1. i agree. as wei explicitly mentions, signalling approval was a big reason why he did not invest, and it definitely gave me a pause, too (i had a call with nate & eliezer on this topic around that time). still, if i try to imagine a world where i declined to invest, i don’t see it being obviously better (ofc it’s possible that the difference is still yet to reveal itself).
concerns about startups being net negative are extremely rare (outside of AI, i can’t remember any other case—though it’s possible that i’m forgetting some). i believe this is the main reason why VCs and SV technologists tend to be AI xrisk deniers (another being that it’s harder to fundraise as a VC/technologist if you have sign uncertainty) -- their prior is too strong to consider AI an exception. a couple of years ago i was at an event in SF where top tech CEOs talked about wanting to create “lots of externalties”, implying that externalities can only be positive.
2. yeah, the priorities page is now more than a year old and in bad need of an update. thanks for the criticism—fwded to the people drafting the update.
1. i agree. as wei explicitly mentions, signalling approval was a big reason why he did not invest, and it definitely gave me a pause, too (i had a call with nate & eliezer on this topic around that time). still, if i try to imagine a world where i declined to invest, i don’t see it being obviously better (ofc it’s possible that the difference is still yet to reveal itself).
concerns about startups being net negative are extremely rare (outside of AI, i can’t remember any other case—though it’s possible that i’m forgetting some). i believe this is the main reason why VCs and SV technologists tend to be AI xrisk deniers (another being that it’s harder to fundraise as a VC/technologist if you have sign uncertainty) -- their prior is too strong to consider AI an exception. a couple of years ago i was at an event in SF where top tech CEOs talked about wanting to create “lots of externalties”, implying that externalities can only be positive.
2. yeah, the priorities page is now more than a year old and in bad need of an update. thanks for the criticism—fwded to the people drafting the update.