AI Use Note: Main body text entirely human written. Claude (Opus 4.8) helped develop models of animal life histories in the appendix.
Cross-posted from Good Structures.
Executive Summary
* Animal advocates sometimes make claims like โthere are X of this animal...
โHow long have you been v*g*n?โ
This is one of the most common icebreakers at animal protection events. Itโs a baseline assumption, and it mostly holds true: if youโre out advocating for animals not to be tortured or abused, realistically these days you are v**n, or close. And it makes for good conversation. It seems fairly safe to assume when you meet strangers.
But this assumption is hurting the movement in a way which we donโt always notice: someone new comes into the sp...
Summary
Back in November 2023 I posted hereย to launch Spiro and raise our first $198k. Two and a half years later this is an update and a fundraiser for the next step.
The short version: we've now reached over-5,900 people with TB preventive medicine, including overย 3,000 children under five years old. Our early results have held up well an...
Immigration is such a tight constraint for me.
My next career steps after I'm done with my TCS Masters are primarily bottlenecked by "what allows me to remain in the UK" and then "keeps me on track to contribute to technical AI safety research".
What I would like to do for the next 1 - 2 years ("independent research"/ "further upskilling to get into a top ML PhD program") is not all that viable a path given my visa constraints.
Above all, I want to avoid wasting N more years by taking a detour through software engineering again so I can get Visa sponsorship.
[I'm not conscientious enough to pursue AI safety research/ML upskilling while managing a full time job.]
Might just try and see if I can pursue a TCS PhD at my current university and do TCS research that I think would be valuable for theoretical AI safety research.
The main detriment of that is I'd have to spend N more years in <city> and I was really hoping to come down to London.
Advice very, very welcome.
[Not sure who to tag.]
I don't have any advice, but I wanted to offer my sympathy.
I've been constrained by visa regulations previously, and it felt like such a burden. Not being able to leave a job until I had a new job already lined up, only being allowed to work in certain fields/areas, watching local citizen friends take a X-month sabbatical while I would have to leave the country within 2 weeks of leaving a job... I was pretty worn down by the general feeling of precarity combined with all all the options that were unavailable to me.
Regarding the TCS PhD, is it possible to work on it remotely from London?
Would you be eligible for the graduate visa? https://www.gov.uk/graduate-visa
If so, would that meet your needs?
Thanks, yeah.
My main hesitancy about this is that I probably want to go for a PhD, but can only get the graduate visa once, and I may want to use it after completing the PhD.
But I've come around to maybe it being better to use it up now, pursue a PhD afterwards, and try to secure employment before completing my program so I can transfer to the skilled workers visa.
https://www.gov.uk/temporary-worker-charity-worker-visa
^ If you can upskill in the form of doing a project for some UK org, then this might be worth considering