Have you considered reaching out to someone like Andrew Critch, or other experts in the X-risk space, to ask?
There are quite a few people in your position (early-career people thinking of diving into X-risk/AI safety), but I don’t think there are so many that X-risk professionals are deluged with more questions than they can answer. If you have even a slight track record of demonstrated interest/understanding of these issues, I imagine you could get a phone call set up with one of the people you might eventually want to work for.
Rather than thinking about the choice in the sense of “outworking/outcompeting”, it seems better to consider comparative advantage; if you add a skillset that’s in short supply, competition won’t be so important. I don’t know whether management/recruiting is in shorter supply than coding/academic work, or which of those you’re more naturally inclined toward, but answering those questions should be a good start.
FYI Critch in particular is pretty time constrained. I’m not sure who the best person to reach out to currently who has the knowledge and also time to do a good job helping. (I’ll ask around, meanwhile the “apply to MIRI” suggestion is what I got)
Thanks for the word of warning—I’m not sure what anyone’s schedule is like, and it’s good to know who wouldn’t be a good target for an email. But I still think that sending an email to a few different people, and noting that you don’t expect a response if they’re too busy, is valuable in this scenario.
Have you considered reaching out to someone like Andrew Critch, or other experts in the X-risk space, to ask?
There are quite a few people in your position (early-career people thinking of diving into X-risk/AI safety), but I don’t think there are so many that X-risk professionals are deluged with more questions than they can answer. If you have even a slight track record of demonstrated interest/understanding of these issues, I imagine you could get a phone call set up with one of the people you might eventually want to work for.
Rather than thinking about the choice in the sense of “outworking/outcompeting”, it seems better to consider comparative advantage; if you add a skillset that’s in short supply, competition won’t be so important. I don’t know whether management/recruiting is in shorter supply than coding/academic work, or which of those you’re more naturally inclined toward, but answering those questions should be a good start.
FYI Critch in particular is pretty time constrained. I’m not sure who the best person to reach out to currently who has the knowledge and also time to do a good job helping. (I’ll ask around, meanwhile the “apply to MIRI” suggestion is what I got)
Thanks for the word of warning—I’m not sure what anyone’s schedule is like, and it’s good to know who wouldn’t be a good target for an email. But I still think that sending an email to a few different people, and noting that you don’t expect a response if they’re too busy, is valuable in this scenario.