crmflynn

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crmflynn — LessWrong

Personal thoughts on careers in AI policy and strategy [x-post EA Forum]

crmflynn

Summary:

The AI strategy space is currently bottlenecked by entangled and under-defined research questions that are extremely difficult to resolve, as well as by a lack of current institutional capacity to absorb and utilize new researchers effectively.
Accordingly, there is very strong demand for people who are good at this type of “disentanglement” research and well-suited to conduct it somewhat independently. There is also demand for some specific types of expertise which can help advance AI strategy and policy. Advancing this research even a little bit can have massive multiplicative effects by opening up large areas of work for many more researchers and implementers to pursue.
Until the AI strategy research bottleneck clears, many areas

... (read 5436 more words →)

Research Assistant positions at the Future of Humanity Institute and Centre for Effective Altruism

crmflynn

Both the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) at the University of Oxford, and the Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA), are advertising for research assistant positions for Toby Ord as he writes a book on Existential Risk. These positions are each for 6 months initially, with the possibility of extension.

Details of the CEA position, including information on how to apply, are available here (https://www.centreforeffectivealtruism.org/careers/research-assistant/). The deadline is 14 June.

Details of the FHI position, including information on how to apply, are available here (https://tinyurl.com/yc9n9e2q). The deadline is 22 June.

It is worth noting that the FHI position will not provide visa sponsorship, but it is possible that the CEA position will. Accordingly, non-EU citizens are especially encouraged to apply to the CEA position

The Future of Humanity Institute is hiring a project manager

crmflynn

https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/project-manager/

Applications are invited for a full-time Research Project Manager with the Future of Humanity Institute (FHI) at the University of Oxford. The post is fixed-term for 18 months from the date of appointment.

Reporting to the Assistant Director at the Future of Humanity Institute, the successful candidate will be responsible for coordinating, monitoring and developing the activities of the institute. The postholder will be based at FHI, Littlegate House, St Ebbe’s Street, OX1 1PT.

The postholder’s main responsibilities will include: coordinating, monitoring and helping to develop the activities of the FHI’ s research programmes and actively seeking funding for the activities of the Institute; organising meetings, workshops, seminars and conferences and working in collaboration with

crmflynn

The University of Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) is recruiting for an Academic Project Manager. This is an opportunity to play a shaping role as CSER builds on its first year's momentum towards becoming a permanent world-class research centre. We seek an ambitious candidate with initiative and a broad intellectual range for a postdoctoral role combining academic and project management responsibilities.

The Academic Project Manager will work with CSER's Executive Director and research team to co-ordinate and develop CSER's projects and overall profile, and to develop new research directions. The post-holder will also build and maintain collaborations with academic centres, industry leaders and policy makers in the UK and... (read more)

The Global Catastrophic Risk Institute (GCRI) seeks a media engagement volunteer/intern

crmflynn

Volunteer/Intern Position: Media Engagement on Global Catastrophic Risk

http://gcrinstitute.org/volunteerintern-position-media-engagement-on-global-catastrophic-risk/

The Global Catastrophic Risk Institute (GCRI) seeks a volunteer/intern to contribute on the topic of media engagement on global catastrophic risk, which is the risk of events that could harm or destroy global human civilization. The work would include two parts: (1) analysis of existing media coverage of global catastrophic risk and (2) formulation of strategy for media engagement by GCRI and our colleagues. The intern may also have opportunities to get involved in other aspects of GCRI.

All aspects of global catastrophic risk would be covered. Emphasis would be placed on GCRI’s areas of focus, including nuclear war and artificial intelligence. Additional emphasis could be... (read 279 more words →)

The Future of Humanity Institute is hiring!

crmflynn

FHI is accepting applications for a two-year position as a full-time Research Project Manager. Responsibilities will include coordinating, monitoring, and developing FHI’s activities, seeking funding, organizing workshops and conferences, and effectively communicating FHI’s research. The Research Program Manager will also be expected to work in collaboration with Professor Nick Bostrom, and other researchers, to advance their research agendas, and will additionally be expected to produce reports for government, industry, and other relevant organizations.

Applicants will be familiar with existing research and literature in the field and have excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for publication. He or she will have experience of independently managing a research project and of contributing to... (read more)

Replying toPaid research assistant position focusing on artificial intelligence and existential risk

crmflynn10y

Paid research assistant position focusing on artificial intelligence and existential risk

My sense from talking with Professor Dafoe is that he is primarily interested in recruiting people based on their general aptitude, interest, and dedication to the issue rather than relying heavily on specific educational credentials.

Replying toPaid research assistant position focusing on artificial intelligence and existential risk

crmflynn10y

Paid research assistant position focusing on artificial intelligence and existential risk

https://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/vacancies-for-research-assistants/ It was not up on the website at the time you asked, but it is up now.

Replying toOpen thread, Nov. 09 - Nov. 15, 2015

crmflynn10y

Open thread, Nov. 09 - Nov. 15, 2015

There was some confusion in the comments to my original post “Newcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife” (http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/mxu/newcomb_bostrom_calvin_credence_and_the_strange/) which makes me think I was not nearly clear enough in the original. I am sincerely sorry for this. I am also really appreciative to everyone who left such interesting comments despite this. I have added some notes in an update to clarify my argument. I also responded to comments in a way that I hope will further illustrate some of the trickier bits. This should make it more interesting to read and perhaps inspires some more discussion. I was vaguely tempted to repost the original with the update, but thought that was probably bad etiquette. My hope is that anyone who was turned off by it being unclear initially might take a second look at it and the discussion if it seems like an interesting topic to them. Thank you.

