Autonomous Systems @ UK AI Safety Institute (AISI)
DPhil AI Safety @ Oxford (Hertford college, CS dept, AIMS CDT)
Former senior data scientist and software engineer + SERI MATS
I’m particularly interested in sustainable collaboration and the long-term future of value. I’d love to contribute to a safer and more prosperous future with AI! Always interested in discussions about axiology, x-risks, s-risks.
I enjoy meeting new perspectives and growing my understanding of the world and the people in it. I also love to read—let me know your suggestions! In no particular order, here are some I’ve enjoyed recently
Ord—The Precipice
Pearl—The Book of Why
Bostrom—Superintelligence
McCall Smith—The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (and series)
Melville—Moby-Dick
Abelson & Sussman—Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
Stross—Accelerando
Graeme—The Rosie Project (and trilogy)
Cooperative gaming is a relatively recent but fruitful interest for me. Here are some of my favourites
Hanabi (can’t recommend enough; try it out!)
Pandemic (ironic at time of writing...)
Dungeons and Dragons (I DM a bit and it keeps me on my creative toes)
Overcooked (my partner and I enjoy the foody themes and frantic realtime coordination playing this)
People who’ve got to know me only recently are sometimes surprised to learn that I’m a pretty handy trumpeter and hornist.
I’m shocked and somewhat concerned that your empirical finding is that so few people have encountered or thought about this crucial consideration.
My experience is different, with maybe 70% of AI x-risk researchers I’ve discussed with being somewhat au fait with the notion that we might not know the sign of future value conditional on survival. But I agree that it seems people (myself included) have a tendency to slide off this consideration or hope to defer its resolution to future generations, and my sample size is quite small (a few dozen maybe) and quite correlated.
For what it’s worth, I recall this question being explicitly posed in at least a few of the EA in-depth fellowship curricula I’ve consumed or commented on, though I don’t recall specifics and when I checked EA Cambridge’s most recent curriculum I couldn’t find it.