I work primarily on AI Alignment. Scroll down to my pinned Shortform for an idea of my current work and who I'd like to collaborate with.
Website: https://jacquesthibodeau.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JacquesThibs
GitHub: https://github.com/JayThibs
Completely agree. I remember a big shift in my performance when I went from "I'm just using programming so that I can eventually build a startup, where I'll eventually code much less" to "I am a programmer, and I am trying to become exceptional at it." The shift in mindset was super helpful.
This is one of the reasons I think 'independent' research is valuable, even if it isn't immediately obvious from a research output (papers, for example) standpoint.
That said, I've definitely had the thought, "I should niche down into a specific area where there is already a bunch of infrastructure I can leverage and churn out papers with many collaborators because I expect to be in a more stable funding situation as an independent researcher. It would also make it much easier to pivot into a role at an organization if I want to or necessary. It would definitely be a much more stable situation for me."(And I also agree that specialization is often underrated.)
Ultimately, I decided not to do this because I felt like there were already enough people in alignment/governance who would take the above option due to financial and social incentives and published directions seeming more promising. However, since this makes me produce less output, I hope this is something grantmakers keep in consideration for my future grant applications.
I think it's up to you and how you write. English isn't my first language, so I've found it useful. I also don't accept like 50% of the suggestions. But yeah, looking at the plan now, I think I could get off the Pro plan and see if I'm okay not paying for it.
It's definitely not the thing I care about most on the list.
There are multiple courses, though it's fairly new. They have one on full-stack development (while using Cursor and other things) and Replit Agents. I've been following it to learn fast web development, and I think it's a good starting point for getting an overview of building an actual product on a website you can eventually sell or get people to use.
Somewhat relevant blog post by @NunoSempere: https://nunosempere.com/blog/2024/09/10/chance-your-startup-will-succeed/
As an aside, I have considered that samplers were underinvestigated and that they would lead to some capability boosts. It's also one of the things I'd consider testing out to improve LLMs for automated/augmented alignment research.
Given that there's been a lot of talk about using entropy during sampling of LLMs lately (related GitHub), I figured I'd share a short post I wrote for my website before it became a thing:
Imagine you're building a sandcastle on the beach. As you carefully shape the sand, you're creating order from chaos - this is low entropy. But leave that sandcastle for a while, and waves, wind, and footsteps will eventually reduce it back to a flat, featureless beach - that's high entropy.
Entropy is nature's tendency to move from order to disorder, from concentration to dispersion. It's why hot coffee cools down, why ice cubes melt in your drink, and why it's easier to make a mess than to clean one up. In the grand scheme of things, entropy is the universe's way of spreading energy out evenly, always moving towards a state of balance or equilibrium.
Related to entropy, the Earth radiates back approximately the same energy the Sun radiates towards it. The Sun radiates fewer photons at a higher energy wavelength (mostly visible and near-infrared) than the Earth, which radiates way more photons, but each photon has much lower energy (mostly infrared).
If the Earth didn't radiate back the same energy, the Earth would heat up continuously, which would obviously be unstable.
The cool thing is that Entropy (the tendency of energy to spread out, ex: the universe expanding or fart spreading across the room) is possibly what made life happen, and it was necessary to have a constant stream of low-entropy energy (high-energy photon packets) coming from the Sun.
If you have a constant stream of low-entropy energy from the Sun, it may favour structures that dissipate energy, thereby increasing Entropy (keeping the energy constant while spreading it). Entropy is an important ingredient in the emergence of life, how we ended up going from random clumps of atoms to plants to many complex organisms on Earth.
Dissipative structures: Living organisms are complex systems that maintain their organization by dissipating energy and matter. They take in low-entropy energy (sunlight/food) and release higher-entropy energy (heat), increasing the universe's entropy while maintaining their own order.
Life isn't just an accident but potentially an inevitable consequence of thermodynamics. Organisms can be thought of as highly efficient entropy producers, accelerating the universe's march toward maximum entropy while creating local pockets of increased order and complexity.
The emergence of life might be a natural result of physical laws, occurring wherever conditions allow for the formation of systems that can effectively dissipate energy.
One thing I'd like to ponder more about: if entropy is a necessary component for the emergence of life, what could it mean for AI? Due to entropy, the world has been biased towards increasingly complex organisms. How does that trend impact the future of the universe? Will we see an unprecedented acceleration of the universe's march toward maximum entropy?
Fair enough. For what it's worth, I've thought a lot about the kind of thing you describe in that comment and partially committing to this direction because I feel like I have enough intuition and insight that those other tools for thought failed to incorporate.
I shared the following as a bio for EAG Bay Area 2024. I'm sharing this here if it reaches someone who wants to chat or collaborate.
Hey! I'm Jacques. I'm an independent technical alignment researcher with a background in physics and experience in government (social innovation, strategic foresight, mental health and energy regulation). Link to Swapcard profile. Twitter/X.
CURRENT WORK
TOPICS TO CHAT ABOUT
POTENTIAL COLLABORATIONS
TYPES OF PEOPLE I'D LIKE TO COLLABORATE WITH