Thanks for releasing this. I’m curious what is the more interesting sample here: somewhat established alignment researchers (measured by the proxy that they have published a paper), or the general population of who filled out the sample (including those with briefer prior engagement)?
I filled out this survey because it got signal boosted in the AI Safety Camp slack. At the same time, there were questions about the funding viability of AI Safety Camp, so I was strongly motivated to fill it out for the $40 donation. At the same time, I’m not sure that I have engaged deeply enough with Alignment Research to be called an “alignment researcher.” Given that AISC was the most common place donated to, this may have skewed the population in general.
Skimming through the visualization tool (very cool, thank you!), the personality questions didn’t seem to be affected, but the political questions do seem to vary a little bit. For instance, among alignment researchers who have published a paper, around 55% support or strongly support pausing. On the other hand, among those who haven’t published a paper, around 75% support or strongly support pausing. Which population should this analysis rely on?
I don’t have a good answer to this, but I did read a blog post recently which might be relevant. In it, two philosophers summarize their paper which argues against drawing the conclusion that longtermists should hasten extinction rather then preventing it. (The instigation of their paper was this paper by Richard Pettigrew which argued that longtermism should be highly risk-averse. I realize that this is a slightly separate question, but the discussion seems relevant.) Hope this helps!