This diagram summarizes the requirements for independent AI alignment research and how they are connected. In this post I'll outline my four-year-long attempt at becoming an AI alignment researcher. It's an ‘I did X [including what I did wrong], and here's how it went’ post (see also jefftk's More writeups!). I'm not complaining about how people treated me – they treated me well. And I'm not trying to convince you to abandon AI alignment research – you shouldn't. I'm not saying that anyone should have done anything differently – except myself. Requirements Funding Funding is the main requirement, because it enables everything else. Thanks to Paul Christiano I had funding for nine months between January 2019 and January 2020. Thereafter I applied to the EA Foundation Fund (now Center on Long-Term Risk Fund) and Long-Term Future Fund for a grant and they rejected my applications. Now I don't know of any other promising sources of funding. I also don't know of any AI alignment research organisation that would hire me as a remote worker. How much funding you need varies. I settled on 5 kUSD per month, which sounds like a lot when you're a student, and which sounds like not a lot when you look at market rates for software developers/ML engineers/ML researchers. On top of that, I'm essentially a freelancer who has to pay social insurance by himself, take time off to do accounting and taxes, and build runway for dry periods. Results and relationships In any job you must get results and build relationships. If you don't, you don't earn your pay. (Manager Tools talks about results and relationships all the time. See for example What You've Been Taught About Management is Wrong or First Job Fundamentals.) The results I generated weren't obviously good enough to compel Paul to continue to fund me. And I didn't build good enough relationships with people who could have convinced the LTFF and EAFF fund managers that I have the potential they're looking for. Time Fundi