for the simple reason that there are not enough openings at those orgs. At least in AI Safety, all entry level jobs are very competitive, meaning that not getting in is not a strong signal that one could not have done well there.
Do you disagree with this?
I can’t respond for Adam, but just wanted to say that I personally agree with you, which is one of the reasons I’m currently excited about funding independent work.
Thanks for picking up the thread here Asya! I think I largely agree with this, especially about the competitiveness in this space. For example, with AI PhD applications, I often see extremely talented people get rejected who I’m sure would have got an offer a few years ago.
I’m pretty happy to see the LTFF offering effectively “bridge” funding for people who don’t quite meet the hiring bar yet, but I think are likely to in the next few years. However, I’d be hesitant about heading towards a large fraction of people working independently long-term. I think there’s huge advantages from the structure and mentorship an org can provide. If orgs aren’t scaling up fast enough, then I’d prefer to focus on trying to help speed that up.
The main way I could see myself getting more excited about long-term independent research is if we saw flourishing communities forming amongst independent researchers. Efforts like LessWrong and the Alignment Forum help in terms of providing infrastructure. But right now it still seems much worse than working for an org, especially if you want to go down any of the more traditional career paths later. But I’d love to be proven wrong here.
I claim we have proof of concept. The people who started the existing AI Safety research orgs did not have AI Safety mentors. Current independent researcher have more support than they had. In a way an org is just a crystalized collaboration of previously independent researchers.
I think that there are some PR reasons why it would be good if most AI Safety researchers where part of academia or other respectable orgs (e.g. DeepMind). But I also think it is good to have a minority of researchers who are disconnected from the particular pressures of that environment.
However, being part of academia is not the same as being part of an AI Safety org. MIRI people are not part of academia, and someone doing AI Safety research as part of their PhD in a “normal” (not AI Safety focused) PhD program, is sorta an independent researcher.
We are working on that. I’m not optimistic about current orgs keeping up with the growth of the field, and I don’t think it is healthy for the career to be too competitive, since this will lead to goodhearted on career intensives. But I do think a looser structure, built on personal connections rather than formal org employment, can grow in a much more flexible way, and we are experimenting with various methods to make this happen.