3 ms·

It seems to me as if Toner was just in the right place at the right time in order to get a seat on the board of Open AI. She has an undergrad degree in chemical

It seems to me as if Toner was just in the right place at the right time in order to get a seat on the board of Open AI. She has an undergrad degree in chemical engineering and a master's in "security studies." Her work on AI Safety opened this door for her but seems, at least to me, to be ... superficial. I'm no expert but I have worked in tech for awhile and at a public policy think tank. So I guess my question is there a real scientific field of AI Safety? Are there any real experts? Are there any real insights? I dislike the idea of trusting giant tech companies with breakthrough technologies with minimal oversight / regulation. But it just seems like there is no real science regarding AI x public policy. Like the policy experts have no clue what they are talking about. And after this debacle they probably won't be lucky enough to find themselves on the boards of organizations like Open AI.

0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago
>So I guess my question is there a real scientific field of AI Safety? Are there any real experts? Are there any real insights? I'd say so, and in fact it's older than you might think. Here's a lit review from 2018 for example: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.01109.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.01109.pdf This post is more recent, but understanding it might require some context: https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/zaaGsFBeDTpCsYHef/shallow-review-of-live-agendas-in-alignment-and-safety https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/zaaGsFBeDTpCsYHef/shall... A group from Cambridge has been running an online course you can take if you're interested in getting up to speed: https://aisafetyfundamentals.com/ https://aisafetyfundamentals.com/ Application deadline is early February. I took the course a couple years ago; happy to answer any questions.
sytelus 3y ago
There are real experts on AI safety. the way to distinguish between them and the others is simply ask where is the code for your research?

0xDEAFBEAD 3y ago

>So I guess my question is there a real scientific field of AI Safety? Are there any real experts? Are there any real insights? I'd say so, and in fact it's older than you might think. Here's a lit review from 2018 for example: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.01109.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.01109.pdf This post is more recent, but understanding it might require some context: https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/zaaGsFBeDTpCsYHef/shallow-review-of-live-agendas-in-alignment-and-safety https://www.alignmentforum.org/posts/zaaGsFBeDTpCsYHef/shall... A group from Cambridge has been running an online course you can take if you're interested in getting up to speed: https://aisafetyfundamentals.com/ https://aisafetyfundamentals.com/ Application deadline is early February. I took the course a couple years ago; happy to answer any questions.

sytelus 3y ago

There are real experts on AI safety. the way to distinguish between them and the others is simply ask where is the code for your research?