Replying toNewcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

crmflynn10y

Newcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

I agree with you about the inside / outside view. I also think I agree with you about the characteristics of the simulators in relationship to the simulation.

I think I just have a vaguely different, and perhaps personal, sense of how I would define "divine" and "god." If we are in a simulation, I would not consider the simulators gods. Very powerful people, but not gods. If they tried to argue with me that they were gods because they were made of a lot of organic molecules whereas I was just information in a machine, I would suggested it was a distinction without a difference. Show me the uncaused cause or something outside of physics and we can talk

Replying toNewcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

crmflynn10y

Newcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

Sure, but how is that relevant? There are people who want to accelerate the destruction of the world because that would bring in the Messiah faster -- so what?

By analogy, what are some things that decrease my credence in thinking that humans will survive to a “post-human stage.” For me, some are 1) We seem terrible at coordination problems at a policy level, 2) We are not terribly cautious in developing new, potentially dangerous, technology, 3) some people are actively trying to end the world for religious/ideological reasons. So as I learn more about ISIS and its ideology and how it is becoming increasingly popular, since they are literally trying to end... (read 1226 more words →)

Replying toNewcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

crmflynn10y

Newcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

I don't think this is true. The correct version is your following sentence:
A lot of people on LW do not
People on LW, of course, are not terribly representative of people in general.

LW is not really my personal sample for this. I have spent about a year working this into conversations. I feel as though the split in my experience is something like 2/3 of people two box. Nozick, who popularized this, said he thought it was about 50/50. While it is again not representative, of the thousand people who answered the question in this survey, it was about equal (http://philpapers.org/surveys/results.pl). For people with PhD’s in Philosophy it was 458 two-boxers to 348... (read 671 more words →)

Replying toNewcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

crmflynn10y

Newcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

First of all, there seem to be lots of ways in which we might fail to develop such technology. We might go extinct or our civilization collapse or something of the kind (outright extinction seems really unlikely, but collapse of technological civilization much more likely). It might turn out that computational superpowers just aren't really available -- that there's only so much processing power we have any realistic way of harnessing. It might turn out that such things are possible but we simply aren't smart enough to find our way to them.

Absolutely. I think this is where this thing most likely fails. Somewhere in the first disjunct. My gut does not think... (read 1397 more words →)

Replying toNewcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

crmflynn10y

Newcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

the proposal here

I just want to clarify in case you mean my proposal, as opposed to the proposal by jacobcannell. This is my reading of what jacobcannell said as well, but it is not at all a part of my argument. In fact, while I would be interested in reading jacobcannell’s thoughts on identity and the self, I share the same skeptical intuitions as other posters in this thread about this. I am open to being wrong, but on first impression I have an extremely difficult time imagining that it will be at all possible to simulate a person after they have died. I suspect that it would be a poor replica,... (read more)

Replying toNewcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

crmflynn10y

Newcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

I hope I am not intercepting a series of questions when you were only interested in gjm’s response but I enjoyed your comment and wanted to add my thoughts.

I think that the problem with this sort of arguments is that it's like cooperating in prisoner's dilemma hoping that superrationality will make the other player cooperate: It doesn't work.

I am not sure it is settled that it does not work, but I also do not think that most, or maybe any, of my argument relies on an assumption that it does. The first part of it does not even rely on an assumption that one-boxing is reasonable, let alone correct. All it... (read more)

Replying toNewcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

crmflynn10y

Newcomb, Bostrom, Calvin: Credence and the strange path to a finite afterlife

I think that this sort of risks being an argument about a definition of a word, as we can mostly agree on the potential features of the set-up. But because I have a sense that this claim comes with an implicit charge of fideism, I’ll take another round at clarifying my position. Also, I have written a short update to my original post to clarify some things that I think I was too vague on in the original post. There is a trade-off between being short enough to encourage people to read it, and being thorough enough to be clear, and I think I under-wrote it a bit initially.

Beings who created the

... (read 650 more words →)

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"On the Impossibility of Supersized Machines"

The Future of Humanity Institute is hiring!

Rebuttal piece by Stuart Russell and FHI Research Associate Allan Dafoe: "Yes, the experts are worried about the existential risk of artificial intelligence."

Paid research assistant position focusing on artificial intelligence and existential risk

crmflynn

Personal thoughts on careers in AI policy and strategy [x-post EA Forum]

Research Assistant positions at the Future of Humanity Institute and Centre for Effective Altruism

Stuart Russell's Center for Human Compatible AI is looking for an Assistant Director

"On the Impossibility of Supersized Machines"

The Future of Humanity Institute is hiring a project manager

FHI is accepting applications for internships in the area of AI Safety and Reinforcement Learning

Rebuttal piece by Stuart Russell and FHI Research Associate Allan Dafoe: "Yes, the experts are worried about the existential risk of artificial intelligence."

crmflynn

"On the Impossibility of Supersized Machines"

The Future of Humanity Institute is hiring!

Rebuttal piece by Stuart Russell and FHI Research Associate Allan Dafoe: "Yes, the experts are worried about the existential risk of artificial intelligence."

Paid research assistant position focusing on artificial intelligence and existential risk

crmflynn

Personal thoughts on careers in AI policy and strategy [x-post EA Forum]

Research Assistant positions at the Future of Humanity Institute and Centre for Effective Altruism

Stuart Russell's Center for Human Compatible AI is looking for an Assistant Director

"On the Impossibility of Supersized Machines"

The Future of Humanity Institute is hiring a project manager

FHI is accepting applications for internships in the area of AI Safety and Reinforcement Learning

Rebuttal piece by Stuart Russell and FHI Research Associate Allan Dafoe: "Yes, the experts are worried about the existential risk of artificial intelligence."

Summary: