Three new research associates. Link to the announcement.
Three new research associates. Link to the announcement.
Research associates are not salaried staff, but we encourage their Friendly AI-related research outputs by, for example, covering their travel costs for conferences at which they present academic work relevant to our mission.
Are the research associates given enough support that they can work full time on their research?
(Disclaimer: I don't speak for SingInst, nor am I presently affiliated with them.)
But recall that the old name was "Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence," chosen before the inherent dangers of AI were understood. The unambiguous for is no longer appropriate, and "Singularity Institute about Artificial Intelligence" might seem awkward.
I seem to remember someone saying back in 2008 that the organization should rebrand as the "Singularity Institute For or Against Artificial Intelligence Depending on Which Seems to Be a Better Idea Upon Due Consideration," but obviously that was only a joke.
It's true that publishing the material can hasten the arrival of unfriendly AI, but it can also give the world a chance where it had none. If the problem of Friendliness is hard enough that SingInst folks can't generate all the required insights by themselves before unfriendly AI arrives, then secrecy has negative expected utility. Looking at the apparent difficulty of the problem and the apparent productivity of SingInst over the 10 years of its existence, that seems to me to be the case. Eliezer believes the solution is just a handful of insights away, but I don't see why.
And they have an SIAI credit card now. Does it have fees?
Edit: Answered my own question.
I believe the org is in the process of shortening its name from Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence (SIAI) to simply Singularity Institute (SI).
I'm irrationally slightly annoyed to have "wasted" the time it took to train my brain to see "superintelligence" instead of "Singularity Institute" for SI back when it was used that way.