One additional reason that capacity-building for AI safety seems good right now, is that very soon I expect there to be a lot more funding available for AI safety work, from Anthropic donors (see Front-Load Giving Because of Anthropic Donors? and this comment of mine) as well as a broader societal wakeup about risks from AI.
When money becomes more available, the bottleneck becomes “good opportunities/people to spend money on”, which is what capacity-building produces. Also starting asap seems important—capacity-building takes time to set up and bear fruit, and some kinds of capacity building have snowball-y effects (eg MATS).
One additional reason that capacity-building for AI safety seems good right now, is that very soon I expect there to be a lot more funding available for AI safety work, from Anthropic donors (see Front-Load Giving Because of Anthropic Donors? and this comment of mine) as well as a broader societal wakeup about risks from AI.
When money becomes more available, the bottleneck becomes “good opportunities/people to spend money on”, which is what capacity-building produces. Also starting asap seems important—capacity-building takes time to set up and bear fruit, and some kinds of capacity building have snowball-y effects (eg MATS).