Thanks for your comment! I broadly agree that Anthropic money is probably going to go overwhelmingly towards technical AI safety work-shaped things, which is not great given how neglected political advocacy work is already.
I don’t agree with every premise (I think ASI alignment research is worth pursuing even if we’re uncertain it’s solvable), but, similarly to how we should not let CG’s priorities define the field, I agree we should not let one company’s theory of change become the entire field’s theory of change.
The best mitigation, I think, is to fight for every marginal dollar that doesn’t go to technical safety research. Right now, the c3 research ecosystem is flush with money while c4 advocacy work is still highly funding-constrained. I’ve written a follow-up making the case that individual donors should redirect what would have been c3 donations toward c4 lobbying and advocacy organizations instead: stop donating to AI safety research*
Hi Geoffrey,
Thanks for your comment! I broadly agree that Anthropic money is probably going to go overwhelmingly towards technical AI safety work-shaped things, which is not great given how neglected political advocacy work is already.
I don’t agree with every premise (I think ASI alignment research is worth pursuing even if we’re uncertain it’s solvable), but, similarly to how we should not let CG’s priorities define the field, I agree we should not let one company’s theory of change become the entire field’s theory of change.
The best mitigation, I think, is to fight for every marginal dollar that doesn’t go to technical safety research. Right now, the c3 research ecosystem is flush with money while c4 advocacy work is still highly funding-constrained. I’ve written a follow-up making the case that individual donors should redirect what would have been c3 donations toward c4 lobbying and advocacy organizations instead: stop donating to AI safety research*
Would be curious for your takes on the follow-up!
Sophie—thanks for your reply. I agree. And I strongly upvoted your more recent post that you mentioned, which is excellent.