AI "alignment" is a made up field ride with crackpots and charlatans.
The purpose of the course is to give people an introduction to AI risk so that they can start getting into the field. Some who take it have been ML engineers for a while and some are just learning about the field.
The expectation was never to consider yourself a full-fledged alignment researcher once you finish this course, but instead to get people started. Many people will spend a bunch of time doing things like implementing GPT from scratch and replicate papers after this to try to get an internship at one of the big orgs. And then do other things to slowly make their way to producing great research. Sometimes ya’ll just want to hate on this site.
https://www.linkedin.com/mwlite/profile/in/jamie-bernardi/
The researcher who has apparently created the syllabus is also a fresh PhD with 3 years of work experience.
It's not taught by James solely, but there's weekly discussion groups on readings chosen by a mix of alums from OpenAI and Oxford's Future Of Humanity Institute.
"None of the material in this nuclear disarmament course even covers how to build a modern hypersonic missile!"
AI is the opposite of all these characteristics. Its access is nearly everyone. The technology is not understood and not predictable. It is a nuclear warhead that thinks for which we don't know what might make it explode.