Re:Effective altruism and the current funding situation
by btrettel on Wednesday May 11, 2022 @04:15PM
(#31345159)
When I say AI safety is not neglected, I do not mean AI safety is not important. I mean that it is not neglected in the sense that increasing the amount of money and people directed at the problem is not likely to help. That's a common definition among effective altruists. (And it's part of why 80,000 Hours says that nuclear security, the example you gave, is not particularly neglected.) I meant that AI safety is mainstream in the sense that it appears in popular journalism and has a large following, nothing more. I did not mean that most people would be aware of the problem.
Also: I'm not a professional programmer, though programming has been one of my job responsibilities in the past, but never all of my job. And I live in a rural area at the moment. Not that any of these are relevant.
Let me guess, you work in tech and in a city? I personally believe that if a super intelligent AI were to be created, then it would have the same effect on society as the advent of nuclear weapons. So I respectfully disagree that it's not neglected, I don't think the common American thinks about how close we are to human level intelligence or what that would mean for society.