EA and AI Safety's Humility Problem — Nixon Hanna
Note: All anecdotes used are not meant to represent any group or movement in its entirety, but rather to provide more concrete context for certain situations. I believe many EAs are too confident in the beliefs they arrive at through reasoning built on their own lived experience, which (in my opinion) contributes to the public’s perception of the community as cultish. A person’s experiences make up 100% of their perception of the world, despite representing only 0.000000001% of what has actually occurred. Yet many EAs seem strongly convinced of certain beliefs because they build on that 0.000000001% with reason and logic. Some of these convictions may well be true regardless of the limited foundational evidence, but I believe many are likely mistaken—and, when shared so readily, they contribute to public perception problems. The other day, I was talking to a friend who is heavily involved in the AI safety movement—someone who is convinced of the risks and doing considerable work to hel
Note: All anecdotes used are not meant to represent any group or movement in its entirety, but rather to provide more concrete context for certain situations. I believe many EAs are too confident in the beliefs they arrive at through reasoning built on their own lived experience, which (in my opinion) contributes to the public’s perception of the community as cultish. A person’s experiences make up 100% of their perception of the world, despite representing only 0.000000001% of what has actually occurred. Yet many EAs seem strongly convinced of certain beliefs because they build on that 0.0000
related reading
- EA Safetycontraptions.venkateshrao.com
- My personal cruxes for working on AI safety — EA Forumforum.effectivealtruism.org
- Notes on Effective Altruismmichaelnotebook.com
- Doing EA Better — EA Forumforum.effectivealtruism.org
- The Soul of EA is in Troublefrommatter.substack.com
- Why I don't persuade people to do AI safetyjason.ml
- Post 47: How I Formed My Own Views About AI Safety - Neel Nandaneelnanda.io
- University EA Groups Need Fixing — EA Forumforum.effectivealtruism.org
- In defence of epistemic modesty — EA Forumforum.effectivealtruism.org
- AI safety undervalues founders — LessWronglesswrong.com
- Cognitive Security as an AI Safety Cause Area — LessWronglesswrong.com
- What mistakes has the AI safety movement made? — LessWronglesswrong.com