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Cost-effectiveness of student programs for AI safety research — EA Forum

forum.effectivealtruism.org · 437 words · saved by 1 readers

This post explores the cost-effectiveness of field-building programs for students, specifically the Atlas Fellowship (a rationality program, with some AI safety programming), MLSS (an ML safety course for undergraduates), a top-tier university student group, and undergraduate research stipends. We estimate the benefit of these programs in ‘Quality-Adjusted Research Years’, using cost-effectiveness models built for the Center for AI Safety (introduction post here, full code here). Since our framework focuses on benefits for technical AI safety research exclusively, we will not account for other benefits of programs with broader objectives, such as the Atlas Fellowship. We intend for these models to support — not determine — strategic decisions. We do not believe, for instance, that programs which a model rates as lower cost-effectiveness are necessarily not worthwhile as part of a portfolio of programs. The models’ tentative results, summarized below, suggest that student groups and und

Angelina Li 2y 3 0 0 1 Thanks for publishing this + your code, I found this approach interesting :) and in general I am excited at people trying different approaches to impact measurement within field building. I had some model qs (fair if you don't get around to these given that it's been a while since publication): We define a QARY as: A year of research labor (40 hours * 50 weeks), Conducted by a research scientist (other researcher types will be inflated or deflated), Of average ability relative to the ML research community (other cohorts will be inflated or deflated), Working on a researc

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