people who are likely to be remotely supportive of EA
FYI, this post I linked was written by someone who also has an EA Forum account. (The post I linked is not exactly supportive of Musk, but it doesn’t exactly align with the OP either.)
I suspect many of the conservatives sympathetic to some of the things EA wants to do are the ones that think he has too much power and is taking the wrong approach...
Perhaps, but I doubt they consider it obvious. They might read a detailed explainer meant to pass their ITT, but I suspect they would consider OP in its current form to be “woke cancel culture”.
Geoffrey Miller is one of a small number of conservative EAs who posts about the importance of AI alignment. He seems neutral/positive on Musk:
FWIW I agree with your point that people who are broadly neutral/sympathetic are more likely to be sympathetic to a broad explainer than a “denunciation”.
But I worded my post quite carefully, it’s “people who like Musk’s cuts to US Aid and AI Safety” I don’t think overlap with EA. I don’t imagine either of the EA-affiliated people you linked to would object to EAs pointing out that Musk shutting down AI safety institutes might be the opposite of what he says he cares about. And I don’t think people who think foreign aid is a big scam and AI should be unregulated are putative EAs (whether they trust Musk or not!)
I don’t think a “denunciation” is needed, but I don’t think avoiding criticising political figures because they’re sensitive, powerful and have some public support is a way forward either.
I don’t think avoiding criticising political figures because they’re sensitive, powerful and have some public support is a way forward either.
This sounds right to me too. In general your points seem fair. Although I will note that skepticism towards foreign aid (as practiced by e.g. Givewell charity evaluators) seems rather compatible with EA in principle.
BTW, for a few reasons, I think it’s better, by default, to criticize actions rather than individuals. (For example, I suspect that makes it easier psychologically for the individuals who committed those actions to change their behavior.) So I feel good about posts like this one criticizing PEPFAR cuts.
Where was USAID mentioned in the PDF you linked?
FYI, this post I linked was written by someone who also has an EA Forum account. (The post I linked is not exactly supportive of Musk, but it doesn’t exactly align with the OP either.)
Perhaps, but I doubt they consider it obvious. They might read a detailed explainer meant to pass their ITT, but I suspect they would consider OP in its current form to be “woke cancel culture”.
Geoffrey Miller is one of a small number of conservative EAs who posts about the importance of AI alignment. He seems neutral/positive on Musk:
https://xcancel.com/primalpoly/search?f=tweets&q=musk+OR+to%3Aelonmusk&since=2024-09-01&until=2025-03-01&near=
My bad, I should have linked to this one
FWIW I agree with your point that people who are broadly neutral/sympathetic are more likely to be sympathetic to a broad explainer than a “denunciation”.
But I worded my post quite carefully, it’s “people who like Musk’s cuts to US Aid and AI Safety” I don’t think overlap with EA. I don’t imagine either of the EA-affiliated people you linked to would object to EAs pointing out that Musk shutting down AI safety institutes might be the opposite of what he says he cares about. And I don’t think people who think foreign aid is a big scam and AI should be unregulated are putative EAs (whether they trust Musk or not!)
I don’t think a “denunciation” is needed, but I don’t think avoiding criticising political figures because they’re sensitive, powerful and have some public support is a way forward either.
This sounds right to me too. In general your points seem fair. Although I will note that skepticism towards foreign aid (as practiced by e.g. Givewell charity evaluators) seems rather compatible with EA in principle.
BTW, for a few reasons, I think it’s better, by default, to criticize actions rather than individuals. (For example, I suspect that makes it easier psychologically for the individuals who committed those actions to change their behavior.) So I feel good about posts like this one criticizing PEPFAR cuts.
@Geoffrey Miller