Hi all. In a few hours I'll be taking over as executive director at MIRI. The LessWrong community has played a key role in MIRI's history, and I hope to retain and build your support as (with more and more people joining the global conversation about long-term AI risks & benefits) MIRI moves towards the mainstream.

Below I've cross-posted my introductory post on the MIRI blog, which went live a few hours ago. The short version is: there are very exciting times ahead, and I'm honored to be here. Many of you already know me in person or through my blog posts, but for those of you who want to get to know me better, I'll be running an AMA on the effective altruism forum at 3PM Pacific on Thursday June 11th.

I extend to all of you my thanks and appreciation for the support that so many members of this community have given to MIRI throughout the years.

Hello, I'm Nate Soares, and I'm pleased to be taking the reins at MIRI on Monday morning.

For those who don't know me, I've been a research fellow at MIRI for a little over a year now. I attended my first MIRI workshop in December of 2013 while I was still working at Google, and was offered a job soon after. Over the last year, I wrote a dozen papers, half as primary author. Six of those papers were written for the MIRI technical agenda, which we compiled in preparation for the Puerto Rico conference put on by the FLI in January 2015. Our technical agenda is cited extensively in the research priorities document referenced by the open letter that came out of that conference. In addition to the Puerto Rico conference, I attended five other conferences over the course of the year, and gave a talk at three of them. I also put together the MIRI research guide (a resource for students interested in getting involved with AI alignment research), and of course I spent a fair bit of time doing the actual research at workshops, at researcher retreats, and on my own. It's been a jam-packed year, and it's been loads of fun.

I've always had a natural inclination towards leadership: in the past, I've led a F.I.R.S.T. Robotics team, managed two volunteer theaters, served as president of an Entrepreneur's Club, and co-founded a startup or two. However, this is the first time I've taken a professional leadership role, and I'm grateful that I'll be able to call upon the experience and expertise of the board, of our advisors, and of o...

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