Is it because Kat and Emerson are “public figures” in some sense?
Well, yeah. The whole point of Ben’s post was presumably to protect the health of the alignment ecosystem. The integrity/ethical conduct/{other positive adjectives} of AI safety orgs is a public good, and arguably a super important one that justifies hurting individual people. I’ve always viewed the situation as, having to hurt Kat and Emerson is a tragedy, but it is (or at least can be; obviously it’s not if the charges have no merit) justified because of what’s at stake. If they weren’t working in this space, I don’t think Ben’s post would be okay.
Well, yeah. The whole point of Ben’s post was presumably to protect the health of the alignment ecosystem. The integrity/ethical conduct/{other positive adjectives} of AI safety orgs is a public good, and arguably a super important one that justifies hurting individual people. I’ve always viewed the situation as, having to hurt Kat and Emerson is a tragedy, but it is (or at least can be; obviously it’s not if the charges have no merit) justified because of what’s at stake. If they weren’t working in this space, I don’t think Ben’s post would be okay.
Why not protect the EAs from a bpd liar who accuses everybody she comes into contact with of mistreatment and abuse?