As obvious as this, the amount of voting shares one needs to buy at an individual capacity is enormous to get the level of influence you are talking about
However, you may be able to use programs like Blackrock’s Voting Choice to gain a limited amount of voting power from ETF shares held in your 401(k) or Roth; this seems to be an easy option to exert some influence at practically no cost (other than investing in your retirement). Unfortunately, you are forced to select from a list of general strategies; you can’t vote on individual proposals, nor create proposals. Since basically no fund has a AI-safety-focused voting strategy, you would probably just set your fund to the ESG, SRI, or sustainability-focused strategy, as these voting strategies probably have the most alignment with AI-safety concerns (which is to say, more than zero).
Edit: o3 also suggests using a direct indexing SMA mirroring whatever ETFs you are using; this would allow you to gain direct authority over what proposals you are voting for/against, though with increased fees (and obviously, much more mental effort required).
Edit 2: Another idea: if you are employed at these companies, instead of just waiting to vest your RSUs, you could probably just use what stocks you gain to send and vote for AI-safety-focused proposals (maybe also selling at a later date). Obviously this would require the RSUs to give voting-class stocks, though.
As obvious as this, the amount of voting shares one needs to buy at an individual capacity is enormous to get the level of influence you are talking about
However, you may be able to use programs like Blackrock’s Voting Choice to gain a limited amount of voting power from ETF shares held in your 401(k) or Roth; this seems to be an easy option to exert some influence at practically no cost (other than investing in your retirement).
Unfortunately, you are forced to select from a list of general strategies; you can’t vote on individual proposals, nor create proposals. Since basically no fund has a AI-safety-focused voting strategy, you would probably just set your fund to the ESG, SRI, or sustainability-focused strategy, as these voting strategies probably have the most alignment with AI-safety concerns (which is to say, more than zero).
Edit: o3 also suggests using a direct indexing SMA mirroring whatever ETFs you are using; this would allow you to gain direct authority over what proposals you are voting for/against, though with increased fees (and obviously, much more mental effort required).
Edit 2: Another idea: if you are employed at these companies, instead of just waiting to vest your RSUs, you could probably just use what stocks you gain to send and vote for AI-safety-focused proposals (maybe also selling at a later date). Obviously this would require the RSUs to give voting-class stocks, though.
Yes