ThomasW

• ThomasW 26 Sep 2024 20:25 UTC

  4 points

  1 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Vilfredo's Ghost’s comment on: How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort

  We have reason to think this is not true in this particular case. It can definitely be true in other cases. See my previous message about this.

• ThomasW 23 Sep 2024 14:53 UTC

  8 points

  2 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Ebenezer Dukakis’s comment on: How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort

  The instructions you see above come directly from the Governor’s office by email to somebody on our team a month ago. They are the instructions that are used for sending support letters and they have been used for multiple years by people who know the governor’s office well. They are also used by other organizations for other bills.

  I was also confused when I saw that line on the website, since it contradicts the specific instructions and also because it is on a page that does not have an email address. (Why would the Governor’s office give people instructions for sending emails on a page that does not list an email address? It doesn’t make sense. That’s why my hypothesis is that the word “email” is a misnomer and it actually refers to the contact form on that page, which does not have a place for attachments.)

  I agree with you that it seems like a poor security practice. But I err in favor of following the explicit written instructions provided to us by the Governor’s office.

• ThomasW 18 Sep 2024 22:02 UTC

  1 point

  0 ∶ 1

  in reply to: Cakoluchiam’s comment on: How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort

  That website is confusing; however, the line about “email attachments” I believe is meant to refer to the website contact form. I think it is attempting to explain why there is no way to attach files in that form. I know it is not an “email” and this message confused me too, but it is in fact common practice to send emails with attachments in the format specified.

  What links here?

  • philh's comment on How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort by ThomasW (18 Sep 2024 22:55 UTC; 4 points)

• ThomasW 13 Sep 2024 16:15 UTC

  6 points

  2 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Angelina Li’s comment on: How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort

  Are you willing to draft some rough bullet points (that you urge people to NOT copy and paste) on SB-1047 that might help people complete this exercise faster?

  This page has a number of points (it also includes a few other actions that you can take).

  Also, do you have a sense for how much better a slightly longer letter (e.g. a 1 page note) is as compared to just a 1 paragraph email with something like: “As a [location] resident concerned about AI safety, I urge you to sign SB 1047 into law. AI safety is important to me because [1 sentence].”

  One paragraph is definitely fine unless you have personal experience that is relevant (for example, you are an AI researcher, founder, etc.).

  I also wasn’t sure how important it was to create the PDF — otherwise I would have just sent an email on my phone, which would again have been a bit faster.

  Makes sense! It is important to create the PDF, just how these things are supposed to be submitted.

• ThomasW 13 Sep 2024 4:50 UTC

  7 points

  4 ∶ 0

  in reply to: CB🔸’s comment on: How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort

  You don’t have to live in the US to do it. You can help send a powerful message that the entire world is watching California on this issue.

• ThomasW 12 Sep 2024 21:25 UTC

  2 points

  0 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Toby_Ord’s comment on: How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort

  Thank you, Toby!

• ThomasW 12 Sep 2024 21:24 UTC

  5 points

  3 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Josh Jacobson’s comment on: How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort

  Agree. This really shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes. In this case (can’t speak for every case like this), it does matter that the messages are unique and not copy pasted, which is why I didn’t provide a letter to copy paste. But it is highly unlikely anybody will read the letter in great detail.

• ThomasW 11 Sep 2024 23:52 UTC

  8 points

  2 ∶ 0

  in reply to: Raemon’s comment on: How to help cru­cial AI safety leg­is­la­tion pass with 10 min­utes of effort

  Hello! The legislative session is over, so no more changes can be made to the bill. Sometimes that kind of thing does happen, but it happens during the legislative session.