I'm a freelance web designer and developer who has been concerned about AI and prioritising a transition into AI safety since late 2025. This post is a summary of my experience so far, as a possibly useful addition to the conversation around the need for generalists in AI safety. My hope is that this post can highlight some of the pain points experienced as a 'generalist' trying to work in this field.
A brief summary of why I'm in this transition at all: In late 2025, I was concerned about how AI was changing my field (web design and development). I guess that the algorithm picked up on this, and recommended me AI in Context's video about AI 2027. I was immediately gripped by the existential risks mentioned. I did some more reading around AI safety, found myself in the EA funnel, and signed up for the Intro to EA course. By the end of it, I was sure that I wanted to focus on AI safety, due to the possibility of lock-in scenarios and extreme power concentration, among other concerns.
My first action was to start volunteering with AI safety orgs - I reached out to AISafety.com and IAIGA.org and got to work. I also booked two career advice calls with Probably Good and AI Safety Quest. They validated the need for my skills in the field (although I wouldn't often see this need on job boards) and encouraged me to prioritise my volunteer work and to take a course on AI safety to get more domain knowledge.
It's now June and I have almost completed the two voluntary projects. For AISafety.com, I ran a user research process, led a redesign of the events page, and will soon be building the finished result using Claude Code. For IAIGA.org, I did a full rebrand and redesign of the site to increase conversions, developed it using Claude Code to make it cheaper to host, and set up a database for managing signatures more easily.
All the while, I have continued working on commercial projects to keep myself afloat, subscribed to every newsletter to increase my knowledge of AI safety both in terms of the fields' gaps, and the ideas it is founded upon, and attended local EA events. Just last week, I attended EAG London and got more validation that my skills are needed, I'm moving in the right direction, and that my next steps should be to prioritise visibility and signalling my alignment. I have since redesigned my portfolio, completed Bluedot's short course on AI safety, and applied to their AGI Strategy course. I'm also actively offering my services to organisations, with some promising leads appearing but no contracted work confirmed.
The main issue I want to flag is that starting to work in this field requires an excessive amount of effort. I have spent six months treating my paid work like a side project, actively seeking guidance and following it to a tee, and I'm very hopeful that I will soon be getting paid work in the ecosystem. However, I worry that not many people will make it this far and the generalist bottleneck in the field will persist.
I'm not sure that every 'generalist' (i.e. specialist in a field that is not research or policy) wanting to contribute to AI safety needs to jump through this many hoops in order to signal alignment and knowledge, and/or do meaningful work. I'm also not sure that many of the needed generalists are prepared and able to find the necessary guidance to follow this path - as a freelancer, I'm used to having to find my way through problems without a roadmap, but I don't know that this is true for most people.
One critique I have is that I have repeatedly been given the advice to start writing publicly. It signals one's alignment, ability to think clearly about where problems lie and possible solutions, as well as initiative. I'm not sure that this is a good use of most people's time and skills. Of course, if you want to work in comms, you can probably provide useful input to the field by writing publicly - if you're a specialist in operations, I'm not so sure.
I have also heard whispers of exploitation from people wanting to get into this field. There is a trifecta of 1) concerned people wanting to work on AI safety, 2) those people needing to do free work to get work, and 3) an expectation that they should be willing to sacrifice themselves for this cause. I don't disagree with any of the three points in isolation, but I do believe it can lead to people being taken advantage of.
If you have any thoughts on the above, please leave a comment or reach out to talk to me. I'm interested in addressing the above gaps and wanting to connect with anyone who may have information to add and/or complimentary skills with which to start a project. One idea I'm exploring is a lightweight service that connects skilled freelancers to AI safety orgs, adjacent to Freelancing for Good's work and inspired by a conversation with the founder Maja Nenadov Webster re: the underutilisation of freelancers as a workforce within EA.
Hello, Emily! Thank you for sharing your experience. I relate closely to what you've described. I come from a product background in tech, and I've noticed that most opportunities in AI safety tend to be focused on technical research or policy. On the other hand, many roles seem to be chief of staff or operations positions that concentrate on recruiting and people management.
There is a significant need for diverse roles within this space, but from what I've learned so far, it seems this need hasn't been fully recognized yet. If such roles do exist, they are likely found in frontier labs like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and other large tech companies, which have a lot of talent both internally and from external applicants.
I've used the website https://whimsical.com/ea-relevant-orgs-and-initiatives-4EAx6c2MPbTRVjtjUBXfhx to research organizations involved in AI safety and to connect with people in the field. However, it's definitely challenging because the likelihood of being ghosted in this job market is quite high, around 99%. Nonetheless, it’s helpful to gain insights into the roles available within the AI safety sector.
I am also exploring AI/safety/trust roles within traditional corporate jobs. There will be a need for AI safety generalist roles in the coming years. It would be great to be part of such teams from the get-go, especially in organizations that are mission-driven.
Hi Emily, thanks for sharing this! I'm in a similar transition into AI safety while keeping some commercial projects going. I work in events and operations, so our work likely differs, but if it's helpful, I'd be happy to share the curriculum I've put together to self-study AI safety and build up more domain knowledge. I've built it out as a 10-week (part-time) program, but you could tailor it to your preferred pace and the materials most relevant to you. I've compiled my materials from a range of EA and AI safety sources over the last ~six months so it's mostly current info, including the BlueDot 2-hour course you've already done and the application for the AGI Strategy course. I'd be curious to hear what else you've done for your transition into AI safety besides the projects you volunteered on. Looking forward to connecting!