I should say that I don’t actually think Open Phil’s leadership are anything other than sincere in their beliefs and goals. The sort of bias I am talking about operates more subtly than that. (See also the claim often attributed to Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent that the US media functions as pro-US, pro-business propaganda, but not because journalists are just responding to incentives in a narrow way, but because newspaper owners hire people who sincerely share their world view, which is common at elite universities (etc.) anyway.)
That’s a really interesting example, it does seem plausible to me that there’s some selection pressure not just for more researchers but more AI-company-friendly views. What do you think would be other visible effects of a bias towards being friendly towards the AI companies?
I should say that I don’t actually think Open Phil’s leadership are anything other than sincere in their beliefs and goals. The sort of bias I am talking about operates more subtly than that. (See also the claim often attributed to Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent that the US media functions as pro-US, pro-business propaganda, but not because journalists are just responding to incentives in a narrow way, but because newspaper owners hire people who sincerely share their world view, which is common at elite universities (etc.) anyway.)
That’s a really interesting example, it does seem plausible to me that there’s some selection pressure not just for more researchers but more AI-company-friendly views. What do you think would be other visible effects of a bias towards being friendly towards the AI companies?