Nathan, maybe I am biased since I'm in here with you, but I have not failed to notice you caring about AI risk and talking about it, I haven't failed to notice that you didn't get a job at an AI company. So thank you. You're doing a good job.
Thanks Michael, that means quite a lot.
First they call you crazy, then they ignore you, then they say they knew it all along.
I get this. I've felt this way at times. I was extremely early on AI safety and existential risks as a concern, starting back around 1999, and really getting going in 2001. My largest impact on AI is likely in some combination of being early and building the movement by my mere presence enabling it to grow, talking to people years ago, getting them more engaged, and deliberately steering my career away from anything that smelled of capabilities research.
There's no acclaim for being this type of guy, though. It's quiet. And it kinda has to be, because how would anyone measure the impact I had? Maybe my marginal impact was actually zero, or negative, and if I had never heard of AI maybe everything would have gone approximately the same. It's quite hard to tell.
My only real rewards are all of you—that maybe everyone gets to live and that, even if we don't, at least I got to spend my adult life with friends who cared about the same things I did.
I'm very new to the community, though I've been aware of it for quite some time. The fact that someone was genuinely concerned about AI safety before ChatGPT really lent it a lot of credibility in my mind (and I'm sure in many others').
So thank you, Nathan, as well as everyone else who continued to be vocal despite being ridiculed.
Well, here's a pat on the back for the effort. But spreading a message successfully takes more than effort. It takes strategy and skill. Those are things that can be practiced and developed. So, let's get to doing that.
A lot of the public statements I see from the risk-concerned are obviously doing more harm than good for the cause, because they aren't framed in language people can understand, with claims based on logic they will think about and accept. And worse yet, they sound hostile and angry. People instinctively reject arguments that come from people who sound like their enemies.
You think you've invested, you think you've maybe missed out on something.
Instead, you've gotten the biggest reward you can ask for: Personal motivation. Your 'religion'-style mission - plus one that, exceptionally, seems to be objectively a true one. That's a value that's even from an own egoistic perspective - not from a gross physical material but from the only relevant, namely psychological, one - simply priceless.
Idk how perfectly the that claim applies to you, but dare to speculate that way as, fwiw, every now and then when I think me, or some 'good doer', worrier-warrier, feels like they exhaust themselves and might be giving up too much, I remember that it's super easy to overlook: even if I'd ever die of exhaustion from trying to dedicate myself to a purpose - I'll have been the lucky one, as I had purpose - while the thing making live most nearly unbearable in some people that I sometimes have around me seems to be exatly that they lack that purpose. They don't have religion anymore, and nothing replaces it. They are egoistic consumers and fight for their consumption and overconsumption - not because they're rich, but because they're purpose-poor. You instead have made it, you've replaced religion or so, for a real thing worth fighting for.
That thought can even 'bite its own tail' in my case: if a hint of 'is it worth it to try to help somewhere on this world' arises, when I remember how I myself get positive drive from it, it boosts my motivation again. Maybe in some sense naive but working.
Either way, can in my smaller way empathize with your 'positive rant' and love it; love to everybody dedicating themselves to the care-against-AI purpose or any other good aims, and love to this platform exactly for it. Anyone, don't stop, may the purpose stay with you and may it eventually yield a less scary and less hellish world than it currently seems to be for so many beings.
I know it's unseemly, but I would like to bitch a little bit about all this AI attention. Now everyone is realising that AI risk is higher. And I suspect I and you will not get much thanks for our positions over the last 5 years.
Now perhaps I'm an imperfect messenger since I have tended to be less worried about AI than most of you (and still am), but this feels like a think I want to vent about and you might too.
I don't endorse this feeling. It is good that people are realising that AI comes with significant tradeoffs they may not agree with. Perhaps they would want it to go more slowly. It is good the public is starting to get that.
But I guess when I feel an ugly emotion, I think it's good to share so others, perhaps can feel it too and get it out of their system. So here are some:
So there we go. Maybe worth venting some bile and then we can get on with our work. But yeah, I wish someone would give me a pat on the back.
And thank you to those who took more risks or bet bigger here that we would come to this point.