TLDR: Take the population ethics quiz here: https://mdickens.me/pop-ethics/
Population ethics is an oft-overlooked subfield within ethics. Many people hold views that they don't realize contradict each other, or that have strange implications that they wouldn't endorse if they thought about it more.
Not just that—population ethics is a BIG DEAL. A lot of ethical decisions hinge on how you think about changes in future populations....
I’ve been feeling pretty shaken since the METR report about the Hugging Face incident came out last week. Over the weekend, I wrote up some thoughts on how lonely the AI situation sometimes feels to me. It’s more personal than what I’d usually share publicly, but I thought I’d post it here in case it resonates with anyone else.
I’m very grateful to the man...
TL;DR: Kairos has raised $50 million from Coefficient Giving for two years of funding, one of the largest commitments they’ve made towards AI safety fieldbuilding to date. We’re using this to make an ambitious push for growing Kairos, broadening our portfolio of talent infrastructure projects and incubating new organizations. We’ve doubled in size in the last six mon...
What do we do as newcomers? How do we make sense of all of the information out there? How do I get involved if I'm not an academic, and I don't have "career experience" to fall back on? I've just published a blog post about some of my impressions as a newcomer to EA. (Though I don't know if I answer any of these questions very well, because I don't know if I have the answers yet.)
Hi Danielle, welcome! I really enjoyed reading your blog post – it seems like you have a skill for communicating clearly, and I'd love to read more of your writing as you keep thinking more about EA :)
One thing you can do as you learn more is to try and crystallize what cruxes you have for your beliefs. Talking about cruxes is a common way EAs communicate, as it can help people avoid talking past each other and instead focus primarily on the things that would change each other's minds.
My take is that it's much more valuable to spend time early on thinking about your values and what you think the most important problems are, compared to finding an EA-relevant job quickly (because there are compelling cases for a lot of cause areas, and you might find that you change your mind about what path you want to pursue).
In terms of getting connected, you could try going to a meetup in your city (if there is one). Some people enjoy their city EA groups, others don't as much. EAGs and EAGx's can also be good places to meet people who share your interests. Yes, many groups use Facebook to coordinate, but I think there is less significant community discussion on FB than there used to be.
Hope this helps and good luck!