Separate from the “Alameda did donate” point, I wouldn’t have predicted SBF to be excited about MIRI, because I modeled SBF and Future Fund as having very Will-MacAskill-y views of AI risk. (And of a constellation of other claims that are entangled with MIRI’s coolness, like “is causal decision theory good?”) That’s a very un-MIRI-ish set of heuristics and beliefs about the world, compared to the modal longtermist EA’s heuristics and beliefs.
I strongly think that those views are wrong, but they provide an alternative explanation for SBF liking Oxford more than the Bay, and I feel more wary of saying “the Bay shouldn’t help pay back money stolen by SBF and given to EA” insofar as SBF merely factually disagreed with rationalists a lot. (Also, I guess I lean toward the Bay helping out regardless.)
Separate from the “Alameda did donate” point, I wouldn’t have predicted SBF to be excited about MIRI, because I modeled SBF and Future Fund as having very Will-MacAskill-y views of AI risk. (And of a constellation of other claims that are entangled with MIRI’s coolness, like “is causal decision theory good?”) That’s a very un-MIRI-ish set of heuristics and beliefs about the world, compared to the modal longtermist EA’s heuristics and beliefs.
I strongly think that those views are wrong, but they provide an alternative explanation for SBF liking Oxford more than the Bay, and I feel more wary of saying “the Bay shouldn’t help pay back money stolen by SBF and given to EA” insofar as SBF merely factually disagreed with rationalists a lot. (Also, I guess I lean toward the Bay helping out regardless.)