gjm comments on AlphaGo versus Lee Sedol - Less Wrong Discussion
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I think that MIRI did a mistake than decided not be evolved in actual AI research, but only in AI safety research. In retrospect the nature of this mistake is clear: MIRI was not recognised inside AI community, and its safety recommendations are not connected with actual AI development paths.
It is like a person would decide not to study nuclear physics but only nuclear safety. It even may work until some point, as safety laws are similar in many systems. But he will not be the first who will learn about surprises in new technology.
Being involved in actual AI research would have helped with that only if MIRI had been able to do good AI research, and would have been a net win only if MIRI had been able to do good AI research at less cost to their AI safety research than the gain from greater recognition in the AI community (and whatever other benefits doing AI research might have brought).
I think you're probably correct that MIRI would be more effective if it did AI research, but it's not at all obvious.
Maybe it should be some AI research which is relevant to safety, like small self evolving agents, or AI-agent which inspects other agents. It would also generate some profit.