I agree Open Phil ought stick with their current approach rather than the panel-based approach Dunja suggests. But this response still doesn’t address the problem Dunja was originally noting: the lack of transparency in Open Phil’s recent $3.75 million grant to MIRI. Highlighting that Open Phil has transitioned to a policy of generally not avoiding appearing underinformed and overconfident, or not expecting to always be able to justify themselves in writing, doesn’t bear on the claim in this particular case Open Phil wasn’t transparent enough. This is especially the case in light of how much justification was given by Open Phil for their much smaller grant to MIRI the prior year, and with so little apparently having changed between 2016 and 2017.
I agree Open Phil ought stick with their current approach rather than the panel-based approach Dunja suggests. But this response still doesn’t address the problem Dunja was originally noting: the lack of transparency in Open Phil’s recent $3.75 million grant to MIRI. Highlighting that Open Phil has transitioned to a policy of generally not avoiding appearing underinformed and overconfident, or not expecting to always be able to justify themselves in writing, doesn’t bear on the claim in this particular case Open Phil wasn’t transparent enough. This is especially the case in light of how much justification was given by Open Phil for their much smaller grant to MIRI the prior year, and with so little apparently having changed between 2016 and 2017.