An influential LW participant, Jim Miller, who I think is a professor of economics, has written here that divestment does little good because any reduction in the stock price caused by pulling the investments can be counteracted by profit-motivated actors. For publicly-traded stocks, there is a robust supply of of profit-motivated actors scanning for opportunities. I am eager for more discussion on this topic.
I am alarmed to see that I made a big mistake in my previous comment: where I wrote that “contributing more money to AI-safety charities has almost no positive effects”, I should have written “contributing to technical alignment research has almost no positive effects”. I have nothing bad to say about contributing money to groups addressing the AI threat in other ways, e.g., by spreading the message that AI research is dangerous or lobbying governments to shut it down.
An influential LW participant, Jim Miller, who I think is a professor of economics, has written here that divestment does little good because any reduction in the stock price caused by pulling the investments can be counteracted by profit-motivated actors. For publicly-traded stocks, there is a robust supply of of profit-motivated actors scanning for opportunities. I am eager for more discussion on this topic.
I am alarmed to see that I made a big mistake in my previous comment: where I wrote that “contributing more money to AI-safety charities has almost no positive effects”, I should have written “contributing to technical alignment research has almost no positive effects”. I have nothing bad to say about contributing money to groups addressing the AI threat in other ways, e.g., by spreading the message that AI research is dangerous or lobbying governments to shut it down.
Could you link me to his work? If he is correct, it seems a little bit counterintuitive.