Taking an Outside View, there is a ton of historical precedent for people believing that the best thing they could do for the world is to ensure that their Group is in power.
But spending money to help the worldās poorest people in the most effective ways possible, while asking for nothing in return? Now thatās pretty cool and interesting.
In hindsight, I regret putting Bernieās name in the topic title and question. Most Americans already know what they think about Bernie, so I wonder to what extent thatās influencing peopleās answers.
Your section āMythos can hide its thoughtsā reminds me a lot of the juncture in AI2027, where the fictional AI company must decide whether to press ahead with a model whose alignment properties were hazy. Something thatās unclear from your essay:
Does Anthropic intend to correct the faulty safety training of Mythos (and Claude4.6)?
This seems like a case where disclosure is not enoughāthey need to rectify the mistake in order to make these AIs as safe as possible. Especially since Claude4.6/āMythos are likely to be used for the training & alignment of Claude6 and beyond.
The retaliation against Anthropic by labeling them a supply chain risk is indeed illegal. Congress authorized DoD to label companies as supply chain risks under very specific circumstancesāthe goal is to prevent foreign adversaries from infiltrating their components into our weapons systems. Hegseth flagrantly abused this power in a contract dispute with an American company. Anthropic has sued, and they will win in court.
In the meantime, the question is whether American companies who do business with both DoD and Anthropic will comply with the illegal decree. Will those companies cut off their business with Anthropic?
Having Congress stand up for the law will strengthen the spines of those companies. That is why I believe contacting your representatives is helpful on the margin.
I appreciate the different perspectives @Aithir , and it takes guts to go against the crowd (I upvoted). What do you think EAs should do differently? Both inside and outside of Anthropic
I counted 13 lies. Not bad for 140 characters!
Welcome to the forum! For videos specifically, John & Hank Green have an enormous number of subscribers, and theyāre pretty EA as far as Iām concerned. Just last week their vlogbrothers videos discussed treating tuberculosis in the Philippines.
One thing Iād love to have is an EA Workout Playlist on Spotify. Music is cool. Fitness is cool. Iād love to have that in my daily routine.
Iron supplementation is often important for vegans & vegetarians, especially if you also donate blood. Your doctor should measure your blood ferritin, not just hemoglobin. Both are important.
Iron gluconate pills work fine for my wife, but they make me nauseous. Iron glycinate pills work better for me.
Welcome to the forum, @SpeakClearly. You make some good points here, but could you please engage in a friendlier way?
Iāve heard people say that the idea of an individualās ācarbon footprintā has actually harmed the cause of climate activists because it takes the emphasis onto personal behavior and off of policy change. Considering how amazingly successful policy advocacy for animal welfare can be, I worry that āwelfare footprintā could be a step in the wrong direction.
Holy smokes this is a good answer! Do you know if anyone is trying to spread thinking about AI x-risk in China, at least among the engineers and intellectuals? Iām unsure about the tractability, but this seems super important & neglected since China still has a decent shot of developing AGI first.
Several of the Statement on AI Risk signatories live in China, including a Dean at Tsinghua University. What can be done to further integrate them into the global AI x-risk community?
This is fantastic, phoebe. Keep it up!
Thanks for this feedback, Joseph. The bullet points I wrote were for sure overly simplified. I was trying to put myself into the shoes of an open-minded Chinese citizen, who has no doubt absorbed more pro-China propaganda than either of us has.
āHow would you try to convince an open-minded Chinese citizen that it really would be better for America to develop AGI first?ā
If it is possible to convince Chinese AI engineers that ālosing the raceā is in their best interest, then that would be a huge win for everyone. It would give the West more breathing room to develop AGI safely.
There is a word that educated liberals need to learn or relearn: evil.
Flagrant disregard for human life is evil.
Thanks for those links, Tristan! It felt a bit like @Jackson Wagnerās comment was scolding me directly:
The idea that a neartermist funder becomes convinced that world-transformative AGI is right around the corner, and then takes action by dumping all their money into fast-acting welfare enhancements, instead of trying to prepare for or influence the immense changes that will shortly occur, almost seems like parody.
Why do you believe that capital wonāt be useful?
OpenAI is nothing without its people.
It sounds like weāre around the same age, both a few years out of a PhD (mine was in bio). Iām happy to email/ātalk 1-on-1 with you about this:
Do not continue down the academic path. Your mind and body are clearly telling you to stop! Instead, start applying for jobs as you wind down your ongoing projects.
Probably donāt start a business right now. Not unless you have a major technical edge in a lucrative area and a suite of business-relevant skills (I couldnāt infer this from your post).
If your internships were at large/āestablished companies, I would be unsurprised that they went poorly. There are stark cultural differences between academia and the corporate world.
Consider joining a startup. Culturally, this will be a smoother transition than to big corporate. You will be paid much more than you are as a postdoc. The people around you will generally be happier than your academic colleagues. And youāll build skills that are relevant to starting your own business one day.
Academia is wonderful in many ways, but it teaches people that life is linear, which is a damn lie. Life isnāt linear! You have decades ahead of you that will be filled with personal growth and bringing happiness to other people.
This was really fantastic, Raymond! Nice work :)
Factory farming of animals is an unnecessary evil. But nobody panics.
Biomedical research on animals is a necessary evil. But everyone loses their minds!