Traditionally, most people seem to do this through academic means. I.e. take those 1-2 courses at a university, then find fellow students in the course or grad students at the school interested in the same kinds of research as you and ask them to work together. In this digital age, you can also do this over the internet to not be restricted to your local environment.
Nowadays, ML safety in particular has various alternative paths to finding collaborators and mentors:
MATS, SPAR, and other research fellowships
Post about the research you’re interested in on online fora or contact others who have already posted
Find some local AI safety meetup group and hang out with them
Traditionally, most people seem to do this through academic means. I.e. take those 1-2 courses at a university, then find fellow students in the course or grad students at the school interested in the same kinds of research as you and ask them to work together. In this digital age, you can also do this over the internet to not be restricted to your local environment.
Nowadays, ML safety in particular has various alternative paths to finding collaborators and mentors:
MATS, SPAR, and other research fellowships
Post about the research you’re interested in on online fora or contact others who have already posted
Find some local AI safety meetup group and hang out with them