“EA’s are, despite our commitments to ethical behaviour, perhaps no more trustworthy with power than anyone else.”
I wonder if “perhaps no more trustworthy with power than anyone else” goes a little too far. I think the EA community made mistakes that facilitated FTX misbehavior, but that is only one small group of people. Many EAs have substantial power in the world and have continued to be largely trustworthy (and thus less newsworthy!), and I think we have evidence like our stronger-than-average explicit commitments to use power for good and the critical reflection happening in the community right now suggests we are probably doing better than average—even though, as you rightly point out, we’re far from perfect.
Fair point. I think, in a knee-jerk reaction, I adjusted too far here. At the very least, it seems that EA’s are at least somewhat more likely to do good with power if they have that aim rather than people who just want power for power’s sake. It’s still an adjustment downwards on my part for the EV of EA politicians, but not to 0 compared to the median candidate of said candidate’s political party.
I wonder if “perhaps no more trustworthy with power than anyone else” goes a little too far. I think the EA community made mistakes that facilitated FTX misbehavior, but that is only one small group of people. Many EAs have substantial power in the world and have continued to be largely trustworthy (and thus less newsworthy!), and I think we have evidence like our stronger-than-average explicit commitments to use power for good and the critical reflection happening in the community right now suggests we are probably doing better than average—even though, as you rightly point out, we’re far from perfect.
Fair point. I think, in a knee-jerk reaction, I adjusted too far here. At the very least, it seems that EA’s are at least somewhat more likely to do good with power if they have that aim rather than people who just want power for power’s sake. It’s still an adjustment downwards on my part for the EV of EA politicians, but not to 0 compared to the median candidate of said candidate’s political party.