This is a special post for quick takes by Kabir Kumar. Only they can create top-level comments. Comments here also appear on the Quick Takes page and All Posts page.
For AI Safety funders/regranters - e.g. Open Phil, Manifund, etc:
It seems like a lot of the grants are swayed by 'big names' being on there. I suggest making anonymity compulsary if you want to more merit based funding, that explores wider possibilities and invests in more upcoming things.
Treat it like a Science rather than the Bragging Competition it currently is.
A Bias Pattern atm seems to be that the same people get funding, or recommended funding by the same people, leading to the number of innovators being very small, or growing much more slowly than if the process was anonymised.
Also, ask people seeking funding to make specific, unambiguous, easily falsiable predictions of positive outcomes from their work. And track and follow up on this!
EA billionaires selects way more for alignment to the billionaires' own ends, than for competence. Social networks are a good way to filter for this. This is intentional design on the part of Moswkowitz and Tallinn, don't treat it as an innocent mistake on their part.