AI Safety is important - yes, but you don't have to pivot. Maybe you just don't have a horse in that race.
War makes me sad. The war in Russia-Ukraine. The war in Israel-Palestine. People impoverished and holding the butt of decisions they had no say in due to politics & power.
I really cannot do anything about this. I can vote for officials who care about peace and would advocate for that! But I cannot put Putin & Zelensky in the same room and make them:
I talk to individuals from various career paths who have fear about AI for various reasons and feel pressured to pivot, but I dont think it makes sense to advise everyone to simply pivot, especially if there is not a role for them to land.
If you're a nurse and enjoy nursing, please stay and help your patients. If you're a teacher and enjoy teaching, please stay and enrich the lives of children. If you're a PhD in pharmaceutics, please stay and help the creation of medicine to address ailments.
I’m really excited to see your findings! I find your observations and experiences of the Bay Area AI safety scene to be accurate and appropriately nuanced.
MATS has had a dedicated Community team since the start to manage the concerns you raise (?) would be cool if that were integrated into your study as a factor.
Mox tries to lean more into vibes for programming and the fact that we are all a full person besides AI Safety #shamelessplug but maybe we’d get more funding if we didn’t (?) 🙃
Hell yeah! I loved seeing the Generators around our Bay Area community. It looks like a high concentration of individuals in an area lead to massive initiatives - who knew?
One point of feedback: Maybe this is intentional, but I want to encourage greater specificity on the people you are most excited about with this program - it still feels like quite a broad umbrella and I'm struggling to identify specific community members to encourage to apply w/ high likelihood of acceptance. I'm seeing that your Generators tend to skew junior and most definitely high potential (stellar schools, high conviction, cracked & smart :) so this might be the archetype.
While we're requesting things, I'd like explainers to send to specific audiences. Explainers that are more than informative, but also to influence cause prioritization/political priorities relative to others
Why AIS is more important than...
climate change - I'm seeing just a ton of political salience from progressive-people-who-generally-care-about-good towards climate change/climate activism over AIS. (re: flood in nepal, indian farmers impacted, etc.)
Can someone explain to me the over-blown importance of lab employees? That we need them to show up to our events or community or snag a conversation with them at an EAG = some sort of impact. (I.e I speculate lab employees showing up to EA SF would mean we get more funding or something)
My understanding is that many employees who would show up are already AIS-pilled and doing their best. What more do you want from them? To leave, to unionize, to influence them in some way?
Thank you for writing this and pardon my tremendous delay in responding!
Some takes I get from this (+ my response):
Invest more into diffusion of knowledge (quantity) over quality (1:1)
Contrasts w/ David Nash (former EA UK) advice
Consider SF's uniqueness - not rinse & repeat normal CB
im seeing austin's response to this also
AIS vs EA balance is tricky - i havent read the McAskill post (yet?)
there is significantly more demand for AIS programming
but also right now, its hard to break into AIS w/o EA context
BlueDot & Mox fulfill some AIS field-building already. I consider separation of roles as BD/Mox able to be flashier/attract speakers/more resources & EA SF to be more scrappy - like a club, meetup, touchpoint.
an inference: to reach the masses vs strengthen existing EA ecosystem
i agree, but personally, unenthused. EA Chicago's friendly neighborhoodyness was my only community in a new city and my starting point for becoming invested into EA.
i am philosophically more motivated by NEST > 80k-ness
also, super EAs already live in group houses or know each other well anywho
in an ideal world, I would have a co-organizer to do all the professionalism events + ais workshops and i could proceed with vibey ones.
I am a bottleneck and I wonder if EA SF needs a proper proper organizer to take this to the next level.
AI Safety is important - yes, but you don't have to pivot. Maybe you just don't have a horse in that race.
War makes me sad. The war in Russia-Ukraine. The war in Israel-Palestine. People impoverished and holding the butt of decisions they had no say in due to politics & power.
I really cannot do anything about this. I can vote for officials who care about peace and would advocate for that! But I cannot put Putin & Zelensky in the same room and make them:
I talk to individuals from various career paths who have fear about AI for various reasons and feel pressured to pivot, but I dont think it makes sense to advise everyone to simply pivot, especially if there is not a role for them to land.
If you're a nurse and enjoy nursing, please stay and help your patients. If you're a teacher and enjoy teaching, please stay and enrich the lives of children. If you're a PhD in pharmaceutics, please stay and help the creation of medicine to address ailments.
I like this! thinking, I also like:
for donate 1%, any chance you would like to link https://1fortheworld.org/ ?
I’m really excited to see your findings! I find your observations and experiences of the Bay Area AI safety scene to be accurate and appropriately nuanced.
MATS has had a dedicated Community team since the start to manage the concerns you raise (?) would be cool if that were integrated into your study as a factor.
Mox tries to lean more into vibes for programming and the fact that we are all a full person besides AI Safety #shamelessplug but maybe we’d get more funding if we didn’t (?) 🙃
Hell yeah! I loved seeing the Generators around our Bay Area community. It looks like a high concentration of individuals in an area lead to massive initiatives - who knew?
One point of feedback: Maybe this is intentional, but I want to encourage greater specificity on the people you are most excited about with this program - it still feels like quite a broad umbrella and I'm struggling to identify specific community members to encourage to apply w/ high likelihood of acceptance. I'm seeing that your Generators tend to skew junior and most definitely high potential (stellar schools, high conviction, cracked & smart :) so this might be the archetype.
While we're requesting things, I'd like explainers to send to specific audiences. Explainers that are more than informative, but also to influence cause prioritization/political priorities relative to others
for Christians: woot @Shon Pan https://projectimagodei.org/
“We want lab employees to show up”
Can someone explain to me the over-blown importance of lab employees? That we need them to show up to our events or community or snag a conversation with them at an EAG = some sort of impact. (I.e I speculate lab employees showing up to EA SF would mean we get more funding or something)
My understanding is that many employees who would show up are already AIS-pilled and doing their best. What more do you want from them? To leave, to unionize, to influence them in some way?
I’m sure I’m missing something here 🤷♀️
tangentially related, but linked you out on a meetup idea for EA SF :) https://luma.com/2vekrkaz
+ hiya @Jonathan Claybrough
Re: "the shape of fieldbuilding for SF might be particularly different"
Thank you for writing this and pardon my tremendous delay in responding!
Some takes I get from this (+ my response):
I am a bottleneck and I wonder if EA SF needs a proper proper organizer to take this to the next level.
Current rough EA SF offerings has been:
Previously, we've done a career fair & hackathon. Now, co-supporting https://thebigtent.ai/ - mega-conference for intro AIS.