All of Drew Spartz's Comments + Replies
Appreciate you saying this, Michel. As you can imagine, it’s been rough. Perhaps accidentally, this post seems to often lump me in with situations I wasn’t really a part of.
Appreciate the comments!
My personal context: I joined Nonlinear full-time in April 2022. We've gone back and forth from being AI safety-focused to more generally x-risk-focused. We removed the fund from our name because we didn't just want to fund projects but also launch relevant ones ourselves, like the Nonlinear Library.
Happy to provide more context here.
Nonlinear is or used to be a project of Spartz Philanthropies. According to the IRS website, Spartz Philanthropies had its 501(c)(3) status revoked in 2021 since it had not filed the necessary paperwork for three years straight. Now the Nonlinear website no longer mentions Spartz Philanthropies, and I am unsure whether Nonlinear is a tax-exempt nonprofit or what legal status it has.
Nonlinear, Inc is a 501c3. Spartz Philanthropies was an inactive entity that Emerson set up in 2018. We were initially planning on using ...
Thanks! I've edited my original comment to point to your responses.
I’ve actually been working on a more complete list of all the projects we’ve funded and incubated! But have been very unproductive the last two months due to a combination of an extremely painful RSI and chronic nausea/gut issues. We changed our name from the Nonlinear Fund to Nonlinear. Kat made a basic list here: https://www.nonlinear.org/
Does this mean that what used to be the AI safety fund is no longer focused on AI safety? I am asking because the list on the Nonlinear website seems to have mostly assorted EA meta type projects, and you mention a name change.
Nonlinear funded it through a bounty, but I'm unaware of any future plans. If anyone has any ideas for improvement or expansion, feel free to reach out.
Hi Aman,
Appreciate the question. We’ve received funding from different sources like the Survival and Flourishing Fund, Future Fund, and other private donors, with Emerson Spartz donating six figures annually.
This project would not fall under the scope of what the Future Fund granted us, so we will not be using their funding for this.
This is coming directly out of our operating budget, so we're aiming to make payouts that have a higher counterfactual likelihood of impact.
Hi! Thanks for the questions.
I remember hearing that Emerson/Nonlinear invested quite a lot into crypto - presumably with the current markets, his/Nonlinear's portfolio must've taken a hit?
Yes, most crypto people have taken a hit, including Emerson. As far as I know, he has no plans to slow down his donations to Nonlinear.
...Secondly, Nonlinear received a Future Fund grant: https://ftxfuturefund.org/our-grants/?_search=nonlinear Are you potentially concerned about clawbacks to the money you hand out, especially if you're dispersing smal
I can see how you might think that, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.
My opinion is that the presumption of innocence is not just a legal principle, it is a foundational principle of most justice systems because one accusation can forever ruin someone’s reputation whether or not they are proven innocent in the future.
Accusations can draw a lot of attention, but retractions receive far less attention.
I believe it’s very important to be careful damaging someone’s reputation before hearing both sides because it’s really hard to repair it.
Ad...
He still has ~$600m of HOOD stock plus whatever equity stake is left in FTX.us. FTX.us is probably worth at least a few billion.
Getting legal counsel advice was always the intended procedure internally. Thanks for pointing out that the way I worded it had the potential to be misconstrued so I've updated it again :)
Thanks for the flag! Was already aware of this but added a qualifier in the post above and added this to our org payout guidelines for extra redundancy.
FWIW I'm not sure "to be paid out when Greg no longer works for the government if local laws prohibit such awards" (your edit) is sufficient under anti-lobbying protocols . A commitment to pay in future still looks and feels like a bribe / undue influence. I would worry that in some jurisdictions accepting could potentially be risk for someone's job or security clearance (another issue). Like I'm not saying prize payments to political or government figures cannot be done but just giving a heads up that making it work well might need some more thought and consultation and legal advice
Ryan, glad you liked the prize, and thanks for your feedback! Our partner has significant IP law and branding experience and does not share your concerns.
His perspective: the general case is that
- Celebrating our ancestors is common practice. Long-dead famous people frequently get things named after them.
- Negative outcomes are unlikely. What you're proposing could happen, but is quite an edge case.
- Branding is important. A better-named prize can lead to more impact and improved community health.
So why are we calling this “The Truman P...
I'm less certain that this is a low-probability risk, though I agree that it is honoring him, and should not be a problem. That said, I think we need to look into this and check with a lawyer - as I'm pretty sure the estate doesn't have perpetual rights to prevent naming after someone. If that's incorrect, we should consider a different name.
Highly recommend trying out the Top-Grading interview from Who.
You go through a candidate's entire work history, from start to finish in chronological order, and ask these questions:
...
- What were you hired to do?
- What accomplishments are you most proud of?
- How did your performance compare to the previous year’s performance? (For example, this person achieved sales of $2 million and the previous year’s sales were only $150,000.)
- How did your performance compare to the plan? (For example, this person sold $2 million and the plan was $1.2 million.)
- How did your perfo
I think you're missing a few billionaires in your 5-6 number.
Jed McCaleb (founder of Ripple) is a funder of SFF.
There are many wealthy crypto people that have either donated to EA causes or are heavily involved that have an illiquid or highly fluctuating net worth due to the crypto markets. I would guess there are 5-10 that were billionaires at some point but likely have high 9 figure net worths now.
Also do you count people that sympathize with EA ideas as EAs? Fred Ehrsam and Brian Armstrong have both wrote positively about EA in the past. I have seen on ...
Thanks for doing this!
I also have x-risks.com and may or may not use it, so feel free to DM me if you have a creative use case for it.
The "bureaucrat's curse" reminds me of Vitalik's bulldozer vs vetocracy political axis: https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/12/19/bullveto.html
Vetocracy can be beneficial if a system's strength depends on it not changing. e.g. People invest in Bitcoin because it's incredibly difficult to change its monetary policy. Bitcoin doesn't need to innovate.
But if Ethereum is too vetocratic and fails to innovate - it could get outcompeted by other more nimble startups like Solana or Avalanche.
The current mood in the AI Safety community appears to be pessimistic. F...
Just wanted to say (without commenting on the points in the dialogue) that I appreciate you and Robert having this discussion, and I think the fact you're having it is an example of good epistemics.