Does MIRI also plan to get involved in policy discussions (e.g. communicating directly with policymakers, and/or advocating for specific policies)?
We are limited in our ability to directly influence policy by our 501(c)3 status; that said, we do have some latitude there and we are exercising it within the limits of the law. See for example this tweet by Eliezer.
To expand on this a bit, I and a couple others at MIRI have been spending some time syncing up and strategizing with other people and orgs who are more directly focused on policy work themselves. We’ve also spent some time chatting with folks in government that we already know and have good relationships with. I expect we’ll continue to do a decent amount of this going forward.
It’s much less clear to me that it makes sense for us to end up directly engaging in policy discussions with policymakers as an important focus of ours (compared to focusing on broad public comms), given that this is pretty far outside of our area of expertise. It’s definitely something I’m interested in exploring though, and chatting about with folks who have expertise in the space.
To expand on this a bit, I and a couple others at MIRI have been spending some time syncing up and strategizing with other people and orgs who are more directly focused on policy work themselves. We’ve also spent some time chatting with folks in government that we already know and have good relationships with. I expect we’ll continue to do a decent amount of this going forward.
It’s much less clear to me that it makes sense for us to end up directly engaging in policy discussions with policymakers as an important focus of ours (compared to focusing on broad public comms), given that this is pretty far outside of our area of expertise. It’s definitely something I’m interested in exploring though, and chatting about with folks who have expertise in the space.