Another side benefit: If you actually work in AI research you'll learn the associated shibboleths and thus be able to make convincing arguments to others in the field.

Curious if this is actually true. Intuitively I feel the opposite is more likely: people immersed in profession x might try to convince others at first, but gradually decline in their efforts and eventually stop and mostly focus their efforts inward because the returns aren't as good as they originally thought.

More intuition, I think there is some binary "willing to listen" switch out there. Because assuming the slippery slope (not sure if that's the right way to describe it) in the previous paragraph actually occurs the wisest move would be to share your knowledge with people who are actually willing to listen. (It's tempting to mention charisma here, but I'd rather keep it simple for now)