Hi I’m William and I am new to the Effective Altruism community.
William comes from a country in the Pacific called New Zealand. He was educated at the University of Otago where he received a first class honours degree in chemistry. He is currently traveling through Europe to learn more about different cultures and ideas.
Of the four reasons you listed, reason 4 (safety washing) seems the most important. Safety-washing, alongside the related ethics-washing and green-washing are effective techniques that industry uses to increase peoples perception of the industry. Lizka wrote a post on this. These techniques are used by many industries, particularly by industries that produce significant externalities such as the oil industry. These techniques are used because they work, because they give people an out. It is easier to think about the shiny flowers on an ad than it is to think about the reality of an industry killing people.
Safety-washing of AI is harmful as it gives people an out, a chance to repeat the line “well at least they are allegedly doing some safety stuff”, which is a convenient distraction from the fact that AI labs are knowingly developing a technology that can cause human extinction. This distraction causes otherwise safety-conscious people to invest in or work in an industry that they would reconsider if they had access to all the information. By pointing out this distraction, we can help people make more informed decisions.