michel

Karma: 2,477

I’m currently researching how to govern AI-driven explosive technological growth via a summer research fellowship with Pivotal Research.

Previously, I worked on executive support and events at the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA). I also scaled up the EA Opportunity Board, interned at Global Challenges Project, and founded the EA student group at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where I studied Neurobiology and Psychology.

If you think we share an interest (we probably do!), don’t hesitate to reach out :)

michel Sep 28, 2023, 8:29 PM
1 point
3 ∶ 0
on: New page on animal welfare on Our World in Data
Thank you for making this page

michel Sep 26, 2023, 6:45 PM
19 points
3 ∶ 0
on: michel’s Quick takes
Consider keeping a running list of people you’d like to meet at the next EAG(x)
I used to be pretty overwhelmed when using Swapcard to figure out who I should meet at EAG(x)s. I still get kinda overwhelmed, but I’ve found it helpful to start identifying meetings I’d like to have many weeks before the event.
I do this by creating an easy-to-add-to list in the months leading up to the event. Then when I encounter someone who wrote an interesting post, or if a friend mentions someone scoping a project I’m excited about, I add them to this list. (I use the app todoist to do this quickly with a keyboard shortcut). When Swapcard goes live, I just look up which people on that list are attending.
I still value spontaneous meetings though; at least a few of my meetings are typically prompted by random scrolling through the attendee list.

michel’s Quick takes

michelSep 26, 2023, 6:45 PM

6 points

6 comments EA link

michel Sep 12, 2023, 12:43 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Writing about my job: Academic Researcher
Thanks for sharing this!

michel Sep 12, 2023, 8:41 AM
3 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: Rockwell’s comment on: Announcing the Meta Coordination Forum 2023
If you’re willing to write up some of your on the ground perspective and it seem valuable, we’d be happy to share it with attendees!
Off the top of my head, I’m thinking things like:
- What changes in community members attitudes might ‘leaders’ not be tracking?
- From your engagement with ‘leaders’ and community members, what seem to be the biggest misunderstandings?
- What cheap actions could leaders take that might have a really positive influence on the community?
I’ll DM you with info on on how to share such a write up, if you’re interested.

Announcing the Meta Coordination Forum 2023

Sophie ThomsonSep 10, 2023, 5:00 PM

87 points

45 comments6 min readEA link

michel Sep 7, 2023, 12:21 PM
40 points
9 ∶ 0
on: Sharing Information About Nonlinear
Random anecadata on a very specific instance: I worked with Drew to make a Most Important Century writing prize. I enjoyed our conversations and we worked well together — Drew was nice and ambitious. I heard concerns about Nonlinear at this time, but never had anything suspect come up.

michel Aug 22, 2023, 5:16 PM
6 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Probably Good published a list of impact-focused job-boards
Flagging EA Opportunity Board to make sure it’s on your radar. It’s focused mostly on more junior, non-permanent positions and pretty EA focused.

michel Aug 17, 2023, 9:42 PM
8 points
5 ∶ 0
in reply to: Dzoldzaya’s comment on: I saved a kid’s life today
Thanks for engaging with this post! I appreciate the seriousness with which you engage with the question “is this actually good?” If it’s not, I don’t want to celebrate this donation or encourage others to do the same; the answer to that question matters.

I think your arguments are plausible, and I agree with the comment you make elsewhere that the EA Forum should be a place for such (relatively) unfiltered push back.

But in the absence of any inside view on this topic and the fair push back Nick made, I still feel solid about holding the outside view that donation to GiveWell top charity = good. Neither the specifics of GiveWell charities nor subjective well-being in LMICs are my areas of expertise, so I‘m mostly deferring to GiveWell. But I also think most lives are worth living, and I’m weary (although I could be wrong) about “lives not worth living” lines of reasoning in countries and cultures I don’t understand well.

michel Aug 17, 2023, 9:11 PM
4 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: GraceAdams🔸’s comment on: I saved a kid’s life today
Thanks Grace! Feel free to share.

michel Aug 7, 2023, 9:26 PM
16 points
1 ∶ 0
in reply to: NickLaing’s comment on: I saved a kid’s life today
Thanks Nick! Really appreciate you flagging this. I didn’t intend it that way and hope the edit helps:
Maybe playing with their friends in the schoolyard, maybe spending time with their grandma, or maybe just kicking rocks, alone.

michel Aug 7, 2023, 9:15 PM
1 point
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: JoanMM🔹’s comment on: I saved a kid’s life today
It totally should be. Fixed, thanks :)

I saved a kid’s life today

michelAug 7, 2023, 12:28 PM

312 points

17 comments2 min readEA link

michel Jul 31, 2023, 9:44 AM
3 points
0 ∶ 0
on: A New Resource for Effective Volunteerism & Activism in Minutes
Readers may also be interested in EA Opportunities Board

michel Jul 29, 2023, 1:54 PM
2 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Announcing the ITAM AI Futures Fellowship
Cool initiative! Heads up that I think one of the links in the TLDR is to a private forum draft (or at least it doesn’t work for me)
See this post

michel Jul 24, 2023, 12:04 PM
4 points
1 ∶ 0
on: Linkpost: 7 A.I. Companies Agree to Safeguards After Pressure From the White House
I’d be very curious if there are historical case studies of how much private corporations stuck to voluntary commitments they made, and how long it took for more binding regulation to replace voluntary commitments

michel Jul 24, 2023, 12:02 PM
5 points
0 ∶ 0
on: Linkpost: 7 A.I. Companies Agree to Safeguards After Pressure From the White House
Pulling out highlights from PDF of the voluntary commitments that AI safety orgs agreed to:
The following is a list of commitments that companies are making to promote the safe, secure, and transparent development and use of AI technology. These voluntary commitments are consistent with existing laws and regulations, and designed to advance a generative AI legal and policy regime. Companies intend these voluntary commitments to remain in effect until regulations covering substantially the same issues come into force. Individual companies may make additional commitments beyond those included here.
Scope: Where commitments mention particular models, they apply only to generative models that are overall more powerful than the current industry frontier (e.g. models that are overall more powerful than any currently released models, including GPT-4, Claude 2, PaLM 2, Titan and, in the case of image generation, DALL-E 2).
1) Commit to internal and external red-teaming of models or systems in areas including misuse, societal risks, and national security concerns, such as bio, cyber, and other safety areas.
2) Work toward information sharing among companies and governments regarding trust and safety risks, dangerous or emergent capabilities, and attempts to circumvent safeguards
3) Invest in cybersecurity and insider threat safeguards to protect proprietary and unreleased model weights
4) Incent third-party discovery and reporting of issues and vulnerabilities
5) Develop and deploy mechanisms that enable users to understand if audio or visual content is AI-generated, including robust provenance, watermarking, or both, for AI-generated audio or visual content
6) Publicly report model or system capabilities, limitations, and domains of appropriate and inappropriate use, including discussion of societal risks, such as effects on fairness and bias
7) Prioritize research on societal risks posed by AI systems, including on avoiding harmful bias and discrimination, and protecting privacy
8) Develop and deploy frontier AI systems to help address society’s greatest challenges

Applications Open for Remote US Government Internships (VSFS)

michelJul 17, 2023, 1:06 PM

26 points

2 comments2 min readEA link

michel Jul 12, 2023, 10:25 AM
8 points
1 ∶ 0
on: Announcing the AI Fables Writing Contest!
Cool initiative! I’m worried about a failure mode where these just stay in the EA blogosphere and don’t reach the target audiences who we’d most like to engage with these ideas (either because they’re written with language and style that isn’t well-received elsewhere, or no active effort is made to share them to people who may be receptive).
Do you share this concern, and do you have a sense of mitigate it if you share the concern?

michel Jul 3, 2023, 1:02 PM
6 points
0 ∶ 0
in reply to: aog’s comment on: Apply to fall policy internships (we can help)
Maybe check out VSFS internships