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.
Hm.. i think the whole problem with sending links is that there's way too much capital C crap everywhere - links galore. Coaching programs exist largely to help people weed out whats relevant & personalized to them (could this be a scalable product? hm)
I can tell you that MOST people did not click the links I shared in my linkedin post. alas psychological phenomenon of link overload and lack of activation energy to put eyeballs to read a page.
The "Desperate" AI Safety Talent Bottleneck is deeply misleading. Please.stop.
I worked at Google.
Google does not tell applicants that there is a talent bottleneck and they are desperately hiring. They say "we're cool, join us!"
I didn't get into Harvard.
Harvard does not tell applicants that they are desperately seeking students. I am not misled.
I've gotten rejected from countless AI Safety organizations.
AI Safety tells applicants - we are in desperate need of talent (operators/generalists)! Please join us!
I've coached 70+ aspiring career pivoters on navigating the ecosystem. A common theme is the dejection & disappointment from all this rejection. Because of this false marketing, I am the one picking up the pieces to calibrate professionals on how difficult, competitive, and picky organizations are, how to build context, and how to endure the marathon, which is like any other job hunt.
Please.stop.
Some alternatives:
We are an exciting, growing organization and you should apply for our roles!
Many people are excited to work for us - here are qualities of candidates we're especially excited about.
EA roles are competitive, and we would still love to see your application.
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.
Hm.. i think the whole problem with sending links is that there's way too much capital C crap everywhere - links galore. Coaching programs exist largely to help people weed out whats relevant & personalized to them (could this be a scalable product? hm)
This exists: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-safety-field-guide-i-wish-id-had-benedikt-oehmen-yttge/?trackingId=HY3mwWrabmAMwyeet47c7Q%3D%3D
My post-event emails as a reference: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/EhLhrrEEG6Jo9kYJv/learnings-from-a-viral-linkedin-post-what-ai-safety-means-to
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/GPxMDHApaLwL3phjv/ai-safety-career-fair-and-builders-summit-sf-retrospective
The "Desperate" AI Safety Talent Bottleneck is deeply misleading. Please.stop.
I worked at Google.
Google does not tell applicants that there is a talent bottleneck and they are desperately hiring. They say "we're cool, join us!"
I didn't get into Harvard.
Harvard does not tell applicants that they are desperately seeking students. I am not misled.
I've gotten rejected from countless AI Safety organizations.
AI Safety tells applicants - we are in desperate need of talent (operators/generalists)! Please join us!
I've coached 70+ aspiring career pivoters on navigating the ecosystem. A common theme is the dejection & disappointment from all this rejection. Because of this false marketing, I am the one picking up the pieces to calibrate professionals on how difficult, competitive, and picky organizations are, how to build context, and how to endure the marathon, which is like any other job hunt.
Please.stop.
Some alternatives:
Relevant posts: