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/âAI safety), but I donât 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/âunderstanding 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 âoutworking/âoutcompetingâ, it seems better to consider comparative advantage; if you add a skillset thatâs in short supply, competition wonât be so important. I donât know whether management/ârecruiting is in shorter supply than coding/âacademic work, or which of those youâre more naturally inclined toward, but answering those questions should be a good start.
FYI Critch in particular is pretty time constrained. Iâm not sure who the best person to reach out to currently who has the knowledge and also time to do a good job helping. (Iâll ask around, meanwhile the âapply to MIRIâ suggestion is what I got)
Thanks for the word of warningâIâm not sure what anyoneâs schedule is like, and itâs good to know who wouldnât be a good target for an email. But I still think that sending an email to a few different people, and noting that you donât expect a response if theyâre 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/âAI safety), but I donât 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/âunderstanding 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 âoutworking/âoutcompetingâ, it seems better to consider comparative advantage; if you add a skillset thatâs in short supply, competition wonât be so important. I donât know whether management/ârecruiting is in shorter supply than coding/âacademic work, or which of those youâre more naturally inclined toward, but answering those questions should be a good start.
FYI Critch in particular is pretty time constrained. Iâm not sure who the best person to reach out to currently who has the knowledge and also time to do a good job helping. (Iâll ask around, meanwhile the âapply to MIRIâ suggestion is what I got)
Thanks for the word of warningâIâm not sure what anyoneâs schedule is like, and itâs good to know who wouldnât be a good target for an email. But I still think that sending an email to a few different people, and noting that you donât expect a response if theyâre too busy, is valuable in this scenario.