Executive summary: The ML Alignment & Theory Scholars (MATS) program supported 60 AI safety scholars with mentorship, training, housing, infrastructure, and funding. Scholars improved technical ability, research taste, and knowledge breadth, and reported many positive connections with peers and researchers. Scholars and mentors form part of a talent pipeline for AI safety.
Key points:
60 scholars studied AI safety for 3 months with 15 mentors. Scholars rated mentors highly (8/10) and are likely to recommend MATS (8.9/10).
Scholars improved technical research skills (self-rated 7.2/10 vs counterfactual summer), knowledge breadth (+1.75/10), research taste (5.9-6.9/10), and made 10 professional connections on average.
Scholars faced fewer career obstacles after MATS, but lack of publications remained an issue. Mentors strongly endorsed 94% of scholars to continue research.
Scholars valued community, seminars and Scholar Support coaching in addition to mentorship. Scholar Support meetings were valued at $750-$3700 in grant equivalent.
MATS will improve applicant screening, support technical skills and research management, and reduce seminars for the next cohort.
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Executive summary: The ML Alignment & Theory Scholars (MATS) program supported 60 AI safety scholars with mentorship, training, housing, infrastructure, and funding. Scholars improved technical ability, research taste, and knowledge breadth, and reported many positive connections with peers and researchers. Scholars and mentors form part of a talent pipeline for AI safety.
Key points:
60 scholars studied AI safety for 3 months with 15 mentors. Scholars rated mentors highly (8/10) and are likely to recommend MATS (8.9/10).
Scholars improved technical research skills (self-rated 7.2/10 vs counterfactual summer), knowledge breadth (+1.75/10), research taste (5.9-6.9/10), and made 10 professional connections on average.
Scholars faced fewer career obstacles after MATS, but lack of publications remained an issue. Mentors strongly endorsed 94% of scholars to continue research.
Scholars valued community, seminars and Scholar Support coaching in addition to mentorship. Scholar Support meetings were valued at $750-$3700 in grant equivalent.
MATS will improve applicant screening, support technical skills and research management, and reduce seminars for the next cohort.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.