I’m a fan of EA in general, though, as is implied in my post, I don’t feel I have a role here. And you can’t do everything here. This kind of campaign belongs somewhere else. But the funding? This seems like the best place to try, in order to quickly build out the infrastructure needed. And a lot of the talent needed to get that done is also widely present here.
A lot of what I say is directed at the AI community, because this is the only place where there is some chance of reaching a decent number of them with a post like this—here, or Less Wrong, where it fits even less.
Thanks for voicing support. I started off wanting to post about something else, but the frustration just flowed out. It scares me how little has been done on this.
When people realize they’re in collective danger, they get really upset. If there is no body organizing that feeling into a movement, it happens chaotically. When it happens chaotically, it can go really wrong.
Organizing a movement requires short, relatable material to be seen by huge numbers of people in a short time. It needs a big campaign that gets people on their feet through hand-outs, lawn-signs, info booths, stunts, t-shirts, stickers. It has to provide a body of volunteers with support and logistics. Doing it right in a short time takes a lot of funding. Without that it fails to gel, or it goes sideways.
If something happens and the revolt over AI is spontaneous, that is probably going to get ugly. There is a high chance a knee-jerk reaction not backed by a carefully prepared organizing body will target the wrong goal. It could cause us to miss a key opportunity to reign in research before it’s too late.
On the other hand, a well informed, clear-eyed, persistent campaign that grows organically from the right roots? That is really the best chance we have to create so much social pressure not to pursue AI that the race stops and sanity returns.
EA should back and help organize this work. It’s the obvious choice, with all the right connections and several well structured communities already formed